Genis-Vell, the current Captain Marvel looks up at the smog-infested skyline of Los Angeles, his adopted hometown. He's currently kneeling in a pile of rubble that was once a Miramax soundstage. Marlo Chandler, actress and wife to Rick Jones, was last seen there with her fellow co-stars.

"She'd call me or something," Genis says.

Moondragon, who is standing alert beside him, doesn't respond. Her hands are pressed against her temples as a faint blue glow emanates from her forehead. Genis turns his head to the side and peers at Moondragon. He's wearing an orange t-shirt with torn khakis shorts and some sandals. He has his cosmic awareness ability switched off. He appears like any normal blonde white man.

Heather is wearing a tight pink tube top with short jean shorts torn at the waist and wearing some old Nike Airs. It was all she could find on such a short notice to avoid drawing the attention of the alien Mig-Na'cha.

"Are you listening?" Genis asks.

Heather opens her eyes, glaring down at Captain Marvel. Her hands fall to her sides, "I've just contacted the Thunderbolts. They should be here in a half-hour. Genis, are you sure the Avengers--"

"I said no, Heather."

"Genis, you don't know what you're up against. An entire race is after you."

"Exactly, this is my mess. I'm gonna clean it up," Genis says, grunting as he stands upright, the blood rushing out of his leg. He grips his shoulder, where Mig-Na'cha drones injected him with a highly toxic venom. Only his nega-bands are keeping him alive. *

(* Check last issue -- Brad)

Genis feels something vibrate in his back pocket. It was his Avengers communicator. He grips it in his hand.

"Genis," Heather says, as if she were pulling her own teeth. Genis prepares to put the comm back in his pocket, but Heather grabs it out of his hand before he can do so.

{{"Captain Marvel, come in. Over?"}} Captain America's electronic voice blares.

"Hello, Captain. This is Moondragon," Heather says, activating the comm-link.

{{"We just heard about the invasion, where's Captain Marvel?"}} Captain America asks.

"He's..."

Genis waves his hands at Heather, shaking his head.

"...he's handling the situation."

{{"He'll need backup."}}

Moondragon sighs as Genis makes a "t" by making a time-out symbol, "We have already called in the assistance of the Thunderbolts."

{{"The Thunderbolts?! Why?"}} Cap yells. {{"What are you doing there in LA, anyway, Moondragon?"}}

"The Thunderbolts were closer, we felt we could eradicate the threat faster that way. We can trust them, Captain. Many Thunderbolts are former Avengers."

{{"It's the other members I'm worried about,"}} Captain America says as he becomes visibly frustrated. He looks off-screen at someone else, {{"What? That's...impossible."}}

"What is it?" Heather asks.

{{"The Mig-Na'cha have just appeared in Washington!"}} Captain America declares. He sighs. Sometimes, decisions had to be made on the battlefield. {{"All right, the Thunderbolts will have to subside as your backup for now. The Avengers will be needed elsewhere. Captain America out."}}

Heather closes the comm-link and tosses it to Genis. "Are you happy now?"

"Not particularly. I wanted the Mig-Na'cha as far away from my team as possible...," Genis says.

"Hey, they are my team, too!" Moondragon yells.

"I seem to recall you being booted on your ass out of the mansion --"

"Once an Avenger, always an Avenger. If you weren't so stubborn, maybe you'd see that. We are a family, and family is something I have very little of!" Heather shouts. She fights back tears. "Family takes care of one another."

"I don't have anyone, Heather. The Avengers are the only family I've got left. Sure, there's Rick and Marlo, but I don't even know where they are now...I'm NOT losing anyone else," Genis says as his nega-bands begin to glow.

Heather is staring off into space, ignoring Genis' emotional rant.

"Stop pulling that arrogant drozit!" Genis yells.

Heather sighs, "This doesn't seem right. Why would the Mig-Na'cha go after you and then me?"

"You were trying to help me, that's why!" Genis yells.

"Settle down. How do we really know they were just after you?" Heather asks.

