NITRO, THE MAN WHO KILLED CAPTAIN MARVEL

By Anthony Crute

Stark International
Two days ago

“Piece of crap Kree,” growled Warbird as the palm of her hand thrust down shattering the table top causing the wood to collapse in on itself. She had made him promise to stay here, made him swear he wouldn’t leave until they had managed to sort something out.

The Avengers had been called away to handle the green-jumpsuited Nazis known as Hydra who were attacking Washington, D.C. That was a couple of hours ago. She returned now to find Stark International completely empty, the internal recorders showing he vanished minutes after they left.

“If he is Kree,” Tony corrected, not mentioning that the table in this private quarters was in fact an antique.

“You don’t think he’s my father?” Genis asked. He was careful not to say ‘dad’, because the man hadn’t yet earned that title. The stars which were stretched across his skin faded to reveal his normal ‘human’ appearance, though he was far from human being half-Kree and half-Eternal (although that itself was an offshoot of humanity).

“Mar-Vell doesn’t lie!” Warbird growled, she was seething with anger. “Whatever he did, he did it straight.”

“He was uncomfortably truthful, never mixed his words,” Tony added “You still can’t pick him up with your cosmic awareness?”

Genis shook his head slowly. It was definitely strange, he had complete knowledge of pretty much every molecule in creation should he want it but even though he could see, smell and even touch the man who seemed to be Captain Marvel but the cosmic awareness didn’t pick up a thing, it told him that there wasn’t any form of life there. He couldn’t track him. “So what do we do now?”

“We found him once, we find him again,” Carol’s face was twisted in anger. “When I do, I wouldn’t like to be him.”

Genis and Tony looked at one another, their eyes agreeing that they too wouldn’t like to be him when Carol found him.

Two days later…

I’ve been a cop in this city for five years, lived in this city all my life. My father was a cop before me for twenty years and his dad before him for thirty. I’m what’s known around the precinct as a legacy…this of course makes me a Mick also…Puerto Rican Mick to be sure thanks to my mom’s heritage but still a Mick. I’m proud of both these things, some think it shows a lack of imagination but I’ve always think it shows a level of respect, Officer Leon Burns, and I’ve honestly seen it all. That is what every cop says though…what every New Yorker says really.

The citizens of New York had always, no matter on their difference of race, age, country of origin, taste or political or religious opinion, had one and all taken pride in the fact that nothing could surprise them. They had seen it all, they could brush off any amazing sight with the slightest sigh or shrug because they’d seen it before. They classed themselves second to the British only at the power of understatement at amazing sights.

This had most certainly been proven in the last decade and a half. Ever since the Fantastic Four first appeared in New York to battle the giant monster which had erupted through the city streets (which even the hardiest diehard New Yorker couldn’t ignore). Sights like those had not been seen since the time of the superheroes in World War II.

Those four fantastic individuals were only the beginning, however, as character after character with amazing and terrifying powers dressed in whatever brightly-coloured garb they could stitch up in their basements.

Gods had trashed the streets fighting super-powered construction workers. Living symbols of America had taken down super-powered Nazis to save the world. Web-headed wonders who split the population’s opinions on whether they were heroes or menaces. Forces of nature set to devour the entire planet had stood astride the boroughs of New York and stared down at the tiny humans which inhabited the streets.

Still they had seen it all, the cops especially. They all thought that there was nothing which would surprise them. Leon Burns and his partner were about to have a very surprising shift. A shift which one of them would not make it through alive.

Leon Burns closed his eyes for a moment or two as he sat in the passenger seat of the squad car. He’d had a late one, problems with the kids teething and he was wrecked, in all rights he should have been out when he wasn’t at his best but they needed the overtime.

He opened his eyes and sat forward as his partner opened the door of the car and climbed into the driver’s seat carrying one of those cardboard trays holding two large cups of coffee. “That’s right, Esteban, drink up, I want you awake.”

Pete Dunn smiled that big wide grin of his. Pete was a proper Irish cop, a legacy also, big guy with a shock of red hair and a bridge of freckles connecting the two sides of his face together. He insisted on ribbing Leon on the fact he considered himself Irish despite the fact he looked like he’d come straight from south of the border somewhere.

