Justice Avengers: A New Beginning

Shield Helicarrier

Cap had had his mind on a great many a thing, including his greatest enemy of all; Real Life. (TM) In fact, it was so terrible a foe that it almost felt as if he had simply been mostly standing in place for well over a week, as though some invisible force responsible for his actions had simply been unable to give his full and undivided attention. In any case, Cap did his best to shrug it off as he focused on the matter at hand.

"Same here," said Cap." You're looking good, Fury." Too good, thought Cap. He knew it wasn't his fault, but Nick had only seemed to age, what, fifteen years or so? Twenty at most. A small price to pay for being able to live a full live. Cap may still have been in his prime, but it was at the cost of spending most of the last 70+ years in an iceblock. He couldn't help but feeling a bit envious of Fury, even if he knew he shouldn't be. He did his best to put it aside, reminding himself that Fury was still one of his closest friends. And speaking of which...

Rock was standing right next to Fury, clad in full military attire. And he was so old. And not just in body. One look at those eyes was enough to tell that he had lived every single one of those years on his face, and his soul was as old as the body that housed it. He couldn't help but feel sorry for Rock, and wouldn't be surprised if he felt some resentment for Cap. Still, best not to think about that just now. "Seargent Rock," said Cap, holding out his hand for a handshake. "Good to see you again. It's been a long time. Easy Company still easy?"

edited 24th Sep '17 8:01:13 AM by kkhohoho

Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around

Angela - (Ruined) Streets

"My belt is already fastened," Angela said curiously to Spider-Woman, patting the giant belt buckle in front of her. "Were it not, Xiphos and the Blades of Ichor would fall to my feet and my waist would be exposed." Speaking of her weapons, she put her hands on her hips, where they rested more naturally and closer to her swords.

"Now, if it is Midgardian custom to eat the flesh of a hound, then I will abide by your barbarous ways for the time being. And if it is not your custom to allow for the claiming of bounties, that is unfortunate, as I have been trained as a Hunter and become the greatest of the Hunt. I will have to seek out a way to acquire the coin of the realm by some other means, then."

Skies of New York

Apollo was more than a little surprised that his solar blast didn't seem to have any effect on the weird hooded woman and he was even more surprised when she came flying at him with a fucking sword?! WHAT?! He brought a forearm up on instinct to block the swing and paused for just a moment to wonder how he knew how to do that before he threw a quick jab at her face.

My various fanfics.

Meanwhile, in a room somewhere...

The table was large and round, in order to keep those sitting at it equally distant from each other.

Even now, they eyed each other with stares that varied from amusement to disdain.

One was a literal tin-plated tyrant who believed himself to be without equal. Next to him sat an attractive woman of royall bearing who was doing her best to get his attention, to no avail.

Another was a survivor of World War two who only cared about protecting mutants. He stared at the Red-faced man who had been behind many crimes during the War, but he felt he could not strike at him at the moment.

Two curiously similar-looking men sat across each other. Similar in that both were completely bald, anyway. One of them was however morbidly obese. The skinnier one smiled at him in an almost mocking way. The fatter one just ignored him.

Also similar were two haggard, hairy men. Both of them were more ancient than they looked- though one only centuries old, and the other by thousands of years.

And finally, two overly-adorned men, one Asiatic wearing armor with dragon designs and ten rings on his fingers, the other in a fish-like costume and bearing a trident.

Then, yet another figure entered the room. A man in a green, caped suit, with a horned helmet and a wicked smile on his face.

"So. I bet you are all wondering what I called you here for today..."

"We know why, Asgardian" the armored tyrant snapped. "Get on with it. Doom has no time to waste."

Loki sighed. They never let him have any fun.

"Very well, to the point: each, and every one of us, have or own goals in life. Grand plans. But, we have failed to achieve them so far. Our enemies keep succeeding against all odds. Why?"

Despite himself, he allowed a beat for dramatic effect.

"Simply put, the so-called 'heroes' have an ace up their sleeve. Something we have failed to consider, at least seriously, so far."

