Humming. Humming. Hummmmmm.....

The armor Tony Stark wears as Iron Man hums as it suspends him above the titanium training room floor. His red gloves, imbued with the same technological majesty as the rest of his suit, steam with spent energy that just narrowly missed Hawkeye's boots. Luckily, he jumped.

"Jesus, Tony!" the bowman exclaims, leaping out of harm's way. "You could've taken something off!"

"Then keep moving and don't give me another chance to do it," replies Iron Man through his crackling speaker. He boosts to fly higher and from there he fires yet another beam, though this time it hits where Hawkeye formerly stood. Turning, Iron Man sees his fellow Avenger flipping and reaching for three arrows, which he fires from his bow as he lands. He watches on as Iron Man's skilled hands pause and form a yellow glow that holds the arrows midair before dropping them like swatted insects.

"Too slow..." the armored man says, then raises his eyes to see another arrow headed straight for his face. Before he can react, the arrow hits its mark directly in between his eyes, then falls like the others before. He catches it and lowers to the ground.

"Boom," Iron Man says indifferently. "You got me."

"Well, that was completely pointless," Hawkeye states. Tony watches him strip off his mask and remove his quiver, moving to the back of the room.

"I couldn't agree more. How about you, Cap?" He turns his gaze to the monitoring room high above them, through its window and to the legend of a man sitting inside with thick arms folded and a shield on his back.

"Only because neither of you are giving your full," Captain America says into the microphone, with his words echoing through the room below him.

Hawkeye joins his sparring partner in speaking through the wall. "Maybe that's because Shellhead here could tear into me and leave a bow and a pair of boots if he really wanted to." The Captain sighs.

"That's the reason I'm pairing you two up this way...you both have to deal with the same threats, high or low tech."

"Well, no offense to Mr. Barton's own abilities, but he is only a man with a weapon and some combat training. This suit is designed to deal with much..."

"Tony." The living legend's stare is strong even through the unbreakable layers of glass. His interruption does not please Iron Man, but even the revered Tony stark must pay respect to the country's shield-wielding treasure...so, he listens.

"Think about it for a minute and tell me what you are. That armor there...it's nothing more than a weapon, and that doesn't make you anymore more than a man, as smart and experienced as you are. The same goes for me."

"Cap, you're a completely different story..." Hawkeye begins, cut off as well.

"Why...because of this shield? Or this 'A'?" He points a red ringer at his masked forehead. "Or is it just in the name?" The two perspiring men below him are silent this time. "I have to deal with the same things both of you do... things Simon, even Thor, deal with. There's just as much chance of losing me out there in the field as there is either of you or anyone else, whether we give them a bow or a suit of armor or a shield. So please, guys, as elder members and for all our sakes', trust me and just bare the unfair scenarios, okay? The others and I will do the same."

Once again, gripped and staring, Iron Man and Hawkeye await any further words from their leader, but Captain America has only this to say. "Hit the showers for now, men. That's enough for the day."

Quietly, the two heroes turn and make their way out of the training room, already rapidly preparing itself for future use. As they enter the adjoining room, Iron Man and Hawkeye become Tony Stark and Clint Barton, retrieving their respective belongings from their lockers while they allow themselves to relax. Their backs to each other and bent over benches, Clint comments with an off-hand tone, "The guy knows how to make a speech, I have to give him that."

He hears Tony drop his bag violently to the bench, and Clint turns to see him removing his yellow faceplate. "What's your problem? I figured you'd be absolutely thrilled to be put at my power level..." he says snidely, Tony ignoring him as he takes his bag and iron mask in hand and faces his archer friend.

"I just hate it when he's right sometimes." Already his red boots have engaged to lift him into the air and carry him away like a bird prey.

Clint smiles lightly as he listens to the golden Avenger's boots' fading hum...

"Hee hee...ah, the days of sex in the A-Mansion, huh? Never a dull moment. Okay, I can take a hint, I've been there before...I'll get out. Have fun," the Wasp quips, then slowly backs out of the room and shuts the door again, still grinning slyly as she hears the muffled noises from within.