“Esteban was my grandpa, ass,” Leon added as he took a drink of his coffee. Pete snorted then giggled like a little girl like he always did. This guy was as big as a mountain and could out bench press most of the cops in New York but he still giggled like he was in grade school when something tickled him just right.

“Hey now, would you look at that.” He leaned forward dragging a napkin from under his coffee cup dabbing at his soaking face as he clicked the windscreen wipers to life once more.

The torrential rain which had hit the city that morning had made everything that bit darker, that little bit more treacherous.

The blades swooshed back and forth slowly clearing of the spatters of the rain which pounded down on the windshield. The two city cops leaned forwards looking up through the glass to the city sky above them.

A flash of lighting ripped through the sky showing off the thing which Pete had seen. There in the sky above them hung two figures who the cops could but stare at.

Leon recognised them both instantly but kept his mouth shut. It was not looked upon well down at the police gym for them to look up to most of the superheroes, it just wasn’t the done thing. Always best to sneer at the stupid costumes and the stupid names. Leon however was a cape fanatic, though no one knew.

I looked up at Ms. Marvel and the newest Captain Marvel (the one with space splashed across his face) and wondered what they were doing out. The rain was a freezing torrent that had drenched Pete right through in the space of time it took him to walk from the coffee shop to the car. I couldn’t see their faces but they looked serious judging by the crossed arms and hands on hip body language. Another flash of lighting made we wonder if they were worried, everybody is nervous of lightning no doubt so I wouldn’t like to be up so high in the air.

“No shame I tell ya,” Pete sighed. “Jumping about in a leotard…it’ll be soaking wet and freezing up there, too.” He smiled briefly at the thought.

“You wouldn’t be showing a pleasant smile at the thought of superheroes now would you?”

Pete ‘Pfft’d’ “Not likely…but I do have to admit that there are some hot women who like to dress up in that stuff. Not really a Warbird kinda guy myself, I like them more feminine like that red witch one.”

“Scarlet Witch,” corrected Leon. He blushed slightly as he realised Pete was smiling that big dopey smile. “C’mon you have to like The Avengers right?”

Pete set his cup down and started the car taking his eyes off the two supers as they flew in different directions. “Okay sure those guys are okay…most of the time. Fair enough they do things that we can’t…the rest of those guys though who are riding on their coat tails. Idiots, all of them. Open the glove box.”

Leon flipped the flap down. There nestled at the front were a small pile of trading cards which had become a trend for the kids all around the city. Meta-human cards listing all the different superheroes and super-villains which populated their world.

“Confiscated them from a couple of kids the other day who were fighting over them, said if they came down to the station they can have them back…I’ll never see them again. Have a look through and find me one non-freak.”

Leon smiled as he rotated the first card into Pete’s view ‘Captain America’ it read above the grinning star spangled avenger. “Do over,” snorted Pete.

Leon flicked through a few cards mumbling out loud the names on the cards to himself.

Looking through I was beginning to think Pete had a point. Kang, Shocker, Electro, Doctor Octopus…The Jester. Hell that was just the villains, all the heroes made more sense right? They’re mostly good, someone for the kids to look up to.

“Y’know who really get my motor running? That Spider-Woman,” Pete smiled and nodded as they turned a corner.

“Which one?”

“Doesn’t matter, all of them are hot.”

“Doesn’t matter which one,” Leon snorted and shook his head. “You have a thing for Spiders? If I didn’t know better I’d say it was Spider-Man you had a thing for. ‘Oh please web me, web me.’”

“Ass,” grunted Pete. Ribbing one another on sexual tendencies was a time honoured tradition, tossing in superheroes was always good for a laugh or two along the way.

“Hey Leon…check it out,” Pete slowed the car and dimmed the lights nodding down the street. There a figure was climbing out of the window of a jewellery store.

“Pull in and call it in,” Leon began to unholster his gun and opened the car door. He tossed the super cards across the length of the dashboard as he discarded them.

He pulled his coat tighter and his cap down as he moved towards the figure. He himself was dressed in a long coat, his long hair hung across his face held down by the weight of the downpour.