"Allies" he continued. "Not just each other, though they certainly back each other when needed. No, I mean everyone. From the commoners in the street to the highest authorities, they will rush in to help their heroes in their time of need. Let's face it: we are not fighting just our enemies. We are fighting everyone who adores them. And yes, I used to dismiss them too. But time has proven, they can be a treat, even if only by motivating them to rise up again and continue fighting."

"My fellows. It has become obvious to me, that if we ever hope to win, we need to do the same. That is, share our resources against them."

"So. You propose an alliance?" Luthor asked.

"In a way. Not an open one, of course. If the heroes know we are working together, then they will surely join forces to smite us. So it will be more of a... Secret Society. We'll share everything one of us might need to bring down a particular hero, one at a time."

Another beat.

"So... any takers?"

Meanwhile, in a distant galaxy, a dark, massive figure sat upon his throne, observing the events of the meeting via methods arcane, and smiled sinisterly...

Ruined Street

The Checkmate Bishop harrumphed, but realized he wasn't going to get much more intel out of these people.

"Ah, OK you can go" he said. "We thank you all for your- cooperation. Next time call us first though, OK?"

He turned around and began walking away. Checkmate would have to keep an eye on these newcomers, especially that Angela woman.

Sky

As the Solar Man and the Sorceress clashed, The Hood inhaled, turned invisible again, and ran away on air as fast as he could, mentally cursing them for causing him to miss the big Villain Meeting.

Helicarrier

Rock had seemingly always been a haggard man. He was one in the war, and he was one now. Unfazed by Captain America's unorthodox companions, he shook the younger man's hand, his grip still surprisingly good for his age. "Rogers. Good to see you again" he said, his voice also not fitting his old looks. "Let's make this short and to the point:" he added, after returning to an at-rest military position. "The US Government wants you to work again for them. And they asked me to deliver the message." He hated playing errand boy, but was far too loyal to argue. "They know you have worked a lot with SHIELD but they would prefer if the living symbol of America would work for America again."

"As I understand it, they are putting together a team, and they want you to join it."

Rose, Streets, Getting Back In The Swing Of Things

Thorn rolled her eyes and stumbled forward, hair turning red once more. "What happened?" Rose asked, looking around at the wrecked street.

[TOP SECRET]

‘’’Helicarrier’’’

Tabitha leaned towards Steve and Rock. She wasn’t eavesdropping per se - they were in the same room after all.

“Why’d you have to bring him to your helicopter to ask him that? Are you trying to impress him or something?”

"Actually, this is *our* 'helicopter' " Fury explained. "As in, SHIELD's. We work for the United Nations, Rock here for the US Government. Is that clear? He's only here to talk to Cap. But hey, I owed him a few favors from the war, so I could not say no."

Ruined streets — You've been asleep for months!

Angela still needed some help when dealing with human concepts. This would take a while. At least Wonder Woman was there too, so Gwen wasn't on this alone.

"That's something we need to work on. Here on Earth we like to use idioms all the time. We exaggerate to get our point across. For example, if it's raining cats and dogs, that means it's raining a lot. It doesn't mean that pets are actually falling from the sky. That would be messy"

Meanwhile, Rose got her red hair back and asked to know what had happened. It had been a pretty weird day already so Gwen decided not to question it. Besides, repeating the recent events out loud helped cement that she wasn't going crazy.

"Well..." she started to think "So basically, this woman Artume tried to escape her giant monster but it's okay because Apollo blew it up. Also, you gave me your keys to find a poppy to cure Angela because she..." Gwen contained her gagging reflex "ripped off her heart and then the government took it from there"

That was pretty much all, wasn't it?

"Oh, and apparently you are not a natural redhead"

Yup, that was all.

To cut a short story shorter, Mantra and Apollo proceeded to scuffle in the air for a bit, with Mantra ducking from Apollo's jabs and trying to get a few hits in with the butt of his sword. After a moment or two of fisticuffs, Mantra ducked below a punch and continued to plummet below, dropping down through the air as he sheathed his sword back on his belt. He'd fallen to just a few stories up from ground level when he turned and flipped out his cape with a flourish, and the solar beam stored from a moment prior came shooting back out at Apollo.