"Mmmm...hmmmm....."

Humming. Humming. Hummmmmm.....

Edwin Jarvis hums lightly to himself in an aged baritone that comes as yet another reminder to Doctor Henry Pym that he could very well be in the place that is truly called "home". The doctor, here in his laboratory of many assorted years, listens to his old friend dust contentedly while he himself looks closely at a still, cold machine birthed of his own mind and hand.

"Looks like things are almost done here, Jarvis," the doctor says happily, as much to himself as the butler. He leans back from his creation, a boxy contraption of metal and glass from the outside, reveling in admiration of it. "This really should make things a little easier on you and the other..."

Suddenly, he finds himself stumbling over his own words and looks to Jarvis, who has already noticed. "...Employees....."

Allowing his gentle smile, Jarvis eyes his sometimes employer. "I have no problem with the word 'servants', Master Pym, and I doubt that the others do, either. It is our job, you know," the elderly man claims to ease the doctor.

"I know...but I personally wouldn't want to be called a servant to anyone or anything, whether that was my job or not."

"It isn't as bad as you might think," Jarvis tells him, placing his small duster back in his pocket, "One gets used to the title, if they're at it long enough."

"Maybe....." The doctor pauses and sighs. "Yeah, I guess you're right. It took a little while to get used to being called 'doctor', and even longer to being called a hero..."

"All jobs of great importance, Master Pym," says Jarvis, who looks to Pym's invention curiously.

Slumping more onto his stool with arms folded, Doctor Pym breathes deeply, also looking at his own creation, but avoids the desire he has to mention it as something else bears down on him. "Jarvis, how long have you worked for the Avengers here?"

His eyes turned from the cubical machine to Henry, Jarvis thinks for a moment. "Why, I suppose it's been over thirty years now...perhaps thirty-three or so. I was a butler for some time before then, but once I was hired here...well, as you can see, it's a job that seems to keep its practitioners, haha!" His noble old laugh would normally make Henry Pym smile, but only hints of such find their way to his dry lips. With the moment over, the laughter ends, and they are in silence for another short time.

"Thirty-three years...that's almost as long as I've been involved in all this craziness. It seems longer than that sometimes, like I've been doing it all my life, but others it seems like just yesterday me and Jan were putting on our hokey old costumes to...together."

Seconds later, Jarvis nods in agreement and looks away. "I believe I know what you mean, Master Pym."

The whole time, Henry Pym has stared at his machine so hard and long that he possibly could have fashioned a hole in it. Still looking at the cube on the worktable, he clears his throat. "Are you content with those thirty some-odd years?"

"What do you mean, sir?" Jarvis hesitantly asks, slightly confused by the question.

"You've dedicated this big chunk of your life always doing one thing for other people, Jarvis. I'm just wondering, are you content with what you've done?"

"Oh, but of course, sir!" Jarvis claims with bright eyes on Doctor Pym. "It is my joy and pleasure to serve the very people that make this country, even this planet, safe for me and so many others. I've made quite a few friends in my service at the Avengers Mansion and I find it good for me to use my skills this way."

Doctor Pym finds his smile now, a small, closed one. "I'm glad, Jarvis...I'm glad." They sit yet again in a forced silence, a shorter period this time… ending as Henry opens his mouth again. "Sorry to turn into Regis here, Jarvis, but I've got to ask you..."

"I don't mind a bit, sir. Go right ahead."

"Are you happy, Jarvis? That's what I meant to ask in the first place. Are you happy with those thirty years?" Henry Pym now looks Jarvis directly in his ancient eyes. The faithful butler thinks and searches in silence within himself...

