Chapter Forty-Six: Manifesting Destinies

The Scavenger
and
Goodwill
The End of the World As We Know It: Part II-6

“Oh Dear God in Heaven, what have we fucked up now?” Joe asked. He turned to CJ. “Are you somehow responsible for this, anomaly girl?” CJ held up her hands in protest.
“No, it wasn’t me- I swear! I mean, I think it wasn’t me.”
“Um, did you guys want to order?” the kid behind the counter asked.
“Butt out,” Joe insisted.
“This must be the Event I was sent back in time to stop!” CJ said. “This must be the warning I was meant to give you!”
“Okay, this whole thing has gone on long enough,” Joe said. “We need to talk, and we need to do it now.” He pulled the young girl by the arm into a nearby booth. “Now then,” he said as soon as they were both seated. “What’s this you keep babbling about the End of the World as We Know It or whatever?”
“Not the end of the whole world, Joe! Just your death! Maybe.”
“And you can explain this how?”
“Look, I know you don’t believe me, but I really am your daughter, and I really am from the future. And I’ve been sent back in time to keep one of you from dying. I don’t know for sure that it’s you, but I’m not going to take that chance.”
“Okay, for right now, let’s back it up. I’ll go ahead and believe that you’re from the future. But that you’re my daughter? How exactly does that work? I never really thought of myself as the daddy type, you know?”
“Yeah, I know. We’ve got ‘your type’ in the future, too, you know. No, actually I’ve been told that I’m the daughter of the impregnated clone of Kyle, inseminated by a clone of you, all courtesy of Mr. Sinister.” Joe shot Diet Coke out of his nose. Which was a good trick, considering he wasn’t even drinking Diet Coke.
“Say what?” Joe asked.
“You heard me,” CJ replied. “I’m biologically the daughter of you and Kyle, but I was raised by Chuck. And let me just say...” her voice softened for a second. “I’m glad I’ve gotten to meet my natural parents.” Then, she brought out the tough-girl act again. “That’s why I want you to be okay. And I want you to believe that your life is in danger.”
“Fine,” Joe replied. “But why don’t you think about it from my side? This isn’t even my home world, you know? And if Chuck makes it to the future, that tells me that we’re never going to leave! I’ve been a superhero since I landed in this fucking world, and my life is ALWAYS IN DANGER! So don’t tell me about the future, alright? I mean, what’s your big advice- ‘Try not to die’? Yeah, I’ll work on that!”
“Um, well... when you put it that way, it just sounds silly.”
“You think? And don’t even get me started on the whole time paradox/it’s going to happen anyway thing. It’s...” Joe’s voice trailed off as he looked at the gathering crowds. A whole mob, in fact, of angry-looking civilians was standing next to Joe and CJ’s booth.
“We heard about you on the radio,” the counterman said. “Don’t think we’re going to take too kindly to your evil alien plot to take over our world.” A few of the men beat their fists into their palms to illustrate the point.
“Look over there!” Joe shouted. The whole mob followed his finger. When they, as a unit, looked back, Joe and CJ were gone, escaped through the giant hole in the wall.

Out on the street, the situation wasn’t much better. Angry crowds were beginning to gather, though none were too anxious to attack once they saw Joe punch through the wall. Suddenly, from the sky dropped four armored figures- the Doomsquad.
“Oh, great!” the Scavenger said. “These guys again! Well, they won’t find the all-new, all-different Scavenger so easy to beat!”
“Especially with Goodwill at his side!” CJ and Joe jumped away from the Doomsquad’s strafing energy blasts.
“Goodwill?” Joe asked.
“Yeah- heroic ideals, lots of crap. It’s kind of like a pun.” Joe sniffled.
“You are my daughter!”
“Let’s waste these guys.”
As the Doomsquad swept back down for a second pass, Goodwill reached into the folds of her cape, and pulled loose a small baton. She waited until the lead attacker had swooped past again, then, with a flick of her wrist, shot a line of retractable cable from the end of the baton, which coiled around the Doomsman’s legs. CJ planted her feet, the cable snapped taut, and the Doomsman went zooming into the pavement. Goodwill’s wrist flicked again, and the cable went sliding back into its housing.