The long streaks of white straggling hair cling around his face as he grunted leaning through the window and dragging the massive amounts of gold chains and rings towards him into the backpack he had in the other hand.

“Freeze!” barked Leon as he moved quickly into position ten or so feet behind the character and levelled his weapon. “Hands up and step back from the window, now!” He cocked the gun to make sure that the perp knew he meant business.

The figure paused for a moment. “Move on,” he commanded in a raspy voice and resumed with the work he was undertaking.

“I said hands in the air! Stop what you’re doing and put you’re hands in the air!”

The figure stopped and stood up straight. He let go of the bag and turned slowly to face the police officer. His eyes were pale white and his thin face was twisted into a sneer. Then Leon saw it, beneath his long coat was a purple costume just like that of a super-villain.

His eyes grew whiter as the smile increased on his face. He raised his white glowing hand and took a step forward. Leon’s finger held the trigger more firmly ready to fire in a moment should he need to.

The revving engine made both men turn sharply. Not sharply enough in the villains case as the squad car slammed into him sending his body arcing through the air and to the pavement about fifteen feet away. His body lay still.

“Pete! What the hell!?” Leon screamed as the door to the squad car opened up and Pete jumped out. Ramming suspects with squad cars tended not to be advised.

“Nitro, spotted him on the dash when I was calling it in” Pete moved around the car and pushed a card into Leon’s hand. He looked down and confirmed the guy in the photo was indeed the character he had just had at gun point.

I flipped the car over and suddenly had the overwhelming urge to vomit. This guy could have blown the entire city block sky high if he’d been pushed further. I’d been covering someone who is essentially human TNT with my gun and he’d just smiled knowing he’d take me out and survive with no worries.

“Let’s load him in and get him somewhere safe before he wakes up.”

Leon nodded, holstering his gun and grabbing the skinny figure by one of his arms.

Meanwhile, elsewhere

Warbird soared over the streets of the city scouring the skyline with her eyes for that tell tale golden streak which would signal that the person appearing as Mar-Vell…which is what she had been carefully calling him for two days.

She wouldn’t get suckered in again. She had trusted this guy to be her friend and had been betrayed, she wasn’t going to give him another chance to do it again. She was sure now…mostly…that this couldn’t be Mar-Vell so all she had to do now was track him down and find out why he was impersonating her friend before he did something to sully his memory.

She thought briefly of Genis, he still seemed to be hoping it was his father. In some way, he seemed reluctant to find him, to prove this man wrong because that would justy solidify in his mind that his father would never be coming back.

Despite this the two had been searching almost non-stop. Every time they weren’t needed for their Avengers business they were out searching for any sight of the man. Genis’s cosmic awareness couldn’t pick him up so they had to rely only on spotting him.

Genis and the other Avengers were beginning to think that he had just vanished. One of those minor plot points of their lives which suddenly just dried up, the villain’s plan gets foiled before it even gets rolling or something.

She didn’t think so though, she had instincts honed from years in the Air Force…and just plain old woman’s intuition. Something was telling her that this wasn’t over and soon enough he would either be back or they would find him. She wanted this to come to an end.

“No luck, then?” Genis asked as he suddenly swept in next to her. His hair was also dripping with water but unlike Carol’s did not hang lifelessly around the shape of her face and clinging to his face as it did on hers. She looked like hell and she knew it.

“Yes, I’ve found him…can’t you see him,” she indicated at the air next to her, then sighed. “Sorry, I’m still on edge…I have no right, if either of us should be…”

“You knew him better,” corrected Genis. He nodded and gave her a small smile in acceptance of her behaviour.

“Exactly,” she nodded “If I didn’t know my parents and then they just breezed into my life…I can’t even imagine and yet here I am making it some personal vendetta. If anyone has the right to be angry it’s you.”

“I do hope I didn’t cause that,” the voice was one they both recognised. Their heads looked up. There flying just behind them but a good thirty feet up where neither could have seen him before was the form of Captain Marvel, the golden sparkling trail behind him illuminating the rain soaked blackness.

The three skidded to a halt. “I should kill you,” sneered Carol as she began to fly higher towards him.

“Hold on Carol,” Genis said, his voice was calm as he moved up to join them. “Let him speak at least. Where have you been? Where did you go?”

