(Earth. One million years ago.)
We see Odin and the prehistoric avengers standing together as Odin held up a goblet of mead "here's to endings! And to good deaths for all us!" He boomed and downed the goblet of mead and wiped his mouth.
A woman with red hair looked at Odin quizzically, she wore a bear pelt and loin cloth with a type of toothed necklace. "Is now really the time for drinking, Odin?" She asked.
"I would imagine your two eyes work better than my one, lady Phoenix, so I assume you can see what stands before us. In which case, aye, 'tis a very good time for drinking." He answered.
A man with short spiky hair that looked like a apeman, with a strange symbol on his chest made a grunt "uunk?"
A tanned woman wearing all green with a ponytail seemed to understand the man despite him just grunting and spoke "the starbrand wishes to know, what is this strange liquid that smells of sweetness and fire?"
Odin chuckled "ah, if you thought fire was a fine gift Of the gods, then here, ape-man, try fermentation. I'm just sorry I'm only giving it to you now, On the eve of our destruction."
A man with a flaming skull for a head scoffed at Odin's claim that this would be their destruction "destruction? We killed one of these things before! We can do it again! The spirit of vengeance doesn't know fear! And neither does my ride!" He proclaimed as his fire burst from his fist and his ride a large wholly mammoth was also ablaze.
A man with long black hair wearing a red cloak with a green gem being held around his chest with many tree vines spoke "the one we fought before was weakened. It was infected with something...even the sorcerer supreme still cannot explain. These new ones are not. And they know what we've done to their compatriot." He pointed out.
The ponytailed woman stood on top of a rock and spoke "we acted only in self-defense, agamotto. We should explain ourselves and attempt to broker peace." She suggested.
A man in a black panther cloak with a all black loin cloth shook his head "we did what we had to do to protect our homes, iron fist. The black panther will not apologize. Not even to gods." He proclaimed.
The man known as starbrand easily crushed the goblet Odin gave him in his hand, after he had some fermentation and let out a mighty roar "RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGH!"
The ponytailed iron fist looked over at starbrand "it would appear the starbrand agrees. Either that, or he wants more of Odin's fire water."
Odin started walking over to a large barrel that held all of the mead and saw a group of primitive cavemen eying the barrel with interest. "And it seems he isn't alone. Might as well drink up, you doomed little monkeys. That's four-thousand-year-old asgardian mead. Seems a shame to let it go to waste."
Lady Phoenix snickered "I've never known you to concede victory so easily, Odin. No matter the odds or how unimaginable the foe. Is our annihilation truly such a forgone conclusion? Will the vaunted all-father of Asgard not even fight?" She asked as she floated to the ground a fierce cosmic flame following behind her.
Odin dunked his goblet into the barrel "will I fight? Odin borson has never walked away from a fight in his entire immortal life. Aye, woman. I will fight. Until I've drenched the battlefield with every last drop of my holy blood. Until my flesh has burned away and there's nothing left of me but bones and thunder. I will fight until the final twilight. Until the end of all that ever was." He said with a warriors fervor, Odin then walked to lady Phoenix and caressed her cheek "and then, once it's all been laid to waste... my spirit will find yours in the void, my lady. And make love to you in the ashes of infinity for a billion years. And we will build creation again, you and I." He said.
Lady Phoenix batted her eyes at Odin "a fine idea, my dear asgardian. Or perhaps... ...perhaps we simply kill anything that dares stand in our way! Be it man or god or giants from the stars! We kill it with fire!" She declared as she took the skies above.
Odin started spinning mjolnir at incredible speed causing thunder to crackle off it "gods, I love that woman. Come, mjolnir! Ragnarok awaits!" He boomed.
Ghost rider got atop of his mammoth and spurred it forward "hyah! We ride!"
Starbrand leaped into action with a burst of bright red energy behind him and let out a roar "RRRRGGGHH!!!"
Iron fist, black panther, and agamotto stood side by side "agamotto. Use your magic eye and tell us... is there any hope at all for us to claim victory this day?" Iron fist asked.
"That depends, Iron fist, on what you mean by Victory. If you're hoping we can save the world, I would ask you... ...save it from what, exactly? This earth's greatest enemy might very well be the thing we fight to protect here today. The nascent life slowly flowering around us. And that includes us." Agamotto explained.
In the background three cavemen were fighting over the barrel of mead, one was trying to shove another out of the way.
