Marvel's Avengers: The Extinction Key, page 8
The sun was higher, the fog starting to burn away. Visibility was still terrible, but his other senses were tuned in. He could hear cars in the distance, airplanes overhead. Someone was hollering commands over on the docks.
He was set to turn around and work his way back when he noticed something in the rubble, something that gleamed a little brighter than the dim sunlight ought to allow. Bending, he touched it experimentally, then picked it up.
It looked like a bracelet or a wristband made of some lightweight red-gold metal. Odd markings were inscribed on it, reminding him of hieroglyphics of the sort he had seen in museum exhibits. The metal was bent; it looked as if it had been twisted off of someone’s wrist, but exerting a little strength on it proved it wasn’t all that flexible. Considerable force must have been applied to deform it like that.
Perhaps it was nothing. When he was a little boy, there had been a huge fad for all things Egyptian, spurred by the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb and the fabulous objects found within it. He remembered upscale ladies in “Egyptian” dresses and buildings with a papyrus motif. President Hoover had named his dog King Tut. There was one building on West 70th Street in Manhattan that was all pharaohs and sphinxes. It had seemed pretty impressive and exotic when he was young. Doubtless over the years he’d spent in the ice there had been dozens of such crazes based on ancient civilizations. What he held might be nothing more than a piece of costume jewelry that had gotten mixed up in the rubble.
But still—that thing Nat had been involved in. The metal tablet with a weird energy signature. Hadn’t that had symbols on it sort of like these? If so, it might be more than coincidence. He’d best hold onto it just in case.
Then the thing began to vibrate, and the inscriptions flared into fitful light.
Maybe this is something, he thought.
There was a thudding sound, off to his right. He strained his eyes into the mist, but still saw nothing…
Something flashed from the fog.
Cap instinctively threw himself to the side and backward as a long, glowing tendril curled past him. Twisting, he landed with his left hand down and finished the turn, vaulting to his feet. The lash licked back into the fog and he saw, emerging from the mist, the woman who was connected to it. Slightly built, she moved above the street with nearly blinding speed. Her outfit was mostly deep brown and green, tight like his own; an eight-pointed star glowed on her sternum. She wasn’t holding the whip, though; it emerged from her hand, a glowing, crackling strand of energy.
She came to ground and danced toward him, long brown hair flowing behind her as if she was underwater. Her whip flicked toward him. He raised his Vibranium shield, and sparks flew.
“The bracelet,” she said, in a soft accent he couldn’t quite place. “Drop it, for we have no quarrel with you.”
“You just tried to bushwhack me,” Steve said, hooking the object on his belt. “I think we have a quarrel.”
Wait, we?
He spun in time to see the other one, also a woman, charging out of the fog. This one was big, tall, probably twice his mass. He couldn’t tell if she wore blue body armor or if that was her own physique showing through, but whichever it was, she looked nearly as muscular as the Hulk. Two glowing projections curved from her head like horns. She had her head lowered, too, like a bull, but she didn’t finish her charge. Instead she stamped her booted foot on the street. Pavement cracked and jumped up in a line racing toward him.
An instant earlier, down had been where he’d left it, beneath his feet. Now it was suddenly behind him, as if gravity had suddenly shifted ninety degrees. He “fell” backward, kicking at the earth to try and slow himself, watching the grinning woman dwindle with distance until he smashed into the wall of a brick building. It knocked his wind out, but he didn’t have time to get it back.
The whip was slicing toward him.
As he twisted aside, gravity returned to normal and he fell back onto the street. He rolled, came to his feet, and hurled his shield at his muscular antagonist. Above him, the strands of energy sparked against brick.
Who were these people? Bystanders of the Hulk’s fight had described a lion-like man and some sort of intangible apparition, not a bull and a woman with a whip. These two were new. Were all four a part of the same gang?
