ECHOES

By Mitch Crane

“Adam, hard left!” cried Wendell, driving his friend and “host” to make a sharp turn to the left, narrowly dodging a Sidri energy blast.

With lightning fast reflexes then man created a net from quantum energy and ensnared the creature, taking it out of the fight. Wendell was impressed; since inheriting the Quantum Bands Adam had taken little time to master them.

“Behind you!” cried Quasar as a second Sidri passed through his incorporeal form, making a beeline for Adam.

Without even turning around the newest Protector of the Universe encased the beast in a sphere of golden energy. The remaining manta-like aliens quickly fled, gliding through the darkness of space.

“Impressive,” complimented Wendell.

“Thank you friend, I could not have succeeded without your warnings,” replied Adam.

Quasar could not help but feel a pang of envy as his friend Adam Warlock deftly opened a gateway to the Quantum zone and locked the two Sidri pirates away until they could find some authorities.

He was little more than a ghost now, his spirit tied to the Quantum Bands forever. Adam had offered to use his soul gem to free him and set his soul on its natural path but Wendell declined. Ghost or not, he felt there was a reason he remained in this world.

There was no-one better to inherit the title of Protector of the Universe than Adam Warlock. That fateful day, when Annihilus drained the life from his body, the bands had gone straight to Adam, and, combined with the Soul Gem, he was able to slay the monster there and then.

“Are we close?”

The golden skinned man rubbed the pink stone on his forehead and replied, “No, just a few parsecs away, on the far side of that white dwarf.”

He flew through the void, mentally prepared for further ambushes, but none came. There was no life here, nothing except the weak little star. Considering that just a month prior this was a thriving resort system, with a beautiful blue star, it was a cause for concern.

What they found when the reached the far side of the star was shocking. It was essentially a tear in space, thousands of miles long, with glowing white energy shining through. Every so often the light from the tear would increase and a stream of white flame from the star would be sucked inside. Whatever this was it had swallowed the solar system and sucked the light from this star.

“That’s not a black hole,” stated Wendell.

“No it certainly isn’t any sort of singularity I recognise,” replied Adam, who closed his eyes and concentrated, “I can sense tremendous power within there…”

“Adam, look out!”

Light flared brighter than before and enveloped them both. It was so bright that even Wendell’s eyes, which no longer had retinas to burn, were blinded.

When the light faded, both were gone…

“Wendell, look out!” cried Adam’s ethereal voice and Quasar suddenly snapped back to reality.

He realised was rapidly approaching a large Spartoi transport ship and quickly banked right to avoid it. He stopped when he was clear of the shipping lanes coming from the Spartoi trading station to collect himself.

“Are you alright?” asked Adam.

Wendell’s eyes were wide with shock and he was breathing rather hard, “I was… somewhere else. Our roles were reversed… I think we died.”

Adam’s spectral face was a mask of concern. “A hallucination perhaps? You have been overworking yourself ever since the Annihilation War.”

Quasar shook his head. “No this felt way too real. Could it be the gem?” he subconsciously reached up to stroke the Soul Gem embedded in his forehead.

“It has been dormant since you asserted your dominance during our battle with the Black Thread. I had hoped it had finally accepted you as its master, but perhaps it was only biding its time, looking for an opportunity to strike at your mind?”

“If that’s true, what can we do?”

“For all its power, the Soul Gem is nothing without a master to wield it. If it tries to influence your thoughts again, stay focused, and show it who the master is.”

“Okay,” for good measure he focused his will upon the stone, but it remained quiet.

He continued on his flight; rumour had it that an enormous Annihilation Wave ship had survived the war, and was destroying worlds in Skrull space. As he drew closer, he began to sense the deaths through the Soul Gem much like Obi-Wan could sense the destruction of Alderaan and knew the rumour to be true.

“Adam I…”

Another wave of death struck and this time it struck hard. The Soul Gem flared to life briefly, like a cat that hears a loud noise, but quickly subsided again. The sensation was disorientating, and he found his thoughts becoming muddy…

Wendell combed his thick blonde hair into place in the bathroom mirror and made sure his SHEILD badges were all brightly polished. Not that Doctor Necker cared about that sort of thing but he felt more confident when he looked good.