“I…” Mar-Vell snorted slightly “I needed some time with myself. That’ll be funnier when I explain what happened trust me…after that I needed some time to think as my other self.”

“Other self?” Carol asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Secret identity, of a kind. I’ve been living as an amnesiac man called Tim Lee,” he informed with a solid nod. The two Avengers regarded one another. This seemed plausible given their lives.

“I now know what I have to do with my life; I know what I have to do to find out who I am.”

“Well whoever you are, you’re talking in riddles,” Carol’s voice was as cold and hard as stone “It’s not like you, put it simply and explain what the hell is going on.”

“Perhaps you’d like to go somewhere a little quieter…and less wet,” Mar-Vell smiled that warm smile he seemed to have developed. It was comforting; Carol felt like returning it but fought the urge.

“We’re mostly invulnerable, I think we can survive a little rain. Start at the beginning and then I’ll decide whether were taking you to The Vault or not.”

Mar-Vell looked her in the eyes. She gave nothing away but a cold hard stare of determination. He looked to Genis, his son’s white pupil-less eyes were even harder to read, his face however was not contorted into as much of a cold aggressive scowl as Carol’s which was something.

He began from just after they left Stark International two days ago and went from there.

The George Washington Bridge

“The boys will go wild about this!” Pete laughed as he looked into the rear view mirror one more time at their prize in the backseat. The unconscious Nitro slumped to one side across the length of the seats. “Who needs superheroes right?”

I was a little less exuberant myself. Looking at him in the backseat made me nervous, he could blow up half a city block and nearly had because I’d thought it was a good idea to cover him with a gun. If it hadn’t been for Pete then I’d have been screwed. Who knows how many he would have taken with him.

“Relax, Leon, he’s out like a light,” Pete flicked the sirens on and pulled into the outside lane to move past all of the other cars to make his partner happier. He too would admit freely that he wouldn’t like to be caught in one of this guy’s explosions himself. He had had Leon read the back of the card to him three times already.

The backseat of the car suddenly glowed. The two cops both turned around to look in the backseat. Nitro was awake and his eyes opened glowing with power, a glow which was quickly moving throughout the rest of his form too.

The brakes squealed as the car came skidding to a halt. The two unbuckled quickly and leapt out of their respective doors. “Back, back!” screamed Pete as he indicated to the traffic as he moved around the side of the car. He and Leon drew their weapons and nodded to one another…they were on the George Washington Bridge surrounded by hundreds if not thousands of citizens—they had no other choice.

The cars which were heading towards them were slowly coming to a stop as the two men pulled open their doors and began to unload their bullets into the backseat of the car. They each emptied their clips and then simply looked at one another as the man continued to glow.

“Shit,” summed up Pete simply as both men launched themselves backwards covering their heads on the ground as Nitro completed his charge.

BOOM!

The huge chunk of burning metal somersaulted in the air and came down on the bridge. The structure gave a slight wobble but thankfully held strongly. Cars had begun to surge forward or try and reverse to get out of the way…unfortunately this led to several crashes which brought all of the traffic to a complete halt.

Pete and Leon lifted their heads as the car came back down. They looked up at the car. Nitro was standing on the bottom of the upturned car. He dropped down from it and glared at them. He was no longer wet, though the rain was quickly catching him up with everyone else.

He walked between the two cops, a wisp of what looked like smoke extending from his body. He walked up to the car which was closest to them, it had reversed hard into the car behind it. He leaned slightly to look through the window.

The guy inside was in his fifties with white hair. His teenage son was sitting in the back of the car with a little dog. The dog was going wild in the backseat, the two people could do little but stare.

His fist glowed white for a second as he fired his punch forward with the power of explosives. The car exploded outwards in a ball of flame.

Moments earlier

Captain Marvel had just managed to finish giving the two Avengers the basics of what had happened when he met that other version of himself and all the things that he had said.

“This is weird even for us,” Genis nodded as he tried to get his head around what his dad was saying. Dimension hopping and time travel were well within his scope of superhero achievement.

“Try being dead, resurrected and then all of this…it’s why I took a couple of days to get my thoughts together before I came to find you.”