Halfway to its target, his shield crashed into the pavement as if yanked down by an unseen hand. Cap hadn’t been standing still, though. He somersaulted over the flashing knout, weaving around its coils and launching himself at the wielder. His blow landed hard in her ribs, and she staggered back with a gasp, then fell. The whip flickered and went out. She wasn’t so tough, once he got past her weapon.
“Ab-Sin!” the other woman shouted. She stamped again, and Steve suddenly felt incredibly heavy, as if he was in an aircraft pulling multiple Gs. His legs quivered with strain and then refused to hold him—he fell to his hands and knees.
The extra weight didn’t stay with him long, but as he recovered the bull-woman crashed into him, headfirst. It wasn’t exactly like being punched by the Hulk, but it was damn close.
Letting his body go loose, he rolled with the blow as best he could. Momentum sent him past his shield, which he snagged and hurled at her. This time she didn’t have time to react, so it clocked her in the face and sent her tumbling back. He caught it on the return and threw it again, striking her on the chin as she tried to get up, and came along right behind it.
Cap was getting real tired of being a punching bag for these two.
As she heaved up his first punch landed in her gut, and then his second on the chin. It was like hitting a sack of cement, but she felt it, grunting and falling back before his attack.
Light flickered in his peripheral vision like the flash of tracer rounds. Then Ab-Sin’s whip wrapped around him. White-hot pain struck him to the bones as the lash lifted him above the ground. With a flick of her wrist, Ab-Sin sent him crashing to earth, then whipped him again, the bright strands curling around his arm. He tore free and staggered to his feet, but the bull-woman rammed into him, and he was chewing pavement.
Darkness closed in as his vision dimmed, and he tasted blood, bright and metallic. He struggled to get back up, but his body was too heavy. Ab-Sin leaned down, smiling, and took the bracelet from the belt.
“You should have just given it to us,” she murmured, “but your end was inevitable, eventually. None may oppose our purpose for long. Finish him, Guanna.”
The bull-woman loomed over him. He was so heavy his lungs wouldn’t take in air. Her horns blazed brighter, and her eyes became like flame. His pulse pounded in his ears, pumping far too quickly. She bent, pointed the horns at him…
There was a distant shout, and suddenly glowing rings appeared around him. At first, he thought it was something one of his attackers had done, just another nail in his coffin, but then he saw that Ab-Sin and Guanna were looking up, startled.
“Another time, Captain,” Ab-Sin said. She glanced at Guanna. “Go!” she commanded. She touched her wrist, and he noticed a bracelet there. At this distance it was hard to be sure, but it resembled the one he’d found. As soon as she touched it, she vanished. Guanna smiled at him grimly and then did the same.
Suddenly Steve was no longer heavy.
The glowing rings vanished.
He picked up his shield and turned around.
There was a man floating a few yards away. He wore a billowing red cloak, dark leggings and a tunic, and sported a neatly trimmed mustache and beard.
“Doctor Strange,” Steve said. “This is a surprise.”
“Captain America,” Strange said. “It’s good to see you again.”
Steve winced as he took a step, glancing back toward where his recent antagonists had vanished.
“Good to see you, too. I’ve got a feeling I’m lucky you showed up.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Strange said. “Help was already on the way.” His eyes shifted. There was the sound of something whirring through the mist. Steve spun.
Thor. The Asgardian touched down a few yards away.
“I thought I heard combat,” he said, standing ready to fight, eyeing Strange suspiciously.
“Yes,” Steve said, “but not with him. He saved my bacon. The other guys took off.”
“As you say.” Thor nodded and put his hammer in his belt.
“Do you know Stephen Strange?” Steve asked.
“Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme?” Thor said. “I’ve heard of you, but we’ve never met. Good day to you.”
“And to you, Asgardian.”
“Those who attacked you, Captain,” Thor said. “Have they gone far?”
“I don’t know.” Steve shook his head. “They disappeared. Whether they’re just invisible or went someplace else, I can’t say. They have these bracelets…”
“The same two villains as attacked Banner?” Thor asked.
