MARVELCADO COMICS Presents
THE INVADERS #3
Yes, despite this having been on hiatus for more than a month, I have not quit on The Invaders.
PREVIOUSLY ON THE INVADERS
Most of our team has been sent through a portal t0 1940s New York in the presence of Steve Rogers, Howard Stark, and a young Bucky Barnes! MODOK kept the current Bucky in present day so he could be dealt with by SHIELD- but when the Winter Soldier triggered some form of recognition in the Kugelblitz generating Kendra- she unleashed an engulfing explosion of light.
NICK FURY, Agent of SHIELD, pulls up outside an apartment complex, where the area has been quarantined off by police. As Fury steps out of his car and enters the area, the police move to stop him- until he shows them his SHIELD credentials.
We now see Fury carefully step into a dark apartment, keeping his gun at arm’s reach as he looks around. He finds a trail of blood on the floor of a hallway and follows it to a closed room. Fury presses his ear to the door and listens. Visibly, his impression softens and his loosens his self-defence before opening the door.
There’s a pool of a blood, a dead man on the floor, and a girl huddled in the corner of the room. KENDRA FREEMAN. She slinks further backwards and hushes in response to the door opening. Nick holds his hands up.
NICK FURY: I’m not here to hurt you, I’m here to help.
She remains huddled in her corner. He walks towards her- then crouches down to her level.
NICK FURY: My name is Nick Fury. I am an Agent of Shield. People said they heard a blast, and an unusual energy signature was detected.
He now points to her father’s body.
NICK FURY: You saw the man who did this?
She nods.
NICK FURY: But he’s gone now?
She nods.
NICK FURY: Did you get any idea of where he went?
She doesn’t respond with her head, looking unsure of how to answer that. Instead, it’s her turn to point, towards the other corner of room. Fury tilts his head, then walks over to inspect. On a part of the floor that looks like it’s been burned, he finds a single finger.
In 1940s New York, Steve Rogers is the first to spring into action after the mysterious arrival of the time travelers, sending his shield at Rikki to knock her backwards. As he springs forwards to continue attacking, Gwen attempts to web him up from behind.
STEVE ROGERS: What are you, hydra?
He pulls the webbing to drag Gwen off her feet. Rikki gets back on hers.
RIKKI BARNES: Cap,listen!
She throws his shield back at him, but then Bucky comes running at catches it in mid-air. He throws it back at Rikki, who dodges it this time, and engages the young Bucky in hand to hand combat. They’re evenly matched, until Cassie suddenly appears out of nowhere behind Bucky, and knocking him out against the wall with the surprise attack.
RIKKI BARNES: You didn’t think to help Gwen first?
CASSIE LANG: I don’t want to fight Captain America.
Meanwhile, Groot has managed to stay out of the action,and has wandered over to where Howard Stark remains on the floor. The genius looks up at the towering figure.
HOWARD STARK: What the hell are you.
GROOT: I am Groot.
GWEN STACY: Groot! Why don’t you try doing your thing over here?
She makes the call for help as Roger continues having too much strength to firmly wap up, and she finds herself having to jump to the ceiling to avoid his hits.
GROOT: I am Groot.
Groot attempts to extend his branches out to trip Rogers, but the Captain easily avoids their grasp- leaping into the air to kick Gwen off the ceiling and into Groot. They both find themselves on the ground.
GWEN STACY: Ugh.
STEVE ROGERS: That’s enough. Explain who you are and what you want.
GWEN STACY: Look, Captain- we’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Suddenly a stranger’s voice rattles…
STRANGER: Oh no, you had perfect timing.
As everyone looks around to see where the voice rang from, the room is suddenly engulfed in red smoke. From her perspective, Gwen can’t see anything but the gas- and there’s the sound of glass shattering. She, and everyone else in the room, pass out.
Rikki is awoken by Bucky grabbing and holding her against the wall.
BUCKY BARNES: Now listen up, I’m only giving you one chance to explain yourselves, to explain all of it.
Rikki looks around the room and see they are the only ones up, the rest of her comrades out cold.
RIKKI BARNES: I will Bucky, if you just give me an honest chance to. Wait…
She takes another glance around Howard Stark’s suite to confirm- Steve Rogers is nowhere to be found.
RIKKI BARNES: What happened to cap?
