AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!!! in the CU

[Mark Rand]

Wealthy playboy James Harmon woke up in a cold sweat. The dream had been a wild one. He had been standing before an alien presence that told him he'd been chosen to wear a special battlesuit of red and gold nanotech armor that he could summon by act of will, and he summoned it.

As he shook himself awake, his live-in housekeepers, Catherine and Wendy Brooks, entered with breakfast.

"Sit, ladies," Jim said. Once they did, he told them about the dream.

"Maybe it wasn't a dream," Wendy said. "Yesterday afternoon, you told me about having some kind of metal ball pop in your face at the lake shore."

"Interesting thought. I'll try and summon the armor." He did. Now, I'll try and vanish it again." He did that, too. "Now what? How can I use this to help people?"

"You're a superhero," Wendy replied. "Right, Mother?"

Catherine looked at her daughter, smiled, and replied, "Yes."

"Give me a few minutes to get myself together, then we'll talk about it, over breakfast, in the kitchen."

"Wery good, Sir," Catherine said. "I'll gather these things and we'll wait you there."

They hammered out the basics. A new superhero team, the Avengers, would be formed to protect the world. The Harmon Foundation would fund it. Guardian, Jim's heroic identity, would be its first leader. Wendy would clean the house and be in charge of the support staff.

[OddHat]

Re: AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!!! in the CU

 

An alternate CU Avengers might be fun. Not sure about using established CU characters, but what the heck:

 

“THUMPER GOD! THUMPER GOD! THUMPER GOD!â€

 

The crowed roared, and Brad Powers raised his fists in the air and reveled in it! Lightning exploded from the sky, grounding itself in the huge, heavy hammer clutched in his fists! The crowd roared again, as Brad remembered just in time to pull down a blast of freezing rain to put out the fire on the now ruined dome. He didn’t want a repeat of all that bad press from Cincinnati.

 

The Incredible Sulk, Brad’s defeated opponent in the Unlimited Class Wresting Federation, was hauled off by a team of burly paramedics as Brad soaked up the cheers. The ring announcer came towards him.

 

“An amazing fight Thumper God! Amazing! Would you be willing to share one more time with us the story of how you received your incredible powers, the powers that have made you the UCWF’s undefeated world champion!â€

 

Brad grabbed the mike, holding back the urge to punch the fat little man so hard he’d break. One more law suit and he’d be out of the UCWF, and that was something Brad could not face.

 

“How did I get my Thumper God Powers! Do You Really Wanna KNOW!â€

 

“YEAH!†roared the crowd.

 

Brad didn’t dare tell them the truth. How he’d been working drunk down at the construction site one day when he lost control of his bulldozer and knocked over some stones blocking a weird little cave in the side of a hill. Inside the cave had been a boat, and in the boat was a dead man. A dead man in old, rotten furs. Still not sober, Brad had taken the huge and ancient hammer from the dead man’s hand. Brad cried out as a shock ripped through him. Even as he was hurled away from the hammer Brad’s already large muscles swelled with power, his bones thickened, and every hair on his body burned away. That sobered him up. Somehow he knew that he’d need the gauntlets to hold the hammer safely, the belt to have the strength to use it, the helmet to master its secrets. Brad didn’t understand his own actions then, but he dressed himself in the clothes of the dead, and strode forth to find a pair of goats tied to a cart. Still dazed, he stepped in the back, and the goats flew him back to his mobile home.

 

The next morning when he woke up Brad swore never to touch tequila again. As he added vodka and even his beloved Jack Daniels to the list, Brad found the hammer, helmet, belt and gloves next to the bed, and noticed how he looked in the mirror. After he stopped screaming, Brad also noticed that a pair of goats had eaten most of his old beer can and pizza box collection.

 

At first the runes on the hammer meant nothing to Brad, but with the helmet on he could read them. “Whosoever holds this hammer shall have the power of Thunder.†There would be changes, Brad thought with a wild grin. Big changes. First, he’d get back to the work site and kick five kinds of living hell out of the frickin' foreman! Then, he’d … well, he’d figure that out later!

 

The goats could still fly, and in his full Thunder God suit Brad loved the feeling of riding in that frickin' ugly cart. Just as he was swooping down to rain terrible vengeance upon the man who had dared to dock him a days pay for showing up late, drunk, and in the nude, Brad saw a gang of losers in green uniforms coming out of a nearby bank with bags of money! Money! Greed overriding vengeance, Brad swooped down and busted heads! He’d never felt so strong! Bullets were bouncing off of him thanks to the helmet, and the boys in green went down in seconds! Brad was about to load up his cart and scram when a voice shouted out at him! The voice of a beautiful girl, a lady with eyes like sapphires and a body like, well, like a body that Brad would like to get to know better.