The moment the first of the Doomsquad dipped out of sight, the Scavenger went to work on the other three. Once, twice, three times, a beam of blue energy shot from his left hand. The boot jets of all three Doomsmen were clogged with ice, and the three dropped like stones to the ground. Somehow, the crowds seemed to back their would-be rulers, and booed at the sight of the Doomsquad falling. As the three remaining members of the Doomsquad struggled to their feet, the crowds surged forward. Suddenly, the sound of squealing tires drew everyone’s attention to an attractive young blonde in a cherry red sports car. The woman’s car roared into the center of the street, screeching to a halt next to the Scavenger and Goodwill.
“Get in,” she said. The heroes didn’t waste time arguing. Before the mob could react, the car was peeling away down the street. With their flight capabilities still hindered, the Doomsmen were unable to follow.
“That won’t keep them off our tails for long,” Joe said once the villains had vanished in the distance behind them. “But I sure do appreciate the save, Miss-“ He turned to see who had rescued him. His jaw dropped when he recognized her.
“Actually, it’s ‘Doctor,’” she said. “Dr. Stacy. I teach English at ESU. But you can call me Gwen.”
“That was incredible!” CJ said. “And very brave of you. Thank you.”
“Thank Doug,” Gwen replied, and for the first time, the Scavenger and Goodwill noticed the car’s fourth occupant, an unassuming young man in the back seat. “Meet Doug Ramsey, a very gifted student of mine with a knack for Linguistics. We were discussing his research project when we saw the trouble you were in. And Doug....”
“You were in trouble. Unfairly. Just because you’re different, those people assumed that you were evil. But we saw those guys shoot at you first- you’re good guys!”
“This is too weird,” said the Scavenger. “I mean, on our world...” He let the thought trail off without putting words to it. There was an awkward silence for a moment.
“We’re here,” said Gwen. The car was stopped in front of a beautiful townhouse in the middle of the city. “My apartment should hide you guys for a little while- at least long enough to get your bearings.”
“And we owe you our thanks again,” said the Scavenger. “I was beginning to think we didn’t have a friend in this world.” The group piled out of the car, and made their way in to Professor Stacy’s apartment. Gwen offered her guests a place to sit, and Joe took the opportunity to CESU back into street clothes. Gwen disappeared for a second to bring everyone drinks, and when she returned, she brought more news.
“It seems there are folks like you two cropping up all over the city,” she reported. “And they’re turning the place upside down. It’s a full-scale invasion from another world.”
“I don’t think so,” Joe said. “Not exactly. I’m getting some... feeling... about this mess from the bond Chuck and I have. If I’m putting it all together right, I think that this is still our world, or you know, the world we were in yesterday. But, Dr. Doom- a nasty villain- has gone back in time to prevent the Celestials from coming to Earth. No Celestials means no Seed, and that means no superpowers for anyone.”
“Except you?” Gwen asked.
“Well, I’m from another dimension all together.”
“I’m from another dimension,” said Doug and CJ.
“Cute,” said Joe. “ANYway, it stands to reason that I wouldn’t be affected. And, then, it follows that CJ would be spared, too.”
“So what are we going to do?” CJ asked.
“Well, we can’t go out on the streets, that’s for sure,” Joe answered. “In our costumes, the crowds naturally assume that we’re part of the ‘invasion force.’ So we’ll just have to discreetly round up any other superpowered folks we can find, and then make a run at the Latverian embassy. I’m sure that’s where Doom’s plan is headquartered.”
“How can we help?” Gwen asked.
“No offense,” Joe said, “But I’m not sure that you can. I mean, you kicked a lot of ass in the Age of Apocalypse, but that was a different kind of world all together.”
“That was a different kind of world,” said Gwen, Doug, and CJ.
“What if we had really powerful weapons?” Doug asked. “CJ, can you pull more things Gwen and I could use out of that cape of yours?”