"What are you talking about, they almost killed that actor that was dressed up as me!" *

(* Again, check last issue -- Brad)

"No, don't you see? They're targeting those with superpowers," Moondragon deduces.

"For what? Then why have they found a way to counteract my nega-bands?" Genis asks.

"Perhaps they haven't. The nega-bands were created by the Supreme Intelligence on Kree-Lar. I doubt this race of aliens could have found anything to counteract those inventions. The only thing I can think of is that their new armor deflects photons and their new lasers can pass through your shields."

"But...I was convinced that they were after me. I mean...come on!" Genis grumbles.

Heather puts her hand on his shoulder, "It's all right to be wrong. It happens all the time."

"How come I feel so lousy?"

"You're new to the hero business. Are you sure it's something you've always wanted to do?"

Genis charges his nega-bands up, "My mom took my dad's DNA, after he died, and mixed it with her DNA. Looks like no one else was meant for these things except blood kin. I was born for this, Heather."

Suddenly, Mig-Na'cha drones begin chasing a group of citizens trying desperately to evade the enemy. The drones take a strange new silvery weapon and fire an electron blast of some kind into the citizens. They mutate into drones themselves, tearing their clothes in the process.

Genis and Heather look on in horror, trying to stay out of sight.

"Oh man," Genis breathes. "Is Marlo...?"

"I can't tell, once they're mutated, their human thoughts are gone."

"We need a new plan. We can't fight them without hurting those people," Genis says.

"I don't think they are people, anymore."

"There has to be a way to change them back."

"But, Genis --"

"There's always hope."

The Mothership

Drax the Destroyer has been trying to free himself from his restraints for days now. The restraints holding his arms and legs in a spread eagle position would be uncomfortable for any man, but Drax is much more than a man. Perhaps a little less.

He can see a three-dimensional map of Earth being viewed by various Mig-Na'cha drones. There are red circles surrounding two cities on the globe: Los Angeles and Washington, DC. Drax can see as they formulate their plan to invade other cities, as well. Soon, the human race would be mutated into Mig-Na'cha drones themselves.

Why don't they mutate me? Drax wonders.

Suddenly, he realizes why. It was so simple, yet, so well-planned on the Mig-Na'cha's part.

Drax went temporarily insane recently. * Captain Marvel and Earth could have been casualties of his brush with his loss of sanity. But now something clicked in Drax he hasn't felt since his days as a normal man, a real-estate agent by the name of Arthur Douglas.

(* Check Marvel Fanfare #9, Captain Marvel #6 -- Brad)

He felt love for his daughter, Heather. He hopes that Captain Marvel will protect her.

Los Angeles

The Mig-Na'cha drones march through the streets, transforming various stragglers where ever they find them. The mutated humans then join the march. Where there were few insectoids, there were now many.

There is a sphere of light, indicating some sort of teleportation frequency. The drones stop in their tracks. They replace their transmuto-guns and energize their phasers, which are build into each of their six appendages.

A large man lands on the ground with various firearms strapped to his body. He presses up against his left ear, which has a radio link on it. His left eye glows as he grips what appears to be a gun. Before the drones' eyes, the weapon folds open, forming a staff of some kind. The pointed end of the gun-staff glows the same color energy as the man's eye.

The drones snap out of their moment of awe and begin firing their guns at the man. He grunts as the blasts seem to hit him. However, the beams of concentrated light are halted by an unseen force field.

The man smiles, aiming his staff at the drones, blasting them with a force that knocks them back. The man is careful not to harm the drones.

"Anything on the readings I'm sending you of their DNA, Prosh?" the man asks.

{{Their genetic structure has been reworked to that of a Mig-Na'cha drone. The makeup of a drone is very simplistic, however. Therefore, there should be an equally easy way to change the affected humans to their former selves,}} a computerized voice explains through the radio link.

"What about Washington?"

{{The Avengers are handling it. No one has been mutated there...yet. There is a bigger ground force in Los Angeles; for now, that is the bigger threat.}}

The man sighs, running his hand through his white hair, "And we've got Captain Marvel, Moondragon, and the Thunderbolts here in LA."