"If you're asking me if there's a chance we will prevail in this battle, I believe you already know the answer. Those of us gathered here today are the impossible in physical form. Gods and mutants and monsters. Cavemen with the power of the stars. We are without a doubt the mightiest force ever assembled upon the face of this primitive planet. But no. We will not be enough. Not even close. Not to win. Not against that. But no matter what happens to us today, know that something very strange is occurring on this world and has been for a very long time. Something most profoundly unnatural. Something dangerous to a mind-staggering degree. Perhaps, my friend, we shouldn't be worried about what happens if we fail to save the world. We should be worried about what happens if we succeed." Agamotto said grimly.
As agamotto, Iron fist, and black panther stared at and the giants from the sky known as celestials. The three readied themselves for combat.
In the background the cavemen still continued to fight over the mead seemingly unaware that potential annihilation was literally right in front of them.
(Earth. Now.)
Constantine looked at Fury quizzically "avenger initiative? Ha! Look, I don't do teams all the baggage that comes with it is far to much trouble, far more trouble than it's worth actually. Besides I'm not exactly the kind of bloke, people want on their team, not with how I do things." He explained as he puffed out some smoke.
Fury shook his head "you don't understand, you might not have a choice. A threat is coming, and even you with all of your power won't be enough to stop what's coming. This problem requires the avengers, that's why the avengers were created, to face the threats no one hero would be able to withstand." Fury stated.
Constantine sighed this was a first an enemy that he wouldn't be able to beat on his own. It was hard to believe but he could tell Fury was gonna drop the matter which kinda hit home the severity of the matter.
Constantine took a sip of his drink "fine...I'll join your boy band, but you owe me, and another thing, I don't work for you. I take orders from no one, I'm gonna do things my way and if you can't accept that I swear to god I'm out." Ryan stood and took one last drag of his cigarette and put it out.
Fury gave Constantine a hard gaze but relented "fair enough..." he sighed, he wasn't in a position to be picky or start argue not with the fate of his world hanging in the balance. Yes his world he felt he could call it that, mainly because he had information about many things that were going on, on and off world and monitored everything so yes it was his world.
"Well first thing on the agenda, is where are my teammates and what exactly do we do? Nothings happening at the moment." He stated.
"Well, currently you and one other man are the only ones on the team. Actually he's here right now. Agent cheon meet Constantine, Constantine, agent cheon. Now that, that's out of the way there's something strange that happened in South Africa. A massive surge of energy, cosmic energy showed up on our radar." Fury explained.
Constantine chuckled "you expect me to help save the world and we don't even have a fully assembled team? What are me and this bloke gonna do when the trouble shows up? Throw rocks at it? And let me guess you want me and him to go investigate." Ryan said
"We're working on getting the rest of the team assembled but yes, but yes. We need you to investigate." He stated
Constantine sighed and walked out of the bar "well come on...then. We don't have all day." He gestured for agent cheon to follow him through a portal he created that would lead to where they needed to be.
Aven looked at fury "are you sure about this guy? Director fury?" He questioned and fury nodded "he is perfect to lead this team. He's just rough around the edges just give him time he'll come around (though I personally doubt that'll happen...) but it's worth a try."
Aven nodded and went through the portal and the duo ended up in South Africa.
(With shinji)
Shinji was in his workshop working on one of his drones. He worked in a simple space that he modified and improved over time. He has made several successful inventions, and his prowess was so great that he was even a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant, which was how he managed to upgrade his workshop and inventions so extensively. He even invested the remaining money to create an a.i. Named maid she often handled shinji's messages and emails so he could focus more on his work, the only way people were able to tell they were getting responses from an a.i. Was because maid responded incredibly fast.
Maid initially started out as just a text based program. But shinji as time progressed started expanding her capabilities. She now was pretty much sentient but still remained very loyal to her creator, she had the ability to act as a police scanner, and scanned the atmosphere for irregularities.
"Shin! I hate to interrupt but I've got something you'll want to hear!" Maid exclaimed.
Shinji looked over at the computer screen "go ahead, maid. What's the call? Jewelry store robbery? Car chase?" He asked as he was working on a new drone. This drone was going to be better, stronger, faster, and more durable than previous models. "Maid this model of the annihilator is going to be great. It's got turrets that handle heavy machine gun rounds, it can easily move faster than most cars, I believe the last test it clocked in a Mach-1. It's made of the highest quality metal and reinforced with refractory coating to ensure it can handle anything thrown at it, and the newest feature...energy shield!" He added as he clicked a button and a light blue transparent energy shield appeared around the drone.