“I’m not really sure,” CJ said. “Sometimes these things can be unstable. It’s worth a try, though.” She reached into her Negative Zone cape, and pulled out four glowing syringes.
“What are those?” Joe asked.
“I’m not sure,” CJ said. “I’ve never seen them before. But look- they’re marked with names. ‘Ben Brixton,’ ‘Sarah Bentley,’ ‘Dylan Bauman,’ and ‘Carlos Martinez.’”
“Those are the names of the four people Spiral kidnapped a while back!” Joe said with a start. “She took their Celestial Seeds. With those vials, we could give four people the ability to get superpowers!”
“So we just have to find those four people,” Doug said.
“No,” said Joe. “They’d just lose their powers as soon as they got them, what with Doom manipulating the world back at the dawn of time and all.”
“We need anomalies,” CJ said. “People who shouldn’t exist in this world at all, but do somehow anyway. People like...”
“Too freakin’ weird,” said Joe. “Of all the coincidences....”
“It’s us, isn’t it?” Gwen asked. “In your world, you were going to say earlier- we’re dead, aren’t we?”
“Yes,” said Joe. It sounded harsh, but it was beginning to look like the only way. Gwen pushed up her sleeve.
“Then stick me,” she said.
“We can’t be sure,” Joe said. “We don’t have any idea what’s going to happen. The conflicting DNA- it could kill you. Painfully.” Gwen swallowed hard.
“I didn’t get really serious about studying back in high school,” she said. “Not until this kid, this guy I sort of knew, named Peter Parker, died. He was shot. His uncle surprised a burglar. The man shot. Peter jumped in front of the bullet to save his uncle’s life. Peter taught me that even with no power at all must come great responsibility. Let’s do this.” CJ handed the vial to Gwen. Gwen inserted the needle into her forearm, and pressed the plunger.
She dropped to the floor, screaming in pain. Her body twisted and writhed, seemingly moving beneath her skin to its own accord. Then, there was silence from Gwen. A moment later, she stood up. She wasn’t Gwen anymore.
She was shorter now, certainly, and her hair wasn’t blonde anymore- now it was dark brown. Her build was a little plumper, her face more rounded. Joe was the only one who could possibly figure it out. After a few minutes of staring, he did.
“You’re not Gwen!” He said. Before anyone could stare at him, puzzled, Joe continued. “But you’re not Sarah Bentley, either. You’re sort of a mixture of the two. Both bodies, jammed together. Hello?” The new Gwen/Sarah spoke, as though unsure her voice would work.
“It’s me. Call me Sarah, call me Gwen. Either way, I remember... the injection. And I can feel it- the power’s here inside of me. I am... Dreamboat Annie!” Joe and CJ just looked at one another. Slowly, they turned to face Doug.
“Your turn.”
Doug’s transformation was a little less painful... to watch... since the heroes knew it would end successfully. When Doug stood up, a little taller and a little thicker thanks to Ben’s build, he flashed his sparking eyes and pronounced himself Electric Youth. Moments later, the walls of Gwen’s apartment came crashing down.
“Give yourselves up, freaks!” blared the synthesized voice of one of the three remaining Doomsquad agents. His hand-mounted photon cannon shot white-hot light at CJ, but a quick leap to one side spared her from frying. Doug/Ben and Gwen/Sarah didn’t waste any time putting their powers to work. Electricity sparked from Electric Youth’s eyes and hands, catching one of the Doomsmen in an arc of powerful energy, which blew every fuse in the villain’s super-powered armor. The other Doomsquad member simply howled in terror, and stripped the costume off of himself when Dreamboat Annie’s powers left him thinking that he was trapped inside the armored shell with small ants, rats, and other vermin. The last member of the Doomsquad, the one who’d initially fired on Goodwill, fell through Gwen’s floor when the Scavenger applied his fist to the top of the man’s head.
“Well, that was eventful,” said CJ.
“Looks like we’re going to have to move again,” said Electric Youth.
“Right. We’ve still got two vials to use up,” said Dreamboat Annie.