“So you are heading off into Kree space because some strange version of yourself appeared to you and told you to…are you crazy? I thought you were a trap, if another Carol appeared at my window I’d know it was a trap. I don’t know if you’re new to this or if being resurrected or whatever it is has just scrambled all the logic you have but…”

Genis’s head suddenly twisted rapidly to the side. “No!” he screamed and erupted into flight at his top speed towards the George Washington Bridge in the distance.

“Flash of cosmic awareness, something is going on!” Mar-Vell recognised it instantly and began to give chase. He had moved no further than 10 feet when Carol began to give chase too. 10 feet more and they saw the flash of light from the car explosion on the bridge.

Now, the Bridge

People all along the bridge had begun to evacuate. They grabbed up their families and their positions and began to abandon their cars in droves running down the length of the bridge in the pouring rain away from the danger.

Nitro laughed as he launched into the sea of cars and exploded himself again blowing them high into the air causing the explosions to spread out to the closer ones. Huge chunks of metal and broken glass hurtled through the air slamming and cutting into the fleeing people.

He just laughed. He was suddenly tackled down by the two cops who were responsible for his being here. “Stop this!” barked the Hispanic-looking one, he was trying to punch Nitro in the face but the long haired man was squirming way too much for that to work.

“Let these people go!” commanded Pete, he was trying to restrain Nitro.

“You brought me here! You’re the ones who stopped me from…you ran me down!” all of this seemed to be a temper tantrum of some kind, revenge maybe if they were giving him the benefit of some adult thoughts.

He began to glow again. “Crap!” screamed Pete. He hurled himself back grabbing Leon whilst he did so moving away from the glowing super-villain. His partner seemed to want to continue with the beating of the villain. He hurled them to the floor as Nitro exploded again.

They weren’t far enough clear but as a strong hand came down and gripped them dragging them both away form the blast radius they knew they’d be okay. They were hurled less then ceremoniously into the bonnet of a car which did not give at all.

“Sorry about that, blast caught me.” The starry-faced Avenger known as Captain Marvel flashed an apologetic smile. “You may want to get all the people who haven’t begun evacuating out of here.”

Nitro reformed himself in a wisp of smoke and smiled. The smile on his face dropped as he saw a familiar figure hovering in the air above him “You!” he barked “You’re dead…I..I”

“Yes, you killed me. Believe me, I remember,” Captain Marvel’s face contorted into one of anger as he surged forward towards the white haired villain. Torrents of rain pouring down from each of them.

Nitro exploded again. The blast was bigger than the others had been and it hurled Captain Marvel backwards into Warbird who was knocked to the deck of the bridge along with him.

They had made their way to their knees groaning in pain before Nitro managed to reform himself from that larger blast. Captain Marvel lurched forward until Warbird caught his arm. “You and I will keep people safe, let Genis handle Nitro.”

“He’s responsible for my death,” growled Captain Marvel as he tossed his arm to try and escape her grasp.

“Well you got better didn’t you,” her voice was commanding. She wasn’t going to take Mar-Vell’s opinion into account at all. She knew what was best. “There are a lot of people on this bridge who probably wouldn’t get a chance; we need them safe and him taken down quickly…”

“Genis can use his cosmic awareness to stay one step ahead,” Mar-Vell nodded instantly seeing through the red veil of anger to the true logic of the situation.

The form of his son shot up the length of bridge towards Nitro. He suddenly shifted his position and moved upwards as Nitro exploded again, this time back to a smaller one. It was enough however to blow a chunk of the concrete from the road up into the air. The bridge gave another lurch.

Carol and Mar-Vell moved back towards the stream of crashed and stalled cars. There were more people who were now deciding to bail out, many pushed on by two cops who happened to be on the scene.

Carol ripped a door from a mini van hurling it clean off the bridge into the river like a discuss. She bent low to check in the van for anyone who hadn’t managed to evacuate and then pushed the vehicle off to the side. She grabbed a burning car which was at the side and hurled it over to join the others door.

Captain Marvel was following suit. He grabbed one of the hulks of wreckage and flung it sideways clear of the bridge.