"That's great shin, but you're gonna want to hear this!" Maid exclaimed urgently.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead." He gestured for her to say what she was going to say.
"I've got some rather alarming news. Satellites are detecting multiple energy fluctuations in near-earth orbit. Massive fluctuations. Quite ludicrously massive, actually. All of an unknown origin." Shinji stopped working mid-way and looked at maid "all right, which way, maid?" He asked.
Maid pointed up though she was in a computer "roughly 200 miles, shin... ....straight up." She answered.
(Meanwhile. Two miles straight down, beneath the plains of South Africa.)
"Well, it's an impressive dig site. And in the very cradle of civilization, no less. But I do hope you we didn't come here with archeology in mind. I ain't no archaeologist mate" Constantine pointed out as he and aven started making their way deeper into the dig site.
"It's not the ancient remains in this cave that fury felt warranted the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D. It's the fresh ones." Aven informed.
Constantine used a simple spell and made a ball of fire appear in his hand to light the way. "I see, I see."
The duo came across a pair of charred skeletons "those were the lead archaeologists for this dig. Experts in the early Paleolithic period." Aven pointed at the two skeletons.
Constantine looked over the two skeletons "it's a surprisingly high-risk field, archaeology. You never know what sort of cursed tomb or crashed skrull ship you're liable to uncover next. These poor sods learned that the hard way."
Aven used his ability to give him enhanced vision to see better in the dark "that's not what they found." He said as he walked over to a wall that had plenty of strange markings on it "their discovery emitted an incredible amount of cosmic radiation, even though it'd been buried here for a million years. It burned those men alive. And then somehow disappeared completely." He explained.
"What was it?" Constantine asked.
"That's what I need you to tell me, Constantine." Aven informed.
Constantine started to preform a spell to bolster his ability To sense magical energies and their origin or who cast them. "there was definitely magic in this place. Spells designed to keep something here and to keep others out. Very old magic. Holy bollocks... it was... agamotto's magic. He was the earth's very first sorcerer supreme." Constantine said.
"What happened to those spells? Why did they fail?" Aven wondered.
"All Magic has been on the fritz lately, the spells here were so ancient, they would've never reconstituted. As for the thing they were meant to guard...it was something quite large. Something...alive. Its fear still stains these walls. Fear and loneliness. And rage." He wondered what resided down here, what could feel such emotions that he'd only come to associate with demons and monsters, Constantine had taken care of many demons who felt indescribable amounts of hatred but this made those demons look like nothing.
"I agree that whatever it was, it was massive. At least 600 meters long, by my estimates. So the question then becomes... ...where did it go?" Aven mused.
"If it's 2,000 feet long, I don't think it escaped through those holes." Constantine pointed out.
"No, but something did. Black panther, the king of wakanda, sent a probe down into one four hours ago. It was 200 miles deep and still going when it became inoperable." Aven explained.
Constantine nodded at that explanation "melted, no doubt. The deeper you go, the more it's like the surface of the sun down there."
"The deeper we go, the closer we are to finding answers." Constantine said as he started to climb into one of the holes "guess I'll see you below. Unless you wanna leave this to those more capable than I'll see you when I get back, cheerio." He heckled Aven and dropped into the hole.
"Great. So if anybody needs me... ...I suppose I'll be at the center of the earth." Aven sighed and used his reality warping to remove the ground out from under him and started to drop to the center to the earth.
(New York: Greenwich village)
Jonathan Reese is seen walking with his friends Ana and miles from school "so when are you going to show us...show us this big thing. You said it's awesome and we'd have to see it to believe it." Ana repeated what Jonathan told them.
"I will...it's just...I'm feeling a little off today." Jonathan explained.
"How so? You got a cold or something?" Miles questioned.
"Nah...no. I just have a feeling like...the skies going to fall...or something akin to that will happen." Jonathan said looking up at the sky with a worried expression.
(Manhattan. The upper west side.)
Seren fiore was working in the cafe she was employed at and it was a relatively slow day. "Ugh... it's usually far more lively than this...is everyone just taking a day off from coffee? Not even our regulars have come in a today." She muttered.