{{Are you aware that some of the Thunderbolts are--}}

"Yeah," the man responds. "But right now, I don't even care if Wilson Fisk is helping with the fight."

The drones get back up, and begin setting their sites on a woman who has just run out of an electronics store. The man sees this and holds out his hand, pushing the drones back with an invisible force.

The woman falls, looking up at the man who just saved her, "Who are you?"

"My friends call me Cable, but you can call me...Cable. It doesn't matter. Run," Cable commands.

The woman takes off running.

Cable sighs, "Why can't I fight something menacing? Bugs?"

{{Nathan...,}} Prosh says with alarm in his voice.

"What?"

{{This analysis shows that the Mig-Na'cha are genetically mutated versions of the Brood.}}

"Well, that's definitely interesting."

{{There's something else...the Mig-Na'cha cannot transform those with the x-factor gene, or any other superhuman for that matter. Perhaps the efforts of the X-Men to defeat the Brood years earlier are the reason for this.}}

"So...what do they plan to do with the world's super-beings?" Cable asks.

{{My hypothesis...the Mig-Na'cha will overwhelm them all...and destroy them.}}

"Oath..."

Elsewhere

"Crap!" the T-Bolt known as Songbird shouts as she dodges laser fire being fired at her from multiple angles. She shouts out, forming a pink shield around her. A laser penetrates the shield and grazes Melissa's shoulder.

"Gah!" she grunts, gripping her shoulder. Unfortunately, Songbird lets her shield down, leaving her wide open to assault. Her other teammates are busy fending off the drones and protecting the remaining citizens - but nowhere to be found to save <i>her</i>.

This could hurt...

There is a blur of light in Songbird's eyes and suddenly, she is airborne. She opens her eyes and peers into the blank eyes of a dark-skinned, white-haired...

"Captain Marvel?" Songbird asks.

Genis looks down at her, "Songbird?" He smirks.

Melissa smiles, "You know my name?"

Genis shrugs slightly as he descends onto a building, "Well...sure. Isn't it a customary thing for superheroes to read info on the good guys and bad guys during their downtime? Then you make a spread sheet of all the various teams. I tried doing that once...but then I got really frustrated"

Songbird giggles, "I never knew you were so funny. By the way Moondragon talked, you sounded like you meant business...like your father."

Genis lowers his eyes, "Well, I'm not my father...not yet, anyway."

There's an awkward silence.

"Um," Genis begins, "You can let go of me...if you want, that is."

Songbird feels the back of her ears burn from embarrassment, "Oh...I...didn't realize." She unlatches her arms from around Genis' shoulders.

"Did Moonstone go over with you guys what I told her?" Genis asks.

"What?"

"Your team, the Thunderbolts. Did she brief you or whatever?" Genis asks.

Songbird breathes, "Oh, yes. She told us all about the possibility that the drones we're fighting could be humans."

Genis nods, "All right." He pauses, asking meekly, "Is anyone hurt?"

"Aside from me, I don't think so," Songbird says, gripping her shoulder, wincing a little.

"Let me see," Genis says, lightly touching her wound.

Songbird winces again, but feels herself looking into Genis' eyes and vice versa. Genis drops his cosmic-awareness, returning him to his normal complexion.

"You have blonde hair...?" Songbird asks.

Genis looks up, "Oh...yeah. The whole cosmic awareness thing makes my skin all space-fieldy and turns my hair white. Beats a night light."

Songbird finds herself laughing again, "My name's Melissa, by the way. My real name."

"Melissa? That's a pretty name. That's saying a lot, since I'm an alien...y'know," Genis says with a stupid smile. "Um, my name's Genis. It kind of sounds like 'Genesis,' but my mom didn't want a legal battle with Sega or the Bible, so she dropped the 'es' in the middle."

Melissa snickers, "You're a strange alien, Genis. You talk like you're actually from La-La Land."

"You humans are contagious," Genis shrugs.