The car which was boxed in behind it suddenly burst into life. The man behind the wheel panicked. He had lost two sons when the north tower was hit and he wasn’t going to let some terrorist make him lose anything else.

His car accelerated quickly. Mar-Vell leapt to grab it but ended up just knocking it’s back so it swung wide. The driver compensated as best he could. He was heading straight for the Nitro vs. Captain Marvel fight.

Genis reeled back as Nitro powered home one of his fists exploding it as he did so. His body arced through the air and landed on the deck. There was a sudden screech of tyres as the car had to hurtle around the fallen body. Nitro let off another blast as he exploded.

The car was swept sideways. It screamed as it’s wheels tried to stay on the tracks of the bridge but couldn’t. it leapt into the air spinning on it’s axis and headed for the edge of the bridge.

The man screamed and said his prayers quickly; he knew that soon he would be with his sons and his long gone wife. His prayers were wasted that day.

Captain Marvel arced under the bridge from the far side leaving his golden trail. He caught the car with both hands stretched above his head ceasing its plummet.

He exhaled slowly and pushed up on the bottom of the car pushing it up back onto the bridge. He set it down carefully and opened the door of the car. “Are you okay?” he asked the man. He reached across and unbuckled the seat belt. “It’d probably be best if you walk from here,” he pointed down the bridge away from Nitro and his son.

I look to Pete’s bleeding face; I only noticed it now. He’s got a look of concentration as he motivates with shouts and gestures for people to keep moving away from the fight, abandon their cars and their property. I’m doing the same but I know my mind is nowhere near as focused. I’m looking at ‘them’.

Warbird has been an Avenger for a long time. I’ve seen her on the news fighting who knows what monsters and villains but this is the first time I’ve seen her in person. Watching her be almost maternal as she shields and shelters people as she helps them from their car and dispatches them in groups down the length of the bridge. She’s beautiful, even with the rain drenching her hair, the stress and anger which is obviously etched across her face she’s beautiful.

Captain Marvel was fighting the white-haired freak, or trying to at least. I’ve seen the guy fight before but this one he hadn’t managed to lay a punch on the villain. The explosions, even the little ones from the villain send the bridge shaking and seem to hurl the hero back.

The other one…the one who looks like the original Captain Marvel…who I thought had died is doing the same as Warbird. He like me however doesn’t seem to have his full attention on the task, though you wouldn’t know it with the efficiency that he’s going about it. He’s obviously keeping a close eye on the fight between the other Captain Marvel and the villain.

I decide right then that screw the other guys, when…if I get back to the precinct I’m singing these guys’ praises. They’re heroes and screw anyone who wants to argue the point with me.

Genis coughed loudly, spluttering blood against the tarmac. He’d gotten a little too close to Nitro and hadn’t given himself enough time to move away from the last blast Nitro had slammed across his face and chest.

He needed to do something and he needed to do it now. He tightened his fist and launched himself to his feet turning on the spot ready to deliver a blow. It fell short of the villain’s jaw as he moved quickly but managed to land on his chest sending the villain backwards just as he was about prepared to unleash another blast.

His body pulsated with energy as it slammed into one of the high tension wires and exploded. The wire screamed as it tore itself free of the lower level of the bridge and the entire structure gave a huge lurch to the right.

Even from a distance you could hear the screams of the people on the bridge as they rolled sideways towards the edge. “Mar-Vell, the wires!” Carol was busy hurling herself against a bus full of high school students who were currently thinking this was the worst return from an away game ever. It was sliding on the slippery leaning surface towards the edge and she needed to keep it in place.

Captain Marvel wasted no time now in following her instructions. He shot towards the tension wires which where whipping around given all of the tension in them being released. He grabbed the lower one first and began to pull reaching his arm up towards the higher one.

He wrapped his hand around the wire and let out a scream of pain as the two wires and the weight attached to them attempted to pull him in half. He grunted and tightened his muscles. His arms were instantly numb, he wasn’t sure if he could do anything, the bridge was way too heavy for him to hold up.

If this was the only wire which snapped, maybe one of a few he was sure he could hold it for a little while…not long but if this suddenly altered the tension around the rest of the bridge and more than a few snapped the entire structure would come down and there was nothing he could do about it.