Hopefully, that would be enough to distract the pretty-boy. Mantra arced up and glided between the skyscrapers, zigzagging through random alleyways to try and get as much distance as possible. Of course, having now lost Apollo, he had also lost the hooded shmuck, and if he didn't get back soon, Eden Blake's boss was going to wonder why her break was taking so long. What a splendid waste of time this had all turned out to be. With an exasperated grunt, Mantra turned arched around to get back to SHIELD HQ. He spared a slight glance back at the sky to check for any tailgaters. Something told Mantra he hadn't seen the last of ol' blondie.

Ruined Streets - Angela

"Why would you say that it is raining animals unless it were a truly powerful storm?" Angela asked, more to herself than anyone else. Midgardians were strange.

"Yes, you have my thanks again," she added to Rose. "The pain was truly insufferable. Fortune smiles upon me that I was able to escape the same fate as the one called Hercules."

"Now then," she said to Gwen. "I believe you mentioned we need to feast on roasted hounds."

Captain America turned down Rock's offer as politely as possible; he explained that he was loyal to the ideals of America- not to its administrations. He helped SHIELD out of gratitude, but even that was not official.

Rock didn't look happy, but then he never looked happy. He nodded, thanked Cap and Fury for their time, and left.

. ******

In the sky, The Hood managed to escape while the two heroes tussled.

. ******

On the streets, Checkmate's agents withdrew, leaving Damage Control to clean up the debris from the battle.

In general, everyone went his or her own way for the day.

edited 18th Nov '17 3:29:03 PM by Sijo

. -The Next Day-

Early that morning, the announcement was all over Facebook (and other social media):

"Hello everyone! Its your favorite publicist, Maxwell Lord! And with me is that millionaire playboy, Tony Stark!"

(Stark waves)

"We are here to announce the biggest thing since Jay-Rod: The Justice Avengers Initiative! Well, I wanted to call it "The Justice League" but Tony wanted "The Avengers" so we we reached a compromise."

"So what is the JAI? It's a recruitment program for what will be the greatest superhero team *ever!* So if you have super powers- or Batman levels of skill- and you always wanted to hit it big as a hero, come over to Stark's Mansion, on New York's Fifth Avenue. The try-outs start today!"

edited 24th Nov '17 7:27:32 PM by Sijo

At the hotel's restaurant

Riri had forwarded the JAI advert to her mom as soon as she could. Emboldened by yesterdays experience, her texting and voice messages with Nats(she could still hear her; "do your thing girl, don't stop for nobody") and a few new ideas for gadgets and armor she tried to sell her on the idea of applying for the initiative, over breakfast teleconference:

"Ok, Ok, run that by me again... you want to be a superhero now, I mean really? first that whole... thing yesterday and now this?" Said Ms. Williams

"No no that's not what I said, I mean yeah it would be cool... But I think I want to be the person helping the heroes, like what if... I dunno, Spider-man needs a drone or some techno-goggles I could be the one building that! Or if Superman needs something to answer his emails when he's out... punching meteors, I could code that. This is Tony Stark! He's gonna be the one on the forefront.of this kinda thing"

"Sweetie, its great that you're excited about this... but you only got into college this year and you're 15, you don't have to go this fast just because you can. I think you should focus on it on the time being"

"Mom but this could be my future, ok say that I don't make the cut for the team, Mr Stark or Mr Lord could see the smart girl with the jetpack, which I made from junk in my garage mind you, and say that I have an internship or something in my future, and boom! foot in the door!"

"But they're not looking for interns. They are putting together a team of superheroes"

"Ok but see, that's a good scenario too! I get in and what better learning experience than working under... well mostly Mr Stark to be honest, Mr Lord might be a genius too but I'm an engineer, among other things, not a businesswoman."

Ms Williams sighs "I know this looks like the best of ideas right now, but take your time and think it over, this is going to take up your time if it goes through, than what about MIT huh, that scholarship you worked so hard for... I just don't want to see you toss it away"

"I've thought this through, and I really think this is a good idea. Its a great oportunity!"