He exhaled nervously and reassured himself in the mirror, “Everything’s going to be fine. You’re head of security at a highly classified SHEILD facility. That’s cool. You’re also not bad to look at. Evelyn is totally going to say yes…so what if she’s a genius and you can’t program your Tivo,” he sighed.

He left the bathroom, trying to walk as confidently as possible; it wouldn’t be good for his men to witness him shaking like a nervous teenager. As he marched down the long grey corridors, he payed little heed to the various advanced experiments taking place around him. That was common place for Project PEGASUS. Every other day scientists were creating miniature stars or opening doorways to other dimensions. It only got interesting for Wendell when something otherworldly came in through that doorway and tried to kill everyone.

He didn’t slow down as he passed the plaque dedicated to Agent Hunter Pollard, the SHEILD agent who had donned the Quantum bands during Wendell’s first day on the job and saved them all from an AIM attack. That was years ago; last he heard Pollard had joined the Avengers, operating under the codename Quasar.

Wendell snorted, what kind of superhero name was Quasar? If it had been him he would have gone with Captain Marvel. That name was free, and had a lot of weight behind it. Of course, this wasn’t the first time he had considered what his life would be like, had he donned the bands on that fateful day. Not that he didn’t enjoy his job, but there was a niggling feeling in his gut that he was destined for greater things but missed his chance.

He shook the thoughts from his head when he reached the heavy steel door to Lab 27. He entered his eight digit security code and stood unblinking as the computer conducted an ocular scan; the work being conducted in Evelyn’s lab would be extremely dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands.

As always, Evelyn was bent over yet another intricate piece of machinery, tinkering away. Wendell couldn’t help but stop and enjoy the view of her behind, clad in a tight black skirt. Someone cleared their throat nearby and he quickly snapped his eyes away. Doctor Greunwald was eyeing him with disdain, the older doctor didn’t appreciate any interruptions, and the chief of security had interrupted them a lot in the past few months.

“Can we help you?” asked Doctor Gruenwald dryly.

“No Doc, just a routine sweep,” he replied, knowing full well Gruenwald hated being called doc.

Doctor Necker turned around and shot a smile at Wendell, “Agent Vaughn, perfect timing, we’re just about to open a portal to an energy rich dimension.’

“Please, call me Wendell,” though you never do, he thought.

She continued as if she hadn’t heard him, and she likely hadn’t, as she often got swept up in her work, “Weeks ago we sensed a surge of energy than branched across multiple realities and weakened the dimensional fields in its wake.”

“Like a bullet passing through several planks of wood and leaving cracks in its wake,” Doctor Gruenwald always oversimplified things, likely thinking that because Wendell wasn’t a scientist he was an idiot.

Evelyn stepped up to a nearby computer and began typing furiously while she spoke, “We’ve traced the energy source back to a remarkable dimension. The temporal folds are far to complex for us to process, but Doctor Gruenwald speculates it could be a sort of dimensional nexus… opening dimensional portal now.”

“That’s great… Evelyn. Listen, I was hoping we could talk,”

“Of course Agent Vaughn,” she said absently, as a white hot beam fired from a nearby machine and struck a shining copper wall across the room.

“We’ve known each other for, nearly two years now right?”

“Yes, time has flown by hasn’t it… N space alignment commencing.”

“Well I was hoping maybe we could see each other outside of work sometime…like at dinner? Or if that’s too serious then maybe lunch?” Evelyn, made no reply, in fact she made no sign she had even heard, “or even split a candy bar at the gas station down the street?”

Where the white beam was striking the copper wall a perfect circle of whiteness suddenly appeared. Wendell realised it was like a window, through which was a world of swirling white energy. Not everything about the world was white though, far in the distance there was something dark. It made him feel cold inside when he focused on it, so he looked away, only to find both Doctors Necker and Gruenwald staring zombie-like into the white void.

“Evelyn!” he grabbed the redhead by the shoulders and turned her away from the portal. He gasped in shock when he realised her eyes now crackled with white energy.

