31st Century
	#74

In a far possible future of the MV1 universe, several heroes of varying races stand together to combat injustices of any kind! They are the Guardians of the Galaxy - Vance Astrovik, Aleta, Charlie-27, Martinex, Starhawk, Nikki, Yondu, Talon, and Hollywood!

"Crime and Punishment, part 4"

Battlefield: Earth

by Adrian Watts

Doom's Castle, Earth

The Guardians of the Galaxy watched in horror as hundreds of thousands of the androiids called the Punishers swarmed into Earth's atmosphere and attacked. Thankfully, Doctor Doom had prepared  for this eventuality, setting up ionic cannons to deal with the Punishers as they fell. But they simply weren't doing enough  damage. Too many  were getting through. And the Guardians  couldn't stop them - they were  about to be attacked by the Punishers flesh and bone leader,  Deathwing!

"Guardians!" Doom yelled. "Deal with Deathwing. Aleta and I will take care of Stark!" The Guardians needed no further instructions. First, Charlie-27, the last survivor of Earth's Jupiter colony, shoved a super dense fist into Deathwing's face. But the villain didn't even seem to feel it.

"That's.... that's impossible!" Charlie cried. Deathwing grabbed the  Jovian's fist before he could withdraw it,  and twisted the man's arm until he screamed in pain.

"Let go of him!" cried Nikki, last survivor of Earth's Mercury colony. She jumped on Deathwing's back, and, grabbing the sides of his head, unleashed a great deal of flame onto his face. But Deathwing simply  shrugged it off.

"Do you not realise you  cannot harm me? I am  the greatest warrior who ever lived!"  he roared in  triumph.

"No. Any who believe such falsehoods are  doomed to failure, Punisher." With a quick whistle, Yondu, the Arcturan Guardian, let fly with two of his whistle controlled arrows. These hit home - but they still didn't deter Deathwing from his goal.

Next up came Martinex, using his ice projecting hand to freeze Deathwing's feet to the ground. It worked. "Yes!" he cried.

"No." Deathwing said, and, grabbing Nikki, he used his own power. He tapped  into her nervous system, and took control of her body, using it to melt the ice at his feet. He then let her go, and with a quiet thud she hit the ground, unconscious.

"No!" Vance Astro, the only human to have survived from the 20th Century, said. He let fly with a telekinetic headbutt, but to no avail. Deathwing seemed to be protected from psionic assaults. 

"Ah!" Rancor cried. "I guess it's up to me!" In  a flurry of fur, Rancor, the descendant of the X-Man Wolverine, slashed at Deathwing with her claws. "Take that, dirtbag!" she cried in triumph. And he did take it. Badly. Rancor's claws scratched at his face, and actually pierced his skin.

"Okay!" said Charlie, who had recovered from Deathwing's attack. "We'll do it this way. Rancor, Marty and I will stay here and fight against Deathwing. The rest of you, go and either help Doom or stop the other Punishers! Go!" Charlie reered back and rammed into Deathwing's stomach  as the other Guardians went off to their chosen tasks.

"Man!"  Martinex said. "This guy's even tougher than Taserface, and he took Firelord's help to beat.* How can we beat this guy?"

[ Taserface was a Stark Warrior, who  was defeated by  a  combined  effort from the Guardians and Firelord in the first three Guardians issues - Adrian ]

"That's it, Marty!" Charlie said. "Firelord's got a Guardian star, right? Call him!" Martinex touched his own 'Guardian Star' and was able, through means unknown, to communicate with any other who wore one. "Firelord!" he called.

"Yes, Guardian?" the Protector of the Universe responded.

"We have a problem! On Earth!" Martinex said. When Firelord had become a Guardian, he had promised to aid them whenever they deemed it necessary. He would not go back on his word.

"I shall be there immediately, Guardian." Firelord responded, and the fiery Guardian headed straight for Earth. 

Meanwhile, the battle against Tony Stark was going far better than Doom had thought.

"Hah! This is the famous Tony Stark? My "father" claimed  you were  a far greater warrior than this!" Doom taunted.

"Remember, pup, that with one press of a button I can obliterate this entire planet." Stark snarled.

"Yes, but you won't." Doom said. "For if you do, the Terran Empire will have no Earth to rule!" 

"A small price to pay compared to the other spoils we may gain!" Stark cried. All this was going exactly the way Doom wanted. As he taunted and distracted Stark, Aleta slowly backed behind him. With a quick snatch, she grabbed hold of Stark's remote. 

"Hah!" Doom laughed. "Not so mighty now, are we?" He threw a punch at Stark, hitting him square on the chin.

The Punishers' Plutonian base

"Here's what  we do," Killraven told the other prisoners of the Punishers. "First, I attack the guard. I've taken down far tougher targets them him." He smiled, and looked at one of the Kree. "Then you grab his rifle and blast a hole in the wall." Next he turned to one of the feline-looking creatures that had been captured with him. "Then you get out there  and steal a ship. You're the only one who can stay warm out there. Then we all scramble aboard and blow up this base." He grinned. "Let's go."