"He damn well better be...he gets a bigger paycheck than any other butler this side of the world and the best-looking superheroine boss a man could wish for!" Jarvis spins as quickly as he may with Henry's sight following. As ever, Janet Van Dyne enters with a confident announcement that claims the attention of all in the room. She walks further down the steps into the dark, expansive room, looking from side to side. "Things didn't seem to keep themselves too well in this place with you gone, Hank. If it wasn't for Jarvis here, I'd have had to redecorate completely."

"Janet. Hello," Hank says as he stands awkwardly.

"I'm sure you would do a much better than I with the laboratory, Madame Wasp. I merely tried to see that it never gotten too disorderly," the butler tells his mistress as she smiles.

"Oh Jarvis...modest as ever, and just as busy too, it seems. What are two of my favorite boys doing down here all alone, anyway?"

"Master Pym invited me to see an invention he has been working on feverishly for the past few hours...he has yet to explain it to me, though."

"Then he can tell us both, Jarvis. What've you got to show, blondie?" the Wasp asks while she approaches the two men and the table.

"Well...this." He points to the metallic cube. "It doesn't have a name, I haven't really had time to give it one, but it just came to me and I had to make it."

"Uh huh...and what exactly does 'this' do?" asks the petite woman named Janet as she bends at the waist to inspect it further. "Not the most flashy of your inventions, I see..."

"It's an aid for Jarvis and his help at the mansion. Instead of having to call each other or meet somewhere to organize meals and all that, this little thing lets them relay information telepathically, but only among themselves."

"Master Pym!" Jarvis says excitedly, "You shouldn't have! I appreciate the thought very much, sir, but you really didn't have to spend all this time on something for my staff..."

"I kind of did Jarvis...I just thought it up and I couldn't stop until I was done. I hope you don't mind, Jan."

"If it can make Jarvis and the others work together even better, I have no complaints. A question, though: how does it work?"

Becoming more confident and smiling, the doctor begins to explain with a giddiness recently lost on the jaded doctor. "That's the beauty of it. The thing doesn't require any sort of button-pushing or anything. Anyone who wants to use this thing with other people just has to take a certain pill, and that will align any thoughts they willfully want to broadcast to the same frequency as anyone else on the pill and within range."

"Ingenious..." Jarvis utters quietly.

"Yeah...the pills are still on their way, tho-..."

Interrupting the doctor, a familiar loud crash echoes from the upper regions of the mansion, which startles the three bodies within Hank Pym's lab but fails to surprise them.

As he looks upwards, Hank says cynically, "Oh God, what could it be now?"

Another crashing and the distant sounds of yelling follow, and immediately Jan shrinks to her miniature size, hovering in the air on frail, translucent wings. "Probably nothing out of the ordinary, meaning that it's probably nothing too good. Hurry up and follow, bugman!" The Wasp's tiny voice is commanding even to Henry Pym, and he runs after the regal woman up the stairs and out of the laboratory.

Standing very still and looking to the ground of the shadowed inhumanity of Henry Pym's laboratory, Edwin Jarvis passively ignores the foreboding noises from above while he thinks...alone...in his ears, the mellow hum of machinery surrounding and isolating him.

Humming. Humming. Hummmmmm.....

Above Avengers Mansion:

"Stop this at once! I must find the Avengers!" The red and blue male figure hovering above the damaged roof of Avengers Mansion cries desperately as he dodges bursts of flame from a beautiful young red-haired woman, floating as well only meters away.

"You're talking to one of them, and as an Avenger, I have to say that this isn't the best way to get our attention." The flaming woman is Firestar, who stands on the air itself while speaking. "Now, tell me who you are and maybe we can get all this under way."

Maneuvering like a reflected beam of light, the white-haired man flies swiftly with his gold-banded arms ahead of him. Before Firestar can realize it, he is behind her, speaking loudly. "I am Captain Marvel...any Avenger would know that."

"What...?" Angelic Jones flies from her relaxed position to twist in the air and face the supposed intruder. "Captain Marvel's dead...even I know that, and I've only been here a few months! You may have some of his costume down, but that's an old story, so try again."