"How can you stay calm in situations like this?" Melissa asks, changing the subject.

"Right now, I have no idea what I'm doing, let alone how I'm doing it. I'm a rookie to this universal protector gig. I've got some Galactus-sized shoes to fill. Galactus eats planets --"

"I know who he is," Melissa smiles.

"Anyway," Genis continues, "there's got to be some way to reverse the mutations -- ungh!"

Songbird rushes to Marvel's side, "Are you all right?"

Genis grunts, gripping his shoulder, "Yeah...it's just...the poison. It's fine. My nega-bands are...I'm fine."

Melissa grips Genis' wound. Genis grips her hand on his shoulder. Songbird yanks her hand away, "Um...we should...I mean, if you're okay, we should get back to..."

"Right," Genis says. "Hero-time."

Elsewhere still...

"Okay," Marlo says between pants. "This isn't fair! You're quadruple teaming me!"

The young actress is being pursued by a team of seven drones or so, most of them former co-stars.

Lorraine, Marlo's ghost companion, is silently following her. She takes a drag of her cigarette, exhaling smoke, "Need some help?"

"Jesus! Lorraine, where have you been all this time?" Marlo yells. "I was expecting some kind of rude criticism from you about the way I dress or something."

Lorraine shrugs, "I was checkin' out the rest of the city. Looks like bad news. People are getting transformed all over."

Marlo continues running, "You're lucky you're dead."

Lorraine smiles, "Yeah. But it's not all bad, there's Captain Marvel and his bald girlfriend and those Thundercats or whoever. There's also this big guy with guns helping out, too. And the Avengers are helping protect Washington."

"Washington?!" Marlo shrieks, her heart almost bursting from her chest. With the events of September 11th still fresh in the world's mind, Washington could use a break.

"It's not as bad there as it is here. Why LA, I don't know, honey," Lorraine says as she puffs out some smoke.

"It's the scenery, isn't it? God, I hate this!" Marlo shouts.

Padcros

Rick Jones and Zang walk down a long catwalk, leading to a doorway which leads to the lower levels of Professor Bloph's laboratory home.

"Are you sure about this, using your dad's equipment without him knowing?" Rick asks.

Zang sighs, his lip twitching, "There's no other choice, Rick."

They reach the doorway. Zang pulls out the panel that requires a complex punch-code that only Bloph himself knows. "Father keeps his top secret inventions in the bowels of his lab. Some of them are particularly dangerous for the entire Multiverse."

Zang continues tinkering with the wiring. Some sparks fly, causing Zang to shout out something Rick can't understand. Zang stands back up and clips a wire, crossing it with another.

"Punch in this code, Rick," Zang commands, acidic perspiration accumulating on his brow, while still holding the wires, "Yu, cha, yu...tiopa, huef, yu..."

"Wait, the translator chip you placed in my skull doesn't give me the ability to read your language," Rick says, staring at the hieroglyphic numbering system.

"What?!?" Zang yelps. "Universal Translator my arshbog! All right, Plan B."

"And that is...?" Rick asks impatiently.

"This," Zang says as he pulls out a gun. He blasts a hole in the control panel of the doorway. An alarm starts blazing.

{{Intruder alert, intruder alert. Exterminate embezzlers with lethal force!}}

Dozens of lasers and guns descend from the ceiling from mechanical arms. They click into place as Zang and Rick observe tiny red dots on their forehead.

Rick smacks his lips together, sighing, "You're a freakin' idiot."

"Sorry," Zang whimpers.

"Should we walk away slowly--?" Rick asks, but is cut off.

{{DO NOT MOVE, EMBEZZLER!}} the computerized security system shouts. The mechanical arms holding the guns appear to jerk forward in correlation with the command.

Rick jerks his hands up, "Don't shoot! I have a wife and kids...well, just a wife...but still!" Rick whispers to Zang, "Can you override this thing or something?"

"No...," Zang swallows, "The security program will eventually turn itself off."

"Oh," Rick sighs, relieved.