He would get ripped in two before he let it go though, he looked through his squinted eyes at the hordes of people. Anyone else who had been resisting leaving their property had suddenly changed their mind given the sudden lurch of the bridge.

A stab of pure pain suddenly shot through his entire body cancelling out the numbness which had been there a moment before. The bridge lurched again causing another scream and the drift of more vehicles. Carol was still holding the bus whilst the final few students alighted, the empty cars she let slide to the edge.

Their extra weight on one side wasn’t helping at all. She didn’t seem to realise this. Captain Marvel screamed and again tried to tighten his muscles, bringing the two pieces of wire back together.

Carol gritted her teeth as the last student alighted the bus. She lowered her head and began to push the bus up the sloping bridge. The muscles in her legs and arms were as hard as steel as they tensed to push on the bus. The pain and fatigue that the two Captain Marvels were facing were also beginning to affect her.

She let out a scream and with one final push sent the bus hurtling over the other edge of the bridge. She made a note to apologies to Tony when all this was over, Stark International’s funding for The Avengers would have to shell out a lot to pay for the vehicles she was chucking off the bridge.

She quickly moved into the air and towards Mar-Vell. She reached one of her hands below his on the lower wire and began to pull. She let out a scream of effort as she did so and together they managed to pull the bridge level. “Get them together!” she barked, he nodded and tried to pull his hands together again, with the strength of the two of them they just about managed it.

Warbird’s hands sparked with energy as she released the wire she held and grabbed hold of the two where they met. Captain Marvel struggled to keep the two together. There was a flash of light as she unleashed a blast of energy to fuse the two together. “I think that’ll hold for a while,” she gasped “I’ll keep going, make sure…help Genis”.

Cap released the wires and began to drop from the air. He was controlling his descent partially but still landed on the tarmac hard. He let out a gasp, his head turning to look at the fight which still raged.

His son had managed to get the upper hand and pinned the villain to the deck but once again Nitro gained the advantage by blowing himself up. Genis’s uniform was ripped and bloody by now even before he was tossed back by this latest explosion.

The ground beneath them crumbled dropping Nitro down to the lower level of the bridge. Mar-Vell managed to clamber to his knees and moved towards the crumbling hole in the bridge and basically tumbled down to the lower level. He hit the deck and looked up at the still forming Nitro.

“I’m going to tear your head off,” he grunted as he moved to his feet and took a stumbling step forward towards the explosive metahuman.

“You’re dead! You can’t be here!” he spat, he took a step back from the superhero towards the metal sides of the bridge which held up the main structure. “I wont let you take me there! I’ve blown up enough to know it’s not a place I want to go. I wont go to the other side! You’ll never take me!” he began to glow again.

“No!” Captain Marvel screamed as the villain exploded. The metal screamed loudly and the entire bridge gave a massive lurch. The ceiling above began to collapse in instantly.

Captain Marvel leapt forward and wedged himself into the gap. He braced his legs and began to push up with his arms. He was screaming aloud.

He was screaming so loudly trying to fight the weight of the bridge from coming down on him that he didn’t even notice Carol moving into position beside him bracing herself better than he had been able to and then pushing with all her might.

The rain was coming down heavily into their faces, their muscles were screaming in agony as were they as the thousands of tonnes were struggling to hold themselves up. It was true they weren’t holding up the full weight of the bridge as most of the struts and supportive structures were still firmly in place but the portion they were trying to hold was still crushing them.

Genis-Vell was there a second or two later. He was badly bleeding but he was ignoring it and wedging himself into the gap left between the two as they struggled to keep the bridge up. He began to push.

Along with his strength he brought along the power to create energy fields and hold up massive amounts of weight much easier than even they could physically. He linked hands with Warbird and Captain Marvel and the three pushed gaining that little bit of room Mar-Vell needed to correct how he was standing to get a better amount of force on the bridge.

The three stood their, battered, soaking and bleeding with every inch of them screaming and they held. They held the bridge steady allowing those on the bridge to continue their journeys off it to safety. They held.

“He’s going to get away,” gasped Genis through his gritted teeth.

“Let him,” growled his father, his face contorted. “We need to keep this up, people need us to hold on.”