“No,” Steve said. “Not unless they did a costume change. And I got the names of these two—Ab-Sin and Guanna.”
“I suspected as much,” Strange said. “Although I take no pleasure in being right.”
“You know these people?” Steve asked.
“Not personally,” Strange replied. “I know of them. Perhaps, now that Banner has returned, we should join the rest of your companions to discuss this in depth.”
“Banner?” Steve said. “We haven’t—” He broke off as a disheveled, half-naked figure appeared from a side street and stopped to stare at them.
“Cap? Thor?”
“Bruce. You’re okay?”
“Yeah. Listen. Monica—Monica Rappaccini. Have you seen her?”
“Not personally,” Cap said. “But I’m told she’s okay. She wasn’t hurt in the fight.”
Bruce nodded, closing his eyes. “Good,” he said. “Thanks, Cap.”
Steve nodded at the sorcerer. “Doctor, we’d all love to hear what you have to say.”
TEN
NATASHA and Tony were waiting in the damaged building. He didn’t see Tarleton or Blonsky. But Monica was there. Before Bruce could react, she rushed into his arms.
“You’re okay,” he said. “I—”
“Of course I’m okay,” she said. “You made sure of that. And you? Are you hurt?”
He shook his head, then held her.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Bruce said. “Two more of those guys just showed up. For all we know there are fifty of them. Tony said he arranged hotel rooms for you and George.”
“He did,” she said. “But I had to wait. To be here when you got back. I brought you some clothes from the apartment.”
He nodded and followed her back into her lab, which thankfully was untouched by the fight. She handed him a stack of clothes.
He pulled on the pants and unfolded the shirt.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She turned around. “For what?”
“Everything,” he said. “For the damage here. Blonsky…?”
“He survived. You saved his life.”
He sighed. “What about Tarleton? How is he?”
“He’s upset, of course,” she said. “But his lab was hardly touched. You ran them off before they had a chance to get past the security post. If it hadn’t been for you, things might have been much, much worse. I may owe you my life.”
“I don’t know about that,” he said. “But when I was up there in the woods, and I didn’t know… Monica, the thought of something happening to you is hard for me to take.”
“It’s the same for me,” she said. “It’s natural when you care about someone to try and protect them. But no one is ever entirely safe. This company is part mine. If you’re going to discuss what threatens us, I should be here. After that I’ll go to the hotel. Maybe.”
Then she pulled him in for a kiss.
When they backed up a little, he gazed at her for a moment. She didn’t have superpowers, but Monica didn’t need protecting, and he had no business suggesting that she did.
“You’re right,” he said. “Come on.”
* * *
STRANGE settled cross-legged onto the floor. No, he was floating just slightly off the ground. It made Steve uneasy. He’d once thought most of the odd things he’d encountered in his life could be accounted for by science and technology. Back in the old days, there had been few things that made him question that.
Then again, a hundred years before he was born, folks would have thought an airplane or a radio amounted to black magic. Just because he didn’t know how something worked didn’t mean there wasn’t a logical explanation for it. Yet some of the stuff he’d seen Strange do didn’t seem scientific at all, no matter what your perspective.
Like levitating without wires or what-have-you.
“I’ve been following a series of thefts,” the sorcerer began. “Art and history museums, private collections, curio shops, government repositories, and so forth. The objects stolen were of an eclectic nature. Most investigators—even those versed in such curiosities—wouldn’t notice a pattern. Even I didn’t at first, but in the past few months I have felt something… rising. An arcane power of an order I have not encountered before. A power not strictly of this world. It led me to consider these thefts with fresh eyes, and to develop a theory.” He turned his gaze. “Widow, your latest adventure proved quite fruitful for me—a turning point in my investigation.”
Natasha frowned.
“The tablet, you mean,” she said. “It had a weird energy signature.”