“And I think I know just the place to go,” said the Scavenger. His eyes were fixed on a copy of this world’s Daily Bugle. On the front page, a massive pavilion was being constructed for a special visit from the President of the United States. Joe thought once more about Doom’s plan, and realized that they were needed in Central Park just as soon as possible.

It hadn’t taken Goodwill long at all to realize that since one of the Doomsmen took his armor off willingly, the heroes would be able to scavenge his boot-jets for their own purposes. With those jets strapped over top of his disco skates, then one hero in each hand and Goodwill on his back, the Scavenger was able to slowly but surely fly the party over the angry mobs and crowds, toward the pavilion in Central Park where the President was preparing to speak. It wasn’t very sleek, and it looked awfully shaky, but it was manageable, and would get the four heroes to the park faster than any other means at their disposal. The crowds shouted in panic and rage as they set down in the park, but the makeshift heroes wouldn’t be daunted. No one approached them. Several Secret Service agents pushed the President to safety behind his podium, and opened fire on the team. The Scavenger made no move to block the Secret Service agents, and laughed as their guns wilted as very large, ineffectual condoms. When the shock began to wear off, the Scavenger raised his voice over the din, and shouted.
“We are on your side! Mr. President, members of the invasion force are on their way here now, and we want only to help keep you safe. Will you please meet with us?” The crowd silenced itself, and after a long pause, the President picked himself up from behind the podium, and, with a wave of his hand, summoned the group to the front.
“I was a hero once myself, you know,” said the President. “I served in W-W-I-I. Lied about my age. President James Buchannan Barnes.” He held out a hand, which the Scavenger happily took. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“And an honor to meet you, sir,” the Scavenger replied. “My nom de guerre is the Scavenger, and this is Goodwill, Dreamboat Annie, and Electric Youth. We...” Any other introductions were lost, as the crowd once more began screaming in panic. From the skies dropped a brand new Doomsquad, a battalion of twenty troops in jetpacks and rifles, a massive eight-foot-tall robot with glowing red eyes, and not one, but five personages of the royal Dr. Doom. Fire and light scorched the earth all around, scattering people this way and that. Secret Service men, now weaponless, dropped left and right, shot through the head or chest by the weapons of Doom’s Guard. And then suddenly, the shooting stopped.
“Now, Mr. President,” said all five Dooms at once. “Surrender your country to the will of Dr. Doom, or your own life will be forfeit as well.”
“I’ll never turn the country over to a tyrant like you!” President Barnes roared.
“Electric Youth, you take the troops,” said the Scavenger. “Annie, the new Doomsquad’s yours. CJ, see what you can do about that big robot. I’m going after Doom. Watch each other’s backs, help out when you can, and remember that we don’t have to win right away, as long as we can keep from losing. Above all, keep an eye on the President. Let’s go!” He lead the way for his team, charging into battle.
His legs pumped with the strength of all Asgard as the Scavenger leapt into the air. He hurled his Wonder Glove with all the force he could muster, jamming it first into and then through the face plate of the nearest Doctor Doom. The Doombot’s interior circuits fell apart at once, and the robot dropped lifeless to the ground. The four remaining Doombots hummed as their on-board forcefields popped into life, and the Scavenger knew he wouldn’t be able to repeat that trick again.
Electric Youth raised both hands, and summoned two powerful bolts of thick lightning to tear through the front line of flying soldiers. Jetpacks malfunctioned left and right, and at least eight soldiers fell unconscious to the ground. The second wave of soldiers aimed their guns at this new threat, and fired as a unit. Electric Youth, taking a tip from the nearby Doombots, pushed the electricity out of his body into a wide arc, and beamed when the oncoming lasers splashed harmlessly off the electric field. Meanwhile, Dreamboat Annie sought cover, then tried to use her vermin trick on the nearest of the Doomsman. This guard was just a little bit braver, and tried swatting away the rats with a thick metal fist. When that same fist passed harmlessly through the rats, the guard began to get suspicious. Annie quickly faded the illusion away before she wasted all of her tricks on a man who wouldn’t buy them anyway.