" aww quit your moaning, It could be worse Ren." One of her co-worker said
Seren smirked "yeah, you're absolutely right, it could be worse. I could have this job and look like you." She hackled and some other co-workers started to snicker and giggle.
"Oh, I see you got jokes now? Okay, okay, you got me. Well played, well played." Her co-worker commended.
Seren looked at the clock "well it's about that time for my break. I'll be back." She said "wait? Where are you going?" One of her male co-workers asked "I'm just going for a walk. I'll be back." She said.
Seren started walking and when she was in a secluded location she used her gem stone and took flight. While others took breaks or cooled off by walking she flew in space. Due to her being asgardian she was more than capable of surviving in the vacuum of space without aid.
As she continued flying soon enough she saw a weird vortex start to open as she was flying. "What??? It's a vortex? Out here in space, are the Kree or skrull coming to invade again?!" She mused "well it doesn't matter, whatever is coming through that portal I'll punch them right back through from whence they came. Wait... sonuva..." she looked at what was coming out of the portal in shock in was a giant hand.
(Back with shinji)
"Shin, those energy anomalies in orbit, they're all suddenly spiking. And they look very much like teleportation nexuses." Maid informed.
" short them out. Hack into every satellite you can and attempt to short them out. If that doesn't work send out every disruptor drone We've got into orbit." Shinji said.
"I've already tried that. It doesn't appear to be working! Whatever's causing this, it's technology far beyond anything we've ever encountered." Maid informed worriedly.
"I've got to get up there! But this glider isn't made for space travel. But it looks like I won't have to go up...because whatever just popped through that portal is already coming down to me!" Shinji said as he took notice of the portal.
(Back with Constantine and Aven)
"We are miles below the surface. If it weren't for my powers, the pressure here would crush me into a puddle of goo and then the air would set that goo on fire." Aven stated as he floated down "how are you not...? Never mind, I nearly forgot. You're a magician or sorcerer or whatever terminology you use to describe yourself." Aven sighed as he landed.
Constantine scoffed "took you long enough." He said as he lit a smoke "they're not of this world." He pointed out and puffed out some smoke.
"That seems obvious." Aven snarked. "Yet it look as if they've been here for quite a long while." He added as he looked at several things that appeared to be egg sacks.
"I've used my magic to check them. They don't give off any life signs, they read as dormant." Constantine stated.
"Yes, to me as well." Aven nodded. However suddenly the egg sacks started to decay "though it appears not all of them for that memo." He added.
(Back with Jonathan)
Jonathan and his friends were nearly to his home 'I haven't gotten nearly any sleep, in the past three days. I kept having nightmares about things falling from the sky. I'm scared...I'm scared of these powers... I've had them sometime but I still have little to know idea of their full scope. I'm afraid of what they might turn me into...and what their doing to me. Turning me into a guy who dreams of impossible things, 2,000 foot tall space gods?and giant cockroach monsters I gotta get real, I have to get a grip on reality.' He thought.
Suddenly the ground started to crack open in front of Jonathan and his friends "what the...?" Jonathan voice in shock. "Run! We have to get out of here!" Miles yelled and started to pull Ana along and Jonathan attempt to run but before he could, giant cockroach like monsters emerged from the ground. Jonathan started to back away in disbelief "i know you...I saw you in my nightmare..." he said in shock he couldn't believe this was really happening than that meant that the...was the other part of his dream going to come to fruition?
Miles and Ana got corner by some of monsters who emerged in their area. Miles stood valiantly in front of Ana suddenly a torrent of fire ignited the cockroach like monster causing them to screech in pain "leave them alone! If you think I'm gonna let you lay a hand or a claw or whatever on my friends, then let me tell ya... I'm about to give you the fight of your miserable lives right here and now!" Jonathan said as fire encompassed his hands.
(Back with Constantine and Aven)
"Somethings happening." Constantine pointed out as more of the egg sacks started to hatch.
"What was your first clue?" Aven said sarcastically.
Aven heard a transmission in his earpiece "alpha flight's global warning was just triggered. There's some sort of disturbance in orbit."
"And there's about to be one here. I've got a bad feeling, you should prepare yourself." Constantine advised as he readied himself for a fight.
"We have to stay here and figure out—" Aven was suddenly cut off as hundreds of egg sacks started to hatch and pinchers burst out of them. "On second thought.. maybe we should get out of here." He said.