"Once we're dead."

"Oh...well that's incredibly shitty," Rick says with gritted teeth. He sighs, "Great, and I have to go to the bathroom...perfect timing."

"You okay, Marlo?" Lorraine asks as Marlo stops running and places her hands on her knees. She throws up from the strain. She turns sickly pale.

"Oh God," Marlo breathes.

"Marlo?" Lorraine asks again.

Marlo spits excess vomit out of her mouth. She holds out her hand as it begins shaping into a hairy, slimy claw.

"I'm changing...!"

NEXT ISSUE: The battle continues! Watch as multiple heroes team up for the first time to save the day...or at least, try.

SHARING SPACE
Send your pulsating neutrinos to Bradmon84@aol.com (please, no x-rays)!

Hi, all. We've got two letters, both by Russ Anderson! Wahoo! Why two? Well, I forgot to post Russ' review of Captain Marvel #7 with issue 8's letter page. Twice your dose of Russ. Doesn't it make you feel all dirty?

No...didn't think so. Er...I don't know. Here's the first letter:

For some reason, I really enjoy the celebrity cameos in Captain Marvel and Deadpool. It just makes the books more absurd, and somehow in Brad's hands, that makes it more engaging. Woulda been better if Pitt had been torn to pieces by those aliens though. Then Jennifer Aniston would be all mine!

Nah, it wouldn't feel right offing a celebrity in Captain Marvel. If it were in Deadpool, on the other hand...

I'm not sure what to think of Rick's misadventures in the Microverse. They're good for some comedy, and we got a more detailed explanation of just how exactly Rick and CM got merged out of his stay there, but otherwise it doesn't seem to really be going anywhere. It's just keeping Rick out of the book.

Or "in" the book, depending on how you look at it.

I'm curious about where Brad is going with this new Mig Na'Cha storyline. When he originally pitched this series to me, the return storyline was supposed to run up to #12. If Brad intends to stretch this out for 6 issues, he must have something huge planned. I'm looking forward to reading all about it.

Er...that's good that you're curious. Good little puppy. Jump through that hoop!

Here's the other letter:

First of all, I'm happy to see Moondragon back in this title. Her infatuation with Genis seems a little out-of-character for her, considering it was always more about 'logical mates' in the comic book, but I'll wait and see how Brad handles it. In any case, the characters bounce off each other really well, and Cap's going to need SOME backup for the rest of this storyline.

Yep. He might also need A LOT of backup...depending on how you look at it. (I gotta stop that).

I also liked the first-person narrative in the first two scenes. Switching from first to third from scene-to-scene can be jarring, but Brad handled it so well here I barely noticed. And even if you didn't like the switch, the first-person in the first two scenes was an effective way to bring the readers up-to-date on where we left Marlo and Genis in #7.

I don't usually like using the first person unless there's some deep introspect or for the above reason mentioned - to get people up to speed with the storyline.

I can't say I'm buying Genis' reasoning for not calling in the Avengers. 'I don't want them here because this invasion might get them killed'? Well... duh, Genis. If the Avengers stayed in whenever they might get killed, they'd never go out at all. That's kind of their job. Even the time-honored 'away on other business' explanation would have been better than that nonsensical altruism.

*Devilish grin* It ended up not mattering as seen in this issue...coincidence? Did Genis play that one good, or what? Can I get an Amen?!

...

Halleuiya?!

...

Mmkay.

On the other hand, it'll be cool to see the T-bolts here next issue. CM's first M2K appearance was in the T-bolts' book, so it's cool that Genis gets to return the favor.

Well, Songbird was the only one that actually apppeared, with the others just sticking to the background...but it's a start.

Oh, and I'm still enjoying the celebrity cameos and the ridiculous adventures of Rick on Padcros. Especially the latter, as I suspect Zang's desire to prove himself may actually get Rick out of the Microverse.

Well, in CM, there's an excuse for the celebrities (it takes place in Hollywood fer Chris'sakes!). On the Zang thing...as we saw here...it might get Rick killed.