BUCKY BARNES: That’s for you to answer, Agent of Hydra! When I woke up he and his shield were both gone. Surely taken by your mysterious comrade.
RIKKI BARNES: That wasn’t anything to do with us! My only “comrades” are the people still in this room. And we’re definitely not Hydra.
BUCKY BARNES: Then who to you claim to be? Anarchists? Communists?
RIKKI BARNES: I don’t know Groot’s political beliefs! Bucky, this might sound far fetched- but me and my sleeping friends are from the future.
BUCKY BARNES: The future? You expect me to believe that?
RIKKI BARNES: Bucky- that girl get shrink and grow back to normal size in an instant. That other girl shoots out spider webs. And that’s an alien tree. Do you really find it crazy that we’re from the future?
BUCKY BARNES: I can recall seeing some very strange things while fighting Hydra.
RIKKI BARNES: Then try remembering a time before you were fighting Nazis. Remember Rebecca Barnes. That’s my name, and tt’s the same one as your sister’s. Don’t you see a family resemblance?
Bucky is for a moment confused, then his eyes widen and he staggers back, letting go of Rikki.
BUCKY BARNES: I haven’t seen my sister in a long time. I’d have never…
He looks around the room- the sleeping heroes, the shattered windows.
BUCKY BARNES: So, you’re my…?
RIKKI BARNES: Granddaughter would be the simplest explanation.
BUCKY BARNES: And you were sent here from the future?
RIKKI BARNES: Basically kicked here by this evil floating head. We really don’t know anything about this kidnapping guy. My guess is he just used us as a useful distraction.
Gwen begins to stir, slowly getting up.
RIKKI BARNES: Gwen, things have cooled now. But Captain America is missing. We have to help find him.
BUCKY BARNES: You’re going to help?
RIKKI BARNES: I don’t have a good plan for getting back to the future anytime soon, so rescuing Captain America seems a good a next move as any. You in Gwen?
GWEN STACY: Sure, I’ll help find your weird white version of Captain America. I can swing around the city, see if I find any signs of him.
RIKKI BARNES: Don’t bring too much attention to yourself. Superheroes swinging around New York wasn’t as common these days.
GWEN STACY: I’ll keep that in mind. And I guess hope Kendra has a change of heart while I’m at it.
RIKKI BARNES: I have a good feeling about that- MODOK told her to send us to another dimension. Maybe this is an alternate dimension, but it doesn’t feel like it- and we should know what dimension traveling’s like. She could have sent us sent us somewhere we’d have died instantly, but instead she sent us to Captain America.
GWEN STACY: You think she meant to help us somehow?
RIKKI BARNES: I don’t think she had that much control of her powers. It just seems like a good sign. She’s not a killer.
Gwen nods, and heads off out of the shattered window.
BUCKY BARNES: I don’t think I’m getting a lot of what’s going on here.
RIKKI BARNES: Well, it is complicated.
BUCKY BARNES: It really knocks me out, though.
RIKKI BARNES: What does?
BUCKY BARNES: Well, war’s in the endgame. It looks like we’re going to win. People feel better than they’ve had in a while. But I’ve still always had the feeling I wasn’t going to make it to the parade. And I’ve been ready for that. But you being here means I get to live, grow old after all.
RIKKI BARNES: Yeah, well, you sure do get to live Bucky Barnes.
Bucky Barnes floats in open space- a strange vacuum of pink light. He blinks his eyes open, and looks around in confusion. Above him, he sees pieces of the SHIELD Base- ripped apart, floating around. He looks down, and sees MODOK floating up towards him.
BUCKY BARNES: Modok, what the hell is going on?
MODOK: Too far…
BUCKY BARNES: What?
MODOK: I pushed the test subject too far. Control has been lost.Now there can be no escape. In here she controls all.
BUCKY BARNES: What is here?
MODOK: Kugelblitz. The test subject has gone Kugelblitz. The Kugelblitz will devour all the earth, if it has not already.
BUCKY BARNES: Then I have to get her to stop.
MODOK: No use. No use.
BUCKY BARNES: She said she knew me.
MODOK: The test subject knows you well. You recommended the experiment.
BUCKY BARNES: I what?
MODOK: You warned SHIELD of what was coming. You informed SHIELD of the steps that had to be taken. SHIELD tasked me with their execution.