"I do not have time for this," the Captain yells as his shining bands increase their lighting, "None of us do! If you won't let me by then I will force my way to them..." With a quick motion he aims his bracelets at the charred roof and dives, bursting through in a mess of wood and metal debris, with Firestar following close behind. Within seconds others arrive at the scene in living room of their mansion to find Firestar and Captain Marvel firing respective bolts of energy without thought to consequence. First is Captain America, followed soon by Iron Man and Hawkeye. Another short moment brings the Wasp and Doctor Pym, then the young Vance Astrovik, Justice. The last to arrive are the Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man, dressed in shabby tatters of clothes.

"Angelica! Genis!" Captain America yells to them from a short distance, "Stop this immediately!" The two young faces turn and must obey at the sight of the star-spangled man in blue ordering them.

"What's the deal, kids?" Hawkeye asks them as Firestar backs away slightly, still looking at her opponent as she explains.

"This guy showed up just flying around above the mansion without any good reason. I tried to talk to him but he got all flustered, and then he said he was Captain Marvel... things didn't go well."

"Angel, he is Captain Marvel," the girl's lover, Justice, informs her while he comes up behind her. She looks to him in distress and confusion.

"But...Captain Marvel is dead! Everyone knows that!"

"The man called Mar-Vell left us quite a while ago, Firestar," Captain America says with his hand on the shoulder of the man in question. "This is his son, Genis-Vell...Captain Marvel."

"Ohmigod...I'm so...sorry, guys. I had no idea..." Firestar says weakly, her lover Vance's own hands on her shoulders in comfort.

"Worse has happened. It's a tradition, ya know, fighting whatever new hero you meet," Hawkeye states jokingly, though Iron Man frowns beneath his mask before he speaks.

"It was pointless, and it could've been helped. Why did you attack him, again?"

"Please, none of this matters! Too much time has been wasted..." the young Captain cries out.

"What are you talking about, Genis?" the elder shielded legend inquires with his strong hand remaining on the snow-haired young man. "Why did you come here?" And as he answers, Captain Marvel's body looks to become weaker, frailed by the thoughts he has, the sights he has seen...

"It came to me, Captain...it was more powerful than my usual visions, much more powerful. It nearly knocked me out just from having it. I saw the entire universe shrinking, crushing itself...everything was blue...and so was the man, or thing standing in the middle of it.....and then I saw the face of every living thing in horror as it all ended. Each planet imploded, each star burned out, the sun shrank and ceased to exist...! Everything was...destroyed." For many, the despair in the blank eyes of Genis would be reason enough to believe him. However, Iron Man takes the first word.

"Can you be at all of sure of what you saw, though? Cap and I, some of the others maybe, and definitely you know the inconsistency of your Cosmic Awareness..."

"I swear, it must be true...! We've never before had a feeling like this one, a vision so real and horrible..."

"Does it really matter whether or not we're sure, Iron Man? If Genis has seen it, then there's at least a possibility of it happening, and that's all I need to hear. How it comes about is what we need to know, now," Captain America says to his long-time confidant, looking to Marvel to find an answer.

"That...I do not know. I only saw the destruction, not its cause."

"Well, there you go. I'm always willing to help of course, Cap," the armored Avenger replies, "But if Genis doesn't even know the reason behind it..."

"He is speaking the truth," the Scarlet Witch says, breaking Iron Man's words. "I've looked at him through my magic, and his Awareness is shining so bright it could blind a sensitive being. We must aid him in any way," she says, receiving a quick glance of disapproval from Iron Man.

"The original Captain Marvel was a true hero. He was almost as big a legend as Cap here!" Justice adds, Firestar remaining close by and quiet. "I didn't even know him, but I'll trust the guy who carries on his mantle..."

Defensive, Iron Man retorts. "It's not that I don't trust the Captain, it's that I don't always trust his powers."

"I can't believe anyone's even arguing about this," says the Wasp. "We've got the scientific minds of Hank Pym and Iron Man at our disposal...I'm saying we do something."