"Riri... Ok, go and show them, make us prou-"

"Thanks-thanks-thanks mom!"

"You didn't let me finish. School comes first, you need something to fall back on, you need a plan B through Z, got it? And if neither of those men can make it happen then it won't happen? you find a way to be a hero or help heroes or whatever else you may decide to do in a safer way, but school first... trust me if you leave it now you'll regret it, because even if your return, it won't be the same"

"I... Ok, ok fair point I'm still going to the seminars today don't worry"

"That's my girl... I meant it though, show'em what you can do, I noticed your 'suit' was missing, if that won't do I dunno what will"

"Oh yeah, heheh, the suit" she said slightly embarrassed "but I can also show them the blueprints, see what I have planned" she said perking back up.

"Careful, careful you don't want them stealing your ideas"

"Mom, that would kinda be flattery" They share a laugh, and the conversation wraps up in small talk between the two women.

Later on at Stark Manor

After the seminars and expos had wrapped up for the day, Riri Williams trekked across New York with a heavy bulky duffel bag in tow, as well as a backpack full of her projects in paper, and her laptop. She would eventually arrive at the place noted on the ad, nervous and excited at the prospects.

The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.

The Next Day

After a rather unexpected end to his fight with... whatever her name was, Andrew did exactly as he'd told the others he was going to do. So, that morning, he was sitting on a street corner, playing Bing Crosby covers on his "new" guitar and thanking people when they dropped cash into the guitar case. Maxwell Lord and Tony Stark... he didn't really know those people but, apparently, they were important. More importantly, they were looking for people like him. And, even more importantly, he'd stop being homeless.

Stark Manor

Mark knocked on the front door◊ of Stark Manor about an hour or so later, holding his guitar over one shoulder and the bag with his costume in it in the other hand. That was when he saw a young African American girl with a large duffel bag of her own also at the front door and gave her a little nod. "What can you do?" he asked her.

edited 27th Nov '17 5:35:40 PM by SonOfSharknado

My various fanfics.

After a moment, the door was opened by a balding, middle-aged man who stood rigidly and smiled politely. He virtually had "butler" written all over him.

"Good day, young sir and lady" he said, in exactly the expected kind of voice. "You're here for the Hero Try-Outs, I presume? Please come in and sit on any available couch. Mr. Lord will see you shortly."

edited 27th Nov '17 6:35:10 PM by Sijo

Mark shrugged and followed the butler inside, taking in the sight of the sheer expanse of the mansion. For someone who, again, had been homeless for the last several months, it was very impressive. He sank down into one of the couches with a sigh, the guitar case resting on his lap.

My various fanfics.

Stark Manor

"well I-" she was about to explain the dashing, and frankly handsome, blond of her gadgets before ushered in by a posh British butler. "Huh, I thought that only happened in movies..." she thought out loud before catching herself "Yes, thank you".

She walked into the lavish manor and took it in until her and the glowing blond guy sat in the waiting room. Well she didn't sit, she kept standing for a while but she put her heavy equipment on the ground.

"Er yes, as I was saying, I build things, things you wouldn't think I could" She tapped her duffel "I have a home-made jet-pack and some rocket-boots in there" she said, quite proudly.

The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.

"Jetpack, huh?" Mark asked a genuinely impressed tone in his voice as he looked at her. No need to be a dick and show off that he could fly just by thining about it. "Cool. I'm Mark, by the way," he held out his hand for her to shake.

My various fanfics.

Next Day

After the unexpected turn of events and first meetings that took up most of yesterday, Diana had made the decision to stay in New York City for a while longer. It hadn't taken much effort for her cover story to be appropriately changed after she made the phone call, but she wasn't about to leave if Artume was still around. Besides, Angela may still need her help adjusting to Earth. It would be irresponsible to leave that entirely up to Spider-Gwen.