He stepped to the entrance to their cell and drew one of his stars (the Punishers hadn't taken it from him, as they thought it was only a decoration on his  costume). He hurled it at the synthetic guard, and it hit him square in the back of the neck. Just like it did with the martian Tripods, the star blew the android's head off, and his ZX-90 blaster rifle fell to the floor.

"Hey!" Killraven said. "That's just like the one I had on Earth!" He grabbed it, but rather than giving it to the Kree, he used it himself. After all, he'd had practice. The wall blew outwards, revealing the harsh, freezing terrain of Pluto. Out bounded the feline alien, straight to one of the Punishers' prisoner transports. Once it was secured, the other prisoners raced over to it and got abpard.

"Pleased with yourselves?" The voice of one of the Punishers blared over the ship's intercom. "We have control of the ship. Surrender now and you will not be killed." 

"No way!" yelled Killraven. "Even death is better than being locked up. I know this from experience."

There was a brief pause as the Punishers discussed what they should do.

"You are human, loud one, are you not?" one asked.

"Yes." Killraven replied. The Punishers on the other end laughed.

"Then you shall see the destruction of Earth before we kill you! Mwahahaha!" The ship rocketed off with a mind of it's own, heading straight for Earth. Given the advanced design of the craft, it only took twenty minutes to reach the planet, dock with the Deathmonger  III, disgorge it's passengers and leave.

Doom's Castle

Tony Stark took Doom's punch and chuckled. "Doom..." he smiled. "you underestimate me. Do you think I could have survived this long if I was to fall for such an obvious ploy?"

Doom panicked, now. He'd won... Stark must be bluffing. "You're bluffing, Avenger." Doom said, trying to put as much confidence into his words as he could. 

"Am I?" replied the armoured human. He reached into a 'pocket' in his exoskeleton and drew forth another remote. He pressed the button and laughed. Slowly, but effectively, hundreds of explosives around the casrle went off. Walls tumbled down, furniture flew from the windows. And the explosions drew ever closer to the battlefield.

"What?!? How did you do that, Stark?!?" Doom demanded.

"You do not think I had a failsafe plan before bringing you into this time? Hahaha!" Stark chuckled with insane glee as the explosions drew closer. 

"NO!" Aleta cried. She flew straight at Stark's back, knocking the armoured human down. But she didn't stop to finish the job. She flew to where the other Guardians - among them Vance Astro - lay unconscious, defeated by Deathwing. This left Stark all to Doom.

"You shall pay most dearly for this attack upon my own home, Stark." he moved to slam a fist into Stark once more, but suddenly to leader of the Punishers' vanished in a bath of blue light. "ARGH!" Doom cried, and, frustrated, ran off to aid Aleta.

Beyond the Punishers' craft

Beyond the reach of the Punishers' spacecraft, deep in the void of space, a bright blue glow became predominant against the blackness. Slowly, a time portal was opening, and futuristic figures were stepping out, onto a small asteroid with an atmosphere which they knew would be there. They were Guardian Force - Michael Korvac, Psy-Knight, Spartan, Whistler, and Blitz, the future's version of the Guardians of the Galaxy. They had trained to help the Guardians in this battle their entire lives, even though they knew it would not change the future in which they lived, a future full of torment under the dictatorship of the Terran Empire. But they did know it would alter the Guardians' futures, and that they would be able to live a life free of the Empire.

Their goal was clear. They were to steel aboard the Deathmonger III, flagship of the Punishers, and attack Deathwing. By defeating him, they could, theoretically, force him to call off the Punisher androids. 

"Okay, Guardian Force," Korvac said. "Let's go." Psy-knight needed no further instruction. Almost reflexively, he created a psionic bubble which encased all of Guardian Force, and sent it on a passage direct to the Deathmonger. They were in luck. A prison transport from Pluto was docking and releasing passages, giving them the chance they needed to slip aboard the ship. Psy-knight used his mighty psionic ability to cloak the Force, and they snuck aboard, along with a human, some Kree, and a race of feline-type creatures. They made their way out of the prisoner holding area thanks to Psy-knight's cloak, but then the unthinkable happened: they were spotted. The Deathmonger III came from a future timeline in which human technology was far greater than that which was used by people in Guardian Force's time. And this technologically superior ship just happened to have psionic detectors.

"Halt!" came a robotic voice from down the hall, undoubtedly from a nearby Punisher. "Or we'll shoot!" Psy-knight, realising the fruitlessness of keeping his cloak up, let it drop to increase his combat power. 

"Do we fight?" Spartan asked Korvac.

"Yes, we do, Spartan. And if the prisoners who are running toward our backs right now would be so kind as to help us, we'll probably win." Korvac replied, spinning around to come face to face with Killraven and the other Plutonian prisoners.