“God I hope Tony gets here soon…and he brings lots and lots of Iron Men,” snorted Carol and then grunted in pain.

In the upper level

Nitro limped along the bridge. The constant explosions whilst nowhere near as dangerous to him as others had begun to take their toll. The fall through the deck had done more damage to him than anything else really.

He wasn’t going to wait around for any superheroes to turn up though.

The bridge was creaking and groaning as he ran along its length, it screamed so loudly he didn’t even hear the roar of the engine as the car which accelerated towards him got within a few feet.

His body was suddenly tossed into the air and came down hard on the tarmac. He was drifting out of consciousness when he heard the brakes screech and felt a pair of hands on his costume a few seconds later. The fist to his face had his head spinning more than it was before.

“Why did you do it? Why? All those dead people!” Pete let out a scream as he punched again. Nitro lapsed out of consciousness and then back in again. He began to glow with energy.

I watched as Pete went up in smoke. I sprinted towards him but by the time I got there, nothing I could identify. Nitro was there, reforming out of smoke but thankfully unconscious. I tried to hold whatever was left of Pete but there was nothing. He died a hero, one of the legacies of heroes died that night.

It was a few minutes before I looked up from Nitro and my friend. When I did I found Captain America standing over me. He told me everything was going to be okay. The other Avengers: Namor, Cannonball, Vision and Iron Man…and about seventy tonnes of Iron Man’s resources were now holding the bridge up as the repair work was beginning.

Then I saw them…

Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel and Warbird were walking slowly across the bridge towards Captain America. They glanced down at Nitro and stepped over his unconscious body.

“You all did amazingly, so many people would have been lost if it wasn’t for you three.”

The three made their acceptance and dismissals of his praise. He gave them one salute and then held his hand out for the first Captain Marvel. There was a moment where the two just stared at one another and then they shook hands smiling.

Captain America moved towards Nitro and hauled him up onto his shoulders and began to move towards the hovering Quinjet.

“You’re one of the cops I threw onto the car, yeah? Your partner?”

Leon shook his head slowly. “I’m sorry,” Carol offered. Leon nodded and held his hand out solidly to the three of them shaking each one in turn.

“You’re heroes, so was he…it was a pleasure to serve with all four of you…if you excuse me. I should go and call on his wife.”

“If you send the funeral times to The Avengers’ address, officer, It’d be my at least to pay my last respects,” Carol gave an air force salute which Leon returned and then began to walk away.

The three watched him go. “What now?” asked Genis.

“I have to go, I have to go to Hala to find the truth,” he looked to the faces of his friends. He hoped that they wouldn’t try to stop him, try and find the truth in their own ways. He needed to go whether they liked it or not.

“I’m coming, too,” Genis nodded solemnly to his father, “…if you’ll have me.”

“I’d love to,” the two shared a smile. This would be a chance to get to know one another that both desperately wanted.

“So you’re leaving The Avengers?” Carol looked at Genis, then she smiled “lets just say you’re on compassionate leave for a while.”

“Come with us,” Mar-Vell stepped towards Warbird and held out his hand. “Come with us, we can wait a day or two if there is anything you need to handle. You’re part of this.”

Carol shook he head. “My place is here, with The Avengers. I’ll see you both when you get back.”

There was a moments silence between the three of them. “Mar-Vell…or whoever you might be. No matter what you find out up there, whoever you turn out to be,” Carol smiled, “you’re a hero…someone my friend Mar-Vell would be proud to have carry his name.” She leaned forward and kissed him gently.

The two smiled at one another. “Anyway,” Carol’s smile faded to Warbird’s serious ‘work face,’ “us Avengers have still got some tidying up to do…take care.” She turned and took off into the air, casting a glance over her shoulder as she went.

“I have some things to take care of,” Mar-Vell nodded. “I’m sure you do, too,” Genis nodded in response. “We’ll meet at the Empire State Building at noon and then head off, that okay?”

The two who were possibly father and son smiled. They had an adventure ahead of them and a chance like no other to get to know one another. They took off into the air and headed in their separate directions.

NEXT: Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel begin their journey into the deepest reaches of space. The first stop? The grave of Captain Marvel!