26 Chapter 26

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Caron Danvers looked down on the gibbering, stammering wretch that just moments ago had been The Sentry, the single strongest member of the Avengers, the best weapon they had against the reality warping mutant. And he had ripped away his powers while barely even trying to.

"Carol? Carol, this is really bad, we need to retreat! We're not going to be able to beat this guy on our own, just look what he did to the team!" Simon said quietly, and Danvers wanted to yell at him, to scream that Avengers didn't just give up, especially not because the odds were against them. But as she looked around, she found she couldn't really argue with him. Natasha and Janet were...unharmed, but still indisposed, if Ginnungagap had been telling the truth about where he sent them, Ares was beaten and bruised from his own attempt, and was still trying to wrench his axe from the lawn, to no success. And now, Robert was... well, in no shape to help either.

Carol felt a lump of rage build deep inside her chest as she looked at the mutant who was regarding her with a cold stare. He reminded her of another smug jackass who thought he could do whatever he wanted just because of his power. If she had been honest with herself, Carol would probably have realized that Ginnungagap didn't look or act anything like Marcus had, but at that moment, all she could see was yet another superpowered asshole who thought rules shouldn't apply to him. And she had dealt with enough of his type to last a lifetime. Her eyes drifted away from her foe, out over the X-Men watching the one-sided farce the battle had become, and she felt herself freeze.

There was Rogue. Just standing there, watching her humiliation. Rogue, yet another person who was responsible for making her life a living hell.

No. No, this was too much. She was not going to lose, she was the leader of the goddamn Avengers, she was a hero! She wasn't going to limp back to Maria Hill licking her wounds, she was going to beat this bastard, she was going to win because that's what heroes did!

"Simon" she said coldly "We will attack him at the same time, and use our full power, to increase the chance of overwhelming his defences. Put everything you have into one blast."

"Carol, it's not going to-"

"That is an ORDER, Simon!" she hissed, even as she began drawing on her power, her body surging with cosmic energies, begging to be unleashed. In her peripheral vision, she saw the red glow of Simon's ionic energy beginning to build, and in a flash of light, the two remaining Avengers surged forward, faster than the unpowered eye could see.

They didn't even make it halfway.

.....

It was only thanks to years of intelligence work having long since hardened her nerves that kept Maria Hill from falling out of her chair in surprise when two men materialized above her desk, before falling down right on top of it, sending her computer and her paperwork flying. It took her a few moments to recognize who had just interrupted her work.

"Mr Williams. Mr Reynolds. Could you please explain to me what you're doing in my office, why Mr Reynolds is in his civilian form, and where the rest of your team is?"

Williams sighed, his sunglasses hanging askew off his nose "The-the mission didn't go so great. Ginnungagap, he...he did something to Robert, he turned him back to normal, and I don't know what he did with Carol or Ares. I think Natasha and Janet might be on Hawaii though?"

Hill hadn't expected that "Hawaii."

"Yeah. We should probably try to find them, I don't think they're in any shape to find a ride back home on their own."

Hill just shook her head, writing a report for this shitshow of a mission was going to be a nightmare, she could already tell. "So you're telling me that almost the entire Avengers roster couldn't apphrehend a single mutant? Did the X-Men help him?"

Williams shuffled off her desk, helping Reynolds up along the way "Miss Hill, it was just him. JUST HIM! We only managed to touch him once in the fight, if you could even call it that, and that was because Janet managed to sneak up on him! And it didn't even work! This whole thing was a disaster!"

"Unbelivable" Hill sighed as she rubbed her eyes "You realize this reflects very poorly on your performance, Williams."

"My per-PERFORMANCE?! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME, WOMAN?!" Williams shouted in uncharacteristic rage "IT WAS A FUCKING MASSACRE! IF HE HAD WANTED US DEAD, WE WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ABLE TO STOP HIM! PERFORMANCE DOESN'T EVEN ENTER INTO IT! WE NEVER HAD A CHANCE!"

Hill blinked, surprised "Williams, control yourself! You're an Avenger, act like it!"

Williams hoisted the nearly comatose Reynolds over his shoulder and snarled "Not anymore, you can find someone else for your suicide missions, Hill! I quit! I'm taking Reynolds to get patched up, and then I'm out of here!"