She was still in her apartment when the announcement for the Justice Avengers Initiative got to her. It was an... interesting plan, for sure. Diana didn't particularly care about fame and publicity, but fighting as a team had worked quite well yesterday. Maybe joining an official one would be a good way to protect the city better. It wouldn't hurt to speak with this Tony Stark and see if he was an honest person, at least. As Diana changed and got ready to head to 5th Avenue, she realized that this Justice Avengers plan would be a perfect way to encourage Angela to help more people. She didn't have a way to directly contact her yet, but maybe they would meet up again.

Stark Manor

A little later than when Apollo and Riri arrived, Wonder Woman landed on the front lawn and walked over to knock on the front door. She didn't see the point in coming without her armor and equipment on, since the point of having a "secret identity" would be ruined if she went into superhero meetings as Diana Prince.

Maxwell Lord (in all his car-salesman type glory) entered the mansion's foyer, followed by the butler.

"A-ha there you are!" he said to the guests, smiling broadly. "Welcome to the Justice Avengers' try-outs! I'm Max Lord, but you knew that already. Quick, no time to lose! Names! Powers! Outfits too if possible! The individual interviews will be held in a few minutes!"

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

"Jarvis, be a dear and see who that is, will you?"

The butler gave Lord a kind of sideways glance that seemed unappreciative of being ordered around by the man, but if Max noticed, he gave no indication of it, just his perennial grin.

Jarvis then turned around and made his way to the entrance. He opened the door and came face-to-face with the statuesque amazon. Unfazed, he said "Greetings, Madam. Are you here for the hero try-outs?"

Mark turned his head to look at Maxwell Lord, who was... kinda cute in person, he guessed. A bit of a chatterbox, though. "Hey, Max," he said with a shrug, "I'm Mark." Then, in the blink of an eye, he had gone from a sitting position in shorts and a T-shirt, to standing, holding out his hand, and wearing his costume. "But you can call me Apollo. As for my powers... well, the short version is that I'm Superman but Better, I guess." He flashed a grin, his teeth sparkling.

My various fanfics.

Stark Manor

Riri shook Mark's hand, her hands slightly calloused "Riri, pleasure to meet ya" She turned to Maxwell Lord and.. he was kinda underwhelming in person. But he got right to the point and she did appeciate that. "Riri Williams, I'm smart, I brought my suit" she points to the duffel "but I'd need to suit up." She blinked and did a double take for Mark/Apollo "woah, fast! thats neat!" she comments.

edited 28th Nov '17 4:17:22 PM by Sanojutsu

The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.

Around

With not much left to do last night after whatever happened, Angela had taken to the skies to observe this strange world. First order of business was washing off all of the blood and assorted gore from the fighting, so she took a brief swim in the Hudson River. Not quite content with the quality of that water, she flew around again in search of cleaner water, and found a zoo of some sort. If the animals were not content with her bathing in their enclosure, they could have done something. Ultimately, after all that was done with, she settled on a rooftop where some rather cute little birds were roosting, and she got some rest during the night.

In the morning, she got up with the sun and looked around for her new friends. Except after a few hours of failing to find them (and surprising maybe one too many beach-goer who looked like Wonder Woman at a distance - as well as one street performer she mistook for Spider-Woman) she realized she had no idea how to actually contact them. Oh well, that was simple enough, it's not like they were in space or underwater.

"DIANA! SPIDER-WOMAN! ARE YOU NEARBY?" she shouted extremely loudly as she flew around the city. "IT IS ANGELA! I THOUGHT WE COULD SEE ABOUT KILLING YOUR SISTER TODAY! SPIDER-WOMAN, HAVE YOU DECIDED WHO NEEDS TO BE SLAIN YET?"

Wonder Woman - Outside Stark Mansion

Whoever she was expecting to answer the door, it wasn't the polite older man that Diana was met with. Was this the right place? It wasn't until he mentioned the hero try-outs that she realized that she hadn't made a mistake after all.

"Yes, I saw the announcement this morning," she said, smiling at Jarvis. "I am unsure of what this try-out would be, however. Is there a test?" she asked. She could have sworn that she heard her name far off in the distance, but it was possible that she was just picking up on something particularly loud in New York City. It was always a little harder to filter individual sounds out in such a busy area.