“An illusionist!” the Doomsman said. “Though not a very good one!” That was all the inspiration Annie needed. She placed an image of herself over another of the Guardsman, but let it seem faded and dull. As the Doomsman she hadn’t yet tricked watched, Annie darkened the image and faded out the Doomsman, making it seem as though she herself were just popping into view. Convinced he couldn’t be fooled, the Doosman fired on his own teammate, dropping his partner with a point-blank plasma blast.
“That’s one,” Annie told herself.
Several shots from Goodwill’s laser pistol didn’t do much to improve their robot attacker’s mood. Unfortunately, they did no damage at all. The robot swatted at Goodwill again with his enlarged fist. Goodwill backpedaled far enough away from the robot that his fist struck only a glancing blow. Still, a glancing blow was enough to send her spinning back into Dreamboat Annie, just before the young illusionist could prepare another trick. The two women fell together in a heap.
“Annie and CJ are down!” the Scavenger shouted, skating away from his battle long enough to defend the two behind a Wonder-Glove forcefield.
“And I’m running out of juice!” Electric Youth replied, zapping a few more troops with his dwindling energies. “I think I need to recharge before I’m good for more zaps; that forcefield bit took a lot out of me!” As he spoke, Electric Youth inched closer to where the Scavenger protected the bodies of his fallen allies. Suddenly, to the horror of both men, a bolt of searing energy burst from the eyes of Doom’s enormous robot, engulfing the President in a blaze of fire. Jim Wilson screamed, and ran to his president’s side. The robot nonchalantly swatted the young man aside, knocking him next to Electric Youth, Dreamboat Annie, Goodwill, and the Scavenger. From all sides, Doom’s troops closed in for the kill.
“Jim!” the Scavenger yelled, picking up the two syringes from where they’d fallen, “We can save him! The President isn’t dead yet! I’m sorry, Jim, but we’re going to need your help!” Before the young aide could react, the Scavenger plunged the needle into Jim Wilson’s arm. Jim howled in pain, and kept howling even as the sound stretched into something inhuman... something animal. The Scavenger pressed the needle into the Deaf Leopard’s hand. “We need your agility to reach him, Jim.”
“What?” Carlos asked.
“Nevermind.” As shots rebounded on all sides of him, the Deaf Leopard wove his way in and out of Doom’s troopers, minions, and simulacra, stopping only when he arrived at the side of the dying President. He stabbed the needle into the President’s chest, pressed the plunger, and prayed. Moments later, the Rock stood shakily by the Deaf Leopard’s side. They were quickly joined by their remaining four allies, blocking incoming attacks and returning fire as best they could manage.
“Well, I suppose the President’s as saved as he going to get,” the Scavenger remarked. “And we’re getting our asses kicked. If anyone’s got any ideas, now’s the time for them.”
“I’ve just got the one idea,” Goodwill offered, showing the Scavenger the red and yellow matched pair of lightning bolts she’d pulled from her cape.
“Use ‘em,” the Scavenger ordered. Goodwill threw the lightning bolts onto the ground in front of the party, and- in a flash!- they vanished.

“Well, that was embarassing,” Joe noted a few minutes later in the safety of a nearby home, deserted by its owners at least for the time being.
“We’re all new at this,” Dreamboat Annie offered.
“And we were completely unprepared,” Goodwill suggested.
“Plus- hello!- it was Dr. Doom!” Electric Youth excalimed, exasperated. “We’re not exactly designed to be superheroes, let alone heroes who fight Dr. Doom.”
“No,” Joe said, shaking his head. “No, you’re wrong there. I watched eight brave souls sacrifice a part of themselves today to try to keep a bad man from doing a terrible thing. Everyone in this room is a hero. And you know what else? We’re not done yet. Doom took a wonderful, beautiful world- a world where people can fly- and he twisted it. He turned into a world where people only dream about that kind of magic. I love my home world, but to do that to the Marvel Universe- it’s not right. Doom turned this world all wrong, and we’re going to have our revenge. They’re gone now, but we’ll replace them. From now on- we’re the Avengers!”