"Williams, if you walk out that door, you won't like the consequences-"

"Oh for once in your life, shut the FUCK up, you insufferable shrew!" With that, Williams stalked out, carrying his teammate, leaving a stunned Maria Hill behind in the chaos of her office.

.....

The Mighty Hercules had seen and experienced things most mortals could only dream of throughout his immortal years, fought battles against monsters from the darkest nightmares, walked amongst the gods, travelled through realms only spoken of in myths and prayers. It was safe to say that few things could surprise him anymore.

Which made today a welcome change of pace, because the sight in front of him was extremely surprising.

"What in all of Hades...?"

The relationship between himself and his half-brother Ares had always been bad, partially due to the jealousy Ares felt over Zeus supposedly prefering Hercules over him, something Hercules himself would ironically have been happy to trade him, as there really wasn't much difference between Zeus parenting and Zeus not-parenting. Regardless, the two brothers had spent millenia at eachothers throats, a relationship that had only gotten worse once the Modern Age of Heroes had begun and Hercules had joined their ranks.

But in thousands of years, Hercules could honestly say he had never seen his brother in this state: lying on the ground, his armor dented and dirty, his face carrying a few bruises, but the most surprising thing was the material restraining the war god, a long, pink ribbon tied around his legs and arms, ending in a large knot on top of his helmet. On closer inspection, he also noted that someone had affixed Ares with a ballgag. A piece of paper was attached to the ribbon with a bright needle, and Hercules plucked it off, discovering it was a note.

"He's your brother, so I figured I'd let you deal with this prick, the ribbon will keep him powerless as long as he's tied with it. Maybe split him with Hephasteus, god knows that guy deserves to get atleast a few licks in.

- G.

P.S- Do you know anyone who is worthy of the power of Ares? I think I accidentally Mjolnired his axe, and now it won't budge from the lawn."

Hercules chucked as he finished the note, glancing down at his brother who was only know beginning to stir and notice his predicament.

"Well brother, I'd say I hope you learned something from this, but we both know you haven't. Atleast I'll have an amusing story for Athena next time we meet."

Ares could only growl unintelligibly from behind his gag.

.....

Maria Hill had just finished cleaning up the mess Williams had left her office in and resumed her paperwork when her communicator buzzed. Sighing, she pressed the answer button. "This is Hill."

"Ah, Miss Hill, we just got a rather strange call from Janet Van Dyne?" The voice of the agent on the other end said "She's requesting SHIELD transport from Hawaii, and two new sets of uniforms, one for herself and the other for Agent Romanoff."

"Yes, I've been expecting this call, tell them that we'll have them extracted within the hour."

"No ma'm, just Miss Van Dyne wants to return home. Agent Romanoff just requested the uniform, and informed us that she was "taking a few personal days on the beach". Miss Van Dyne didn't want to elaborate any further."

Hill gritted her teeth "Just prepare the transport and deduct the stay from Romanoff's vacation days."

....

The next thing Carol Danvers knew was red.

She blinked, staring uncomprehendingly into the red haze above her, finally realizing that not only was Ginnungagap gone, she was no longer standing or even flying. She was lying down, on a rather uncomfortable surface at that. Struggling to sit up, she found herself looking out across a rocky, barren surface, which seemed to just end abrubtly into the void some distance away, and surrounding the rock were other islands similarly just floating in space, suspended in the middle of the strange red haze.

She knew this place. She'd fought in this place. There was no mistaking the Negative Zone for anything else.

Danvers jumped to her feet, looking around desperatly for any kind of landmark, anything she could use to guess where in the Zone she had ended up, only to notice a note that had been tucked into one of her gloves.

"Not so fun to be on the recieving end, is it, Danvers? I thought about taking away your powers as well, but that would be a death sentence where you're going, so I decided to show you courtesy none of the prisoners you had thrown in here ever got. You might even be able to get back to Earth if you can find the prison, but the Zone is pretty big so I wouldn't count on it. On the off-chance we ever meet again, I suggest you have a better attitude next time.

- Love, G.

P.S - Rogue asked me to tell you you punch like a girl."

The paper disintegrating in her hand, Carol Danvers uttered a scream of rage that carried for miles across the empty space of the Negative Zone.