“The doors shall be opened,” she droned, in a voice devoid of life, “the walls shall be brought down. There will be only one again.”

Her delicate hand snapped out and grabbed Wendell by the throat. The grip was nothing he couldn’t shake, but strangely he felt weaker, and the sensation increased rapidly, until he fell to his knees. His tear filled eyes met her cold white ones and he was soon enveloped in light.

His last thought was all I wanted was a date.

Quasar snapped back to reality, once more in the starry void of space, clasping at his throat and gasping for air he didn’t need.

“It happened again didn’t it?” asked Adam, concerned.

“Yes, it was another illusion. I never got the Quantum Bands and was still at Project Pegasus.”

“I don’t think it was an illusion Wendell. This time I knew to pay attention, and I’m fairly certain I sensed your soul leave your body.”

“I died?!”

“No, it was more akin to when the Soul Gem steals someone’s spirit, though I did not witness your soul entering the stone. Judging by your description I believe the gem sent your soul to an alternate reality.”

Wendell’s face turned grim. “It’s trying to break me isn’t it? It wants to drive me mad so I can let it devour hordes of souls again like Annihilus did.”

Adam’s spectral eyes were sad. “I wish I had an answer for you friend, but I do not know. I’ve never experienced anything like this with the gem before.”

Quasar snapped, crying “Dammit!” as he fired a quantum blast and demolished a nearby asteroid. He hated not being in control of his life like this.

“Focus on your experiences in these two realities, perhaps there was a reason the gem brought you here.”

Wendell concentrated, trying to relive the foreign memories, which were now foggy and dreamlike.

“I think both… Quasars died.” the memories were vague now but the pain and fear was still sharp. “There was some kind of intense white light. But there wasn’t anything holy about it.”

He could remember the sensation clearly, being bathed in that burning white light that failed to fill him in any warmth. It was cold, and seemed to draw the very life out of him.

Once more he could feel the stone flare to life and he fought its pull with all his might. It was no use though; yet again he could feel his thoughts becoming thick and slow…

“Nova Centurion, this course of action is most unwise. Turn back immediately!” ordered the stern voice of the Worldmind in his ear.

“There’s no other option Worldmind! Annihilus has all the Infinity Gems, if he gets to the Gauntlet it’s all over!”

“I must insist you wait until the rest of the Corps arrives!”

“There’s no time!”

It was up to him, Nova Centurion 1229659 aka Wendell Vaughn of Earth, to save the universe. Annihilus had brought his fleet of living ships to an uninhabited ice world deep in unclaimed space. With the power of the Gems at his disposal he had bent space and time and teleported his entire armada there directly. Thankfully he had just arrived also and got swept up in the wake.

Annihilus’ power blazed like a beacon, deep within a mountain of ice. Wave ships were everywhere, a veritable swarm, but he had no other choice, “Sheilds to one hundred percent, we’re going in!”

Laser fire and burning plasma assaulted him from all directions, but he powered onwards, until he slammed in the mountain headfirst, blasting through like a bullet. He landed hard, dazed and disorientated, and looked up to see Annihilus with the shining Infinity Gauntlet already within his grasp.

“No!” he cried, blasting energy towards to tyrant in a futile attempt to stop him.

The energy dissipated uselessly and the monster slipped his insect-like hand inside the gauntlet. Each Infinity Gem burst forth from a pouch on the beast’s belt and imbedded themselves in the gauntlet.

“Now this universe will finally end! The Negative Zone will take its rightful place as the one try universe!”

“Stop! Please!” pleaded Nova, as he useless blasted the maniac.

And so reality ended; not with a bang, not even with a whimper, but with silence. Reality began to flicker in and out of existence, like bad TV reception, and then there was suddenly nothing.

Miraculously, Wendell still existed. Perhaps he was close enough to Annihilus to be unaffected. He had expected there to be darkness when the universe died, but instead there was intense whiteness. All around the pair white energy swirled and stormed. Perhaps this was where the Big Bang came from?

A shadow passed over him, and he swung about to find a wall of black crystal. The wall extended for as far as he could see in every direction. Within the crystal wall, he could see his reflection staring back at him, though it seemed somehow different. He forgot all about the end of the universe, or the madman with the Infinity Gauntlet behind him and focused all his attention on the reflection.