“Yes,” he said. “That, and the one who commissioned its theft, a man who calls himself Capricorn.”
“How did you know about any of that?” she asked.
The sorcerer shrugged. “I have my ear to the ground, you might say.” He paused, as if gathering his thoughts.
“The Captain was attacked by two women styling themselves as Ab-Sin and Guanna,” he said. “They are also known as Virgo and Taurus.”
That sent tumblers clicking in Steve’s head.
“Capricorn?” Steve said. “Virgo and Taurus? Why does that sound familiar?” Then he remembered. “Constellations, right?”
“Or Zodiac signs,” Tony added.
“Like in the newspaper,” Steve said, snapping his fingers. “The Daily Bugle used to run a column. A fortune-telling thing, right? My aunt read mine to me right before I went off to sign up for the army.”
“What did it say?” Natasha asked.
“Not to hold my breath, if I remember right,” he said. “I figured it was hokum, or maybe my aunt was making it up. After all, no one thought I would get in. Nobody needed magic to predict that I’d be rejected.”
“It is hokum,” Strange said. “At least the column in the newspaper is—but the Zodiac itself was known in Sumer and Babylon, and ages before those places were built. At that time it was known as the Mulapin, the Shining Herd, and it was very real indeed.”
“Hang on,” Tony said. “Are you saying these nutjobs that attacked Bruce and Cap believe they’re signs of the Zodiac?”
“It’s more complicated than that,” Strange said, “but the short answer is yes. From the description in the news, I believe the two who attacked Banner were Zibaana and Urgula.”
“Not that I check my horoscope every day,” Tony said, “but those don’t sound familiar. Are either of them compatible with Pisces?”
“The Greeks renamed everything,” Strange said. “The Shining Herd became the Zodiac. They renamed the signs, too. Zibaana and Urgula are now known as Libra and Leo.”
“One was like a lion,” Banner said. “I remember that much. Libra is scales, right? The kind you weigh things with? That doesn’t sound like what I saw. She was more—ghosty.”
“The portrayal of Libra, as justice holding the scales, is relatively recent,” Strange said. “Based on a misunderstanding of her true nature. In Baxol, where the constellation was first worshipped, it represented the aether, the unseen forces beneath the face of reality. You should not judge these beings based upon what Captain America so aptly called ‘hokum.’ These are ancient and terrible beings, gods in their own realms.”
“I am not familiar with any of this,” Thor said. “I know of stars, of course, and constellations, the shapes people see in the stars. They named one after me, you know, back in the old days – Thor’s Wagon. I used to have a wagon.” He looked a little wistful. “But of this thing you call the Zodiac, I know nothing.”
Strange shifted his regard to the god of thunder.
“The Zodiac is seen on Earth as a series of constellations,” he said, “found in the part of the sky known as the ecliptic—roughly the path of the sun through the heavens. The ancients instinctively worshipped the power that was represented there, though without understanding it. But later, the followers of the Shining Herd—the Zodiac—believed that those constellations embodied the cosmic order.
“They looked around at the Bronze and Stone Age kingdoms of their world and they saw disorder,” he continued. “War, chaos—nations ruled by the strongest, the most violent, not the wisest. They wanted something more—better, from their point of view. They desired to impose the cosmic order of the Zodiac upon all of the world, to create a sort of utopia. They believed the way to do this was to manifest the power of the Shining Herd on Earth. The twelve cosmic powers would occupy twelve human avatars, and each would cede control to another as the sign they represented became ascendant.
“They searched for a way to execute their plan, but could not achieve the method of bringing the Zodiac powers to Earth. So they went to a ‘plan B.’ The human worshippers of the Zodiac spread themselves throughout the world. They became magi, counselors to the powerful. When they saw a chance to move their agenda forward, they would do so, but subtly. If they could not, they would foment unrest and bring about the collapse of kingdoms, hoping to pick up the pieces and remake the new states founded in the principles of cosmic order.