Shinji maneuvered his glider with finesse and grace "what in the...? What in the world is this?" He muttered to himself.
"Nothing of this world, I assure you." Maid said.
"Well whatever it is... ...it's not alone." Shinji stated.
It's revealed to be seren she managed to catch the space giant and prevent it from landing on Times Square. Her clothes were slightly torn and she was panting a bit.
"Hey! Are you alright?!" Shinji asked
Seren merely nodded at his question and stood again at her full height.
"Did you just kill this thing?" Shinji asked in surprise.
Seren shook her head "no. It was dead when it came out through the portal. All I did was keep it from landing on Times Square." She informed and looked back at the sky. "No time for chit-chat, the portal that thing came out of... ...there are a hundred more just like it!" She added as she flew off.
(Geneva Switzerland: United Nations building)
The endless amount of cockroach monsters were appearing everywhere as well as bodies of dead space giants falling from the sky.
Selina Sjøholt was holding back the horde as best she could and trying to save as many people in the UN building. One of the cockroaches got close and she took it out with her katana. The horde was easy to kill surprisingly but what she noticed is that they could become increasingly deadly in large numbers.
She was making her way through the building and suddenly she spotted someone trapped and rubble was about to crash down onto them. Selina ran to their aid and attempted to get them free. Selina managed at the very last second to save the person "y-you just saved my life. Thank you! Thank you so much!" The woman said with tears.
"Go, Find a way out! If you see any injured help them." Selina said and continued to run until she used her teleportation ability and was going to head to the heart of this problem.
Speakers everywhere around the world were broadcasting a message. "This is alpha flight to earth! To anyone on the surface who can hear us! Stand by for incoming! There are... giant dead bodies falling from the sky! All over the globe! Bodies that are 2,000 feet long!" The message started as all over the world large heavily armored bodies fell from the sky, London, Switzerland, New York, Africa, it was happening everywhere. "We've fired everything in our arsenal at them, but we can't even dent their armor! We... we don't know what to say, except... gods be with you down there, people of earth. If there are any gods left alive after today." The broadcast ended rather grimly.
Seren had caught another space giant and with considerable effort was able to stop it from landing on another populated area. She saw one of the giants was actually standing but this one looked rather menacing and she went to attack it.
Selina's teleportation worked and she appeared near the Hudson River she saw shinji staring in awe and probably a bit of fear at what was before him "hey! Do you know what the hells going on? There's cockroaches attacking the UN and...hey! Are you listening?!" Selina yelled "what are you even looking at?!" She snapped again. And she turned around herself and gulped "oh sweet mother of mercy..." she said.
"It's raining space giants, I've seen everything now. I've faced some pretty grim things and never once backed down...but I'll tell ya... ...this makes me wanna soil myself. I've never encountered anything like this, but from what my power readings are saying these guys have enough power to end earth with a snap of their two-Ton fingers. So the question is...the really very unnervingly scary question then becomes... ...if these things are so mind-bogglingly all-powerful... what the hell is strong enough to kill them?" Shinji said. As shinji was saying this we see Jonathan fending off hordes of locust with fire blasts, and we see aven and Constantine fighting against the locust at the center of the earth.
Seren attacked one of the space giants with her blasts but it did little to no damage and in fact it bounced right off its armor.
"I think that question was just answered for you..." Selina pointed out.
Shinji nodded "looks like It was..." he gulped.
(Earth, now. The final host.)
Shinji looked at the two women beside him "what do we do?" He asked.
"Simple, we fight. We fight until the Finish until there's nothing left. Because to them this is just some place...to us this is our home. If we can't protect it then we'll make damn sure to avenge it. People need us, people need heroes to rise up now more than ever. Even if it's only for today we are avengers when the world needs them most." Seren stated.
Selina looked at the two people and nodded "anything anyone want to add since we're essentially staring death in the face."
"Only one thing comes to mind," seren said as she started to hover above ground and she gathered energy into her palms. Selina unsheathe her katana, and shinji tapped his gauntlet a few times and several heavy artillery drones appeared as he hovered on his glider. "Then say it. And let's get to work." Selina said. "Let's do this..." Shinji exclaimed with a determined expression despite feeling a bit of fear.
Seren looked at the two people with her then at the dark celestials "AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!"
Next chapter: "Still Avenging After All These Years"