Machine Man says:
"Guys, I don't want to be hit in the face for this, but the anger's coming back. It's not too strong yet, but it's definitely there, and it's not mine. You might want to remove my arms and legs -- I'm sure Mr. Stark can put them back on -- just to be sure ..."
The Scarlet Witch brushes her fingertips across his head in a spidery fashion.
"And it's gone," says Machine Man. "Great! But this means everyone touched by the Collector's power is going to get angry again."
"I think it's the Aether," he adds. "It's sort of a liquid jewel, like red transparent ink diffusing through water, except there's no water. He's had it for years, at least. It's one of the six Infinity Stones, which are sort of like the focal points of reality. He wanted to collect all six, but he never got more than two."
"Anyway, the Aether Stone lit up on his ship, and that's when we all got so angry. So either someone snuck onto the ship and activated it, or it turned on all by itself."
mimimimimi, squeaks Namor.
"Ant-Man, can you re-biggify Namor so we can tell what he's saying?"
INVISIBLE GIRL
ReplyDeleteSue drops all force fields and becomes visible.
"Machine Man, who are you and how did you get involved in this?
"Where is the collector's ship?
"We have a space rocket at the Baxter Building, and can make orbit from there.
"Reed got a special license from the Mayor allowing him to launch an atomic-powered NERVA type Saturn V from the rooftop of a skyscraper in downtown Manhattan: Reed is very clever about such things."
She peers through the hole back into the conference room.
"Ben usually pilots. He was a dive bomber in the war. But if everyone is going to get angry again, we can only take the people the Collector did not anger, can't we?
"And Johnny has SATs coming up, and really should study...
"And we have got to leave Namor behind..."
But she is definitely NOT thinking about this:
http://www.scifiwright.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/965123-sue_kisses_namor.jpg
Nope. Put that thought right out of your head, Susie!
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ReplyDeleteSCARLET WITCH: "I agree with you, Miss Storm, as I can only clear one person at a time. And it does nothing, indeed, if they are already prone to fits of temper, it makes matters worse.
Delete"Mr. Namor and Mr. ... Stark are completely out of the running.
"But, Vish, I do not know if what you experienced was more than natural irritation at Mr. Stark. After all, you did not immolate his brain," she says sunnily.
"How DARE you say I'm out of control," Stark raves. "I'll KILL YOU!"
ReplyDelete"I do not think it was irritation, Wanda," says the Vision. "I had a reason for everything I did. But then, I do not know what irritation looks like ... from the inside."
"I do!" says Machine Man. "I can download it if you want."
ReplyDeleteEveryone looks at him weird.
"So, I'm Abel Stack," he says. "I'm a robot, obviously, build by Dr. Leonard Stack as part of his artificial intelligence research. Unlike the fifty earlier models, he took me home and treated me like a human son. It took a lot longer to program me that way, but it seems to have worked. I mean, I can pass every Turing test out there, and those little boxes where you type in the letters are totally convinced I'm not a machine."
"Anyway. I got involved because the Collector was gathering up robots with souls, and I thought, why not? See the world. His museum ship is right up in orbit; we got as close as we could without crashing, so that's about 140 miles up."
"It's huge, too. All kinds of stuff in there! He's got weapons, space ships, water ships, flowers, ships made out of flowers ... okay, there's only one of those, but still, wow. And he's got Spider-Man. In a glass tube."
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ReplyDeleteSCARLET WITCH: "Zo, the Collector is also being influenced by the anger stone?"
ReplyDelete"Vish, you should not be near him. He clearly wants your jewel."
"But he has Spiderman, so we must ready a party to go after him."
She walks over to Sue Storm, planning to be a part of the party.