At last he learned what was different; where the eyes should be there was only the black crystal of the wall reflected back. Those dead crystal eyes started back at him unblinking, and he found himself afraid to blink, afraid to even move. Eventually he could take it no more and he blinked… a fraction of a second later he found he found the reflection was gone, along with the entire crystal wall.

He was still frozen in place Annihilus could come up behind him and kill him easily, but Wendell suspected he was gone, only the swirling white energy kept him company now.

Why was he paralysed? Did Annihilus do this to him with the gauntlet? It took a moment for the realisation to sink in, the crystal wall wasn’t gone; he was inside the wall!

Wendell snapped back to reality with a scream, gasping for air once more. Frantically he swung about, eyes wild, checking there was no crystal wall sneaking up on him.

“Be calm friend…” Adam tried to reassure him, but the words where cut off as once more the gem flared to life and pulled his soul from his body…

Once more he felt the sensation of paralysis, but this time he was not encased in crystal. It felt as if he had fallen into a deep sleep, and suddenly been awakened. A faint glimmer of hope arose in what was left of his soul, but he soon realised he was as trapped as ever.

The Black Thread had taken his body months ago and gorged itself on his soul while manipulating his body like a puppet. The infected body of Comet Man drifted nearby, his face an emotionless mask. The two of them had been amongst the first victims of the Black Thread, and with their abilities under the control of the extra-dimensional fungus, they had spread the infection throughout the universe.

Only a few pockets of the universe remained uninfected. Even Earth, who had fought so valiantly against numerous alien invasions, fell to the Black Thread. He could only watch on helplessly as killed or infected his friends and comrades.

He had learned to shut himself off, to go into a catatonic state, in order to avoid witnessing so many atrocities. But there had been some surge of energy within him, and new strength , that had shaken him back to consciousness.

His body and Comet Man’s floated in the void of space, awaiting something. Wendell had slowly learned to sense the Black Thread’s collective thoughts, much as it likely could hear his too. Eventually, a signal went through the entire universe wide organism: feed!

Recently, he could sense the infection within him had started to ration his soul, as if to make it last longer. Now though, it began devouring with ravenous intensity. It was not painful, but he did feel as if he were fading away.

Everywhere in the universe, souls were being devoured into nothingness. A collective death cry went out, and then faded away to nothingness. He could imagine the damage some much mass death would cause to the universe, and he was right. The walls of reality began to crack, letting intense white light through. Soon the cracks widened, until the dark, starry void of space was nearly no more.

The dead husks of planets and moons faded to nothing as they were swallowed by the light. Something massive could be seen through the crack; a sun sized monolith of ebony black crystals. It radiated malevolence but a sensation of joy seemed to run through the Black Thread as they witnessed their master.

It had succeeded in destroying the universe for its master, and Quasar could only watch on helplessly as the last scraps of his soul were consumed…

“Gahhhh!” screamed Quasar, as he snapped back to his own reality once more.

The Soul Gem flared to life again but Wendell screamed, “Stop! I know what you were trying to show me!” and it died down once more.

“The Gem was trying to show you something?” asked Adam.

“Yes,” gasped Quasar, trying to purge those horrific memoires from his mind, “In each universe there was a threat; something evil in every that destroyed everything it saw. It took me a while to realise they were all the same thing. I didn’t realise what it was until my last… ‘experience’. It’s the Black Thread’s master, the one Stephen saw when he was infected.”

“The Korhan?”

“That was one name for it,” stated Wendell, still trying to catch his breath.

“What is it, Wendell?”

“I saw what it was, in the Black Thread’s bizarre mind. It’s a universe, the first ever universe. Its’ been compacted down and crushed by the weight of every other universe that’s been born from it until it couldn’t stand it anymore. It wants to destroy every reality in existence, even if it has to do it one by one.”

“I would not have believed such a thing possible. An entire universe, compacted into the size of a star, that has developed sentience? How could we fight such a thing?”

“I don’t know, but we’re going to find someone who does.”