BUCKY BARNES: No, I wouldn’t have…
MODOK: You saw as I did that it was necessity. Create a destroyer or be destroyed. When SHIELD feared your mind had been compromised, their gravest concern was who else now knew of project Kugelblitz.
BUCKY BARNES: Why are you telling me this?
MODOK: It is of no consequence what you now know. You will soon be destroyed, as I will. There is no escape.
Bucky watches MODOK continue to float up. Far above in the open space, Kendra stands with her energized white eyes on a single rock. With the gesture of her hand, she pulls MODOK up to meet her.
MODOK: Child, I have no regrets. I was the perfect master. Precise, purposeful, dictative. You were an imperfect test subject.
Lights flickers around Kendra like fire. Out of her begin to sprout tentacles of pure white energy. They extend out, and begin to wrap all around MODOK. They begin burning him as soon as they touch him.
MODOK: MODOK is unconcerned by pain! My mind is too advanced to be troubled by pure sensations. MODOK is endowed with noble purpose, and is above…
They light begins to constrict and constrict him, making it more difficult for him to communicate.
MODOK: You… You may have grown more powerful than MODOK, but you… you shall never know the truth MODOK knows! You will never have the intellect to… to comprehend what MODOK comprehends. You will only ever be…
Finally he is unable to speak any longer, and simply screams- the pressure of the energy binding him tightly becomes to great, and MODOK bursts into a wave of golden light. Kendra shows no emotion.
Nick Fury is in helicopter, looking down on the scene- the giant ball of light that has engulfed the part of the New Mexico desert where a secret SHIELD base once stood. A SHIELD scientists comes up besides him.
SCIENTIST: Sir, we have an update. Good news, we think.
NICK FURY: Tell me the honest truth. Do you really have any more of a hell of a clue about this than I do?
SCIENTIST: Well, no sir- I mean, we have projections.
NICK FURY: And what do your projections indicate?
SCIENTIST: They indicate that in the event of a full kugelblitz being generated on the surface of Earth, by this point the Earth itself should be well on its way to being destroyed.
NICK FURY: I thought this was supposed to be good news.
SCIENTIST: Well, clearly, those projections were wrong- because the Kugelblitz has not yet apparently affected anything but the area it was generated in.
NICK FURY: So, the fact that you were wrong about how this hypothetical situation would play out, gives you confidence that we’re all going to be okay?
SCIENTIST: Relatively more confidence, sir.
Another agent comes up behind Fury with a phone.
AGENT: Agent Coulson calling, sir.
Fury takes it.
NICK FURY: Agent Coulson, I assume you’re well aware of the situation in New Mexico.
PHIL COULSON: Quite aware, sir.
NICK FURY: So you aware that this better be a good use of my time at this particular moment.
PHIL COULSON: Are you actively dealing with it,sir.
NICK FURY: Not really. The scientists don’t sound like they understand it. So god knows what’s going on inside of there. So we’re just sitting on our hands for now.
PHIL COULSON: Well, in case we do dodge this particular imminent apocalypse, I think I do have some useful information.
Coulson is the hotel room he first confronted Bucky Barnes in, surrounded by other agents.
PHIL COULSON: I looked into the fingerprints from the scene of Derek Freeman’s murder.
NICK FURY: We weren’t ever able to find a match for those. Presumed to be someone off the grid, and there’s too many of those to really narrow it down.
PHIL COULSON: Of course, someone off the grid. Or someone who’s prints we had, but who had some means of getting them off records. Identifying them was a shot in the dark no matter. And I decided to take a shot.
NICK FURY: And?
PHIL COULSON: Bucky Barnes conveniently left us some nice samples all over this hotel room where we had our pleasant meeting with him. So I thought I’d take a look at it, just out of curiosity.
NICK FURY: Coulson, if I’m hearing your smug tone correctly- you’re saying it’s a match?
PHIL COULSON: You sound confused.
NICK FURY: Kendra claimed the man who killed her father- well, she didn’t claim or say much of anything. But the implication was he didn’t exactly make it out of there alive.
PHIL COULSON: Well, all I’m telling you sir is- one way or another, that was James Buchanan Barnes’ finger.
Who kidnapped Captain America? Why did Bucky Barnes murder Kendra Freeman’s father? And what will happen when they confront each other inside the Kugelblitz? Find out in the next installment of The Invaders.