 

“That was incredible!†the babe breathed, and Brad flexed his newly enhanced pecks in case she hadn’t noticed them. “Listen gorgeous,†said the babe, “I’m a manager for the UCWF, and you are magnificent! Drop that chump change and listen to me!â€

 

Brad listened. It was a dream come true. This incredible woman, Lisa Epstein, would make Brad Powers a star, and make him rich! All he had to do was use his powers to wrestle, and do some charity work beating up losers like these guys in green once in a while. Brad agreed then and there, and walked off with a $50,000 retainer in cash. Instead of beating up his foreman, Brad put his gear back in the trailer and went on a colossal drinking binge. Even without the gear he was still stronger than he’d ever been, and so it was three thirty in the morning when he passed out in the tattoo parlor.

 

When he woke up in the alley the next morning, “Thumper God†was tattooed in thick black letters down his right arm. One fickin’ mistake, and now he was named after a rabbit!

 

Thumper God looked out at his wildly cheering fans, and lied.

[Mark Rand]

Re: AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!!! in the CU

 

As the weeks passed, The Avengers began to take shape. Warder, a mage, who was about to build her fastness, agreed to join and offered the fastness itself as a headquarters. Guardian agreed, if he could help design the building. Warder had no problem with that.

The Harmon Foundation agreed to sponsor the team.

Harmon Industries electronics engineer Mariko Nakamura, a formner Olympic gymnast who raced cars for fun, came aboard as the team's technical manager. After accepting, she told Jim that she was also a ninja and would be willing to join the team as a reserve member. He agreed.

Jim was then informed that the DOSPA, Department of Homeland Security and PRIMUS would all be sending liaisons. Of the three, the DOSPA liaison would be the team's official U.S. government liaison. The others would just be assisting.

[Mark Rand]

Re: AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!!! in the CU

 

The DOSPA assigned Denise Dumont to the team as liaison. Christine Hunter is Homeland Security's liaison. Beth Davies is the PRIMUS liaison.

Denise is a bureaucrat. She does, howevrer, carry a gun and knows how to use it.

Beth is the same character Shelley presented in the Digital Hero issue 6 PRIMUS Update.

Christine went to college to get a degree in acting. In one play, she was assigned to portray a fashionably-dressed woman in 1902 Boston. Knowing she'd have to wear gloves all the time while playing her character, Christine asked her mother, a fashion model turned hair stylist who owns her own salon, for help. After her mother taught her how to do everyday tasks with gloves on, Beth decided to stay gloved while preparing for the role. By the time the play was over, Beth discovered that she liked wearing gloves and decided to stay gloved at all times.

After college, she was recruted by the CIA and became a field agent specializing in black-bag jobs. She later transferred to Homeland Security, where she was assigned to the Avengers as the agency's liaison.

[Starlord]

Re: AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!!! in the CU

 

I've briefly toyed with writing some short stories starring the Avengers with alternate histories in the CU. It began with Captain America being active starting in WW1 all the way through WW2 and disappearing near the end. Curiously, Dr. Destroyer disappears at the same time. PRIMUS discovers Destroyer's secret WW2 arctic base in 1990. They discover Destroyer (who would have been much less physically powerful back then) and Cap frozen in Destroyer's malfunctioning time machine while struggling with each other. They find notes suggesting Destroyer was going to use the machine to alter history and Cap was there to stop him. The machine was damaged in the struggle, but Destroyer tried to use it anyway. It malfunctioned while they were struggling and they've both been frozen in stasis for 45 years. A technician fools with the controls and they are freed. Destroyer escapes and Cap is taken in by PRIMUS.

 

 

Some of my other ideas were:

 

- Wonder Man is used similarly to his Marvel origin except it's Destroyer, not Zemo who uses him to infiltrate the team.

 

- Mechanon creates Vision

 

You get the idea, the other Avengers are modified to fit the CU timeline and basic power level, etc.

[Mark Rand]

Re: AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!!! in the CU

 

I like your idea, Starlord.

If you ignore the point limits, and in this campaign I am, Iron Man just needs a change of hunteds.

The Maria Stark Foundation could easily sponsor the team and much of the medical and technical support staff could come from Tony Stark's companies.

The team's two reservists could be a sorceress, whose fastness the team is using as its base and a female ninja with mystical abilities who just happens to also be the team's technical manager.

The sorceress's housekeeper could replace Jarvis.