"Actually, Jan, I wouldn't even know where to start....." Doctor Pym begins and quickly ends as a looming shadow suddenly appears over the uncovered room and its inhabitants. The voice that invades the mansion is louder than all their own combined and it is a voice that many of them have heard before.

"You will then soon know, Henry Pym," it says with an underlying power barely comprehensible. The Avengers and their guest each look through the newly made skylight whose light has been blocked by a monstrous body, the body of...

"The Watcher!" Captain Marvel exclaims as the rest look on in wonder of the sight. Indeed, the being called the Watcher stands tall and godlike with its oversized head dotted with two glowing eyes that have been burdened with observing all that is. Soon, the surveyors' eyes find two other bodies as well, females of their own size that float at the side of the bald creature. The pair slowly descend through the roof's remains and into the room to draw a breath from those inside.

"Photon and...Moondragon?" Hawkeye says unconfidently. "Invite anyone else, or is this the party?"

The two women stay hovering low to the rubble-covered ground, one an African mistress of light and the other a bald beauty trained in the arts of the divine Eternals. Both maintain serious expressions as the Watcher speaks.

"The son of Mar-Vell speaks true...his Cosmic Awareness has given him foresight enough to behold an imminent threat to the universe at large. This cannot be allowed to happen, Avengers."

"We know, Uatu," Captain America calls up to the Watcher, "But even Captain Marvel doesn't know what is causing this!"

"That is why I have intervened, Captain America," the being replies, "And that is why I have brought these two with me, your allies Photon and Moondragon. I will set you on the right path, Avengers, but I cannot lead you any further from there, as it is my oath."

Looking to the two women, Wonder Man asks hopefully, "Is this going to work, guys?"

"Trust him," Moondragon assures. "I have seen a portion of the end as well, and we are integral to stopping it." His look shifts to Photon, who nods.

"If you don't trust him...trust me, Simon. This is the only way!"

Baring his shield, Captain America speaks to the Watcher for all. "Then we believe you, Watcher...the Avengers are ready to help!"

His giant hand's slim fingers spread over the whole of the mansion as if beckoning them to follow. "You will not all be necessary, Captain..." Uatu tells him as his two guests begin to rise again, "I cannot allow any superfluous aids." With those words, six from below...Captain America, the Scarlet Witch, Justice, Iron Man, Doctor Pym, and the harbinger Captain Marvel...are drawn into the air by forces unseen. In an instant of flash and silence, the Watcher and his recruited hopefuls are gone, with the Wasp, Hawkeye, Firestar, and Wonder Man blinking and looking to the skies from the damaged mansion.

Frowning, Hawkeye asks to the barren sky, "...'Superfluous aids'?"

The Planet Pluto:

Eight bodies drop onto a cold wasteland untouched for millennia. Some are prepared, some are not, but each is there for a reason and each soon realizes that they are no longer where they were seconds ago...

"Where...where are we?" Justice asks, recovering from his fall. The others grunt in acknowledgement or try to answer, but all is halted by that demanding alien voice.

"This is the ninth planet of your galaxy, the one Earthmen have named Pluto. From here you will either save existence or fail trying. That is all I may tell you....." The words of the Watcher melt into the inky void above and soon the eight assembled men and women realize that they are now alone.

"Pluto...? It can't be. How are we breathing?" asks Photon, which Hank quickly answers.

"I can smell normal air...apparently Uatu has given us a temporary atmosphere to work with, like the one he has on the Blue Area of the Moon."

"That's good to know, guys, but the question remains..." Justice states as he hovers above the foreign land.....

"How do we save the universe from here?"

And in the distance, some can hear a mechanical noise that keeps getting stronger, louder.....humming.....

Humming. Humming. Hummmmmm.....

NEXT ISSUE: Mysteries on Pluto, chaos on Earth, and the realization of Genis's vision, all in Avengers #9!

Contact Will Short at WeekapaugB@aol.com