"We'll help," Killraven replied. "But you'll need to help us get out of here when we're done."

"Agreed." Korvac said, just as the Punishers arrived.

Doom's Castle

Aleta, Charlie, Martinex, and Doom moved quickly to aid the Guardians that had been thwarted in their attacks. Explosions were tearing through Doom's castle, explosions that would no doubt destroy the Guardians should they reach them. Aleta, thinking quickly, made solid light platforms which Doom and the others could use to fly away with their unconscious passengers. Within moments, they were loaded up. But then Deathwing returned.

"Excellent effort, Guardians," he said. "But in the end, futile. You cannot escape my grasp." He reached out to Martinex, and again using his own power, he tapped into the Plutonian's own power, using his ability to fire ice to freeze the other Guardians. But out of the corner of his eye, Martinex saw their salvation. Firelord was descending into Earth's atmosphere, dodging attacks from the airborne Punishers and starships alike.

"Firelord!" Martinex cried with what little strength remained in his body. Firelord heard the desperate plea, and rocketed straight to the castle. He grabbed hold of Deathwing and charged his body with a tremendous amount of heat.

"ARGH!" cried Deathwing, in obvious pain.

"Quickly, Guardians." Firelord said. "Get your comrades to safety! I'll hold this one back!" He span, and, using his trademark fire staff, knocked Deathwing's legs out from under him while the Guardians fled the scene. They flew off to a small series of caves elsewhere in the nation of Latveria where they could leave their unconscious allies. 

"Man, it's hopeless!" Charlie-27 said loudly as they landed. "We can't destroy these guys!"

"Maybe we can," Aleta said. "I still have the remote."

"What remote?" Martinex asked.

Aleta quickly explained that she had stolen the remote Stark claimed would trigger all the Punishers' spacecraft to fire at Earth. 

"If they blast us," she said, "They'll kill each other!"

"No," Doom said. "We will not let them destroy Earth." 

Charlie snorted. "That's ironic, coming from you." Doom didn't reply. He simply hovered a finger above his hip, which was enough to render the titanic Jovian silent.

"There must be another way!" Doom said.

"There is!" Martinex cried out. "What about those other Guardians you saw in that alternate timeline, Aleta?*"

[ The Guardians, with the exception of Martinex and Yondu, were trapped in an alternate timeline from GptG #29 - #62. When they left in #66, that timeline formed it's own GotG - Adrian ]

"Yes!" Charlie said. "They promised to help us, should we need anything! But... we can't contact them."

The sullen group looked down at the ground, desperately looking for a solution. Soon, Martinex looked up. And there stood the Falcon.

"I'm only guessing, but did you guys want a hand?" the Falcon laughed.

"Why would you help us?!?" Doom nearly spat at the man. "You are the self proclaimed "Guardian of the Empire". Shouldn't you be on their side?" He pointed to the advancing columns of Punishers. The Falcon blushed.

"I don't want to see that future come to pass, Doom." the Falcon replied. "You can reject my help if you want, but I think you need it."

The sudden appearance of Tony Stark on the bridge of the Deathmonger III did not go unnoticed. His personal servants lifted him out of his exoskeleton and reconnected him to the ship computers that ensured both his survival and kept the ships "special prisoner", the Beyonder, imprisoned. They could keep him there without Stark's presence, but only temporarily. They needed someone with the intelligence to keep track of the Beyonder's thought processes to modify the ship's defences appropriately.

"Grrrr..." growled Stark. "Doom nearly killed me!"

"That is why we teleported you back here, sir." Stark's head servant replied. "And... we have a problem with the prisoners."

"What?!?!?" Stark asked.

"Well, sir, they seem to have escaped and taken down the prison level guards, and anything else we've thrown at them, and are making their way here." 

"Stop them!" Stark yelled.

"We have tried, sir."

"Then try harder!" Stark's servant turned to a control panel where he activated several more Punisher androids, and sent them to the prison level, where they encountered Guardian Force.

"Well, well...." Korvac said. "What do we have here?" With a quick blow, he took down one of the androids, and thanks to Blitz's control over electricity, the rest came down easily. They kept going on their way to the bridge, and found they had little opposition after that last encounter. They found the bridge, and Korvac opened the door.... only to come face to face with hundreds of Punishers.

"Uh-oh..." was Blitz's only comment.

Earth, 2025

A Martian Tripod edged it's way ever closer to Avengers Mansion in New York, temporary home to the band of warriors called the Freemen. And when it was within range, it readied itself to fire.

"Ah-ah!" Maxx said as the Tripod slid it's guns into position. He pulled forth his own weapon, a powerful Martian rifle, and fired, toppling the Tripod. He then slid down and into the mansion, where he found M'Shulla Scott holding his son and crying over his dead wife.

"Wow." Maxx said when he arrived. "Sorry, M'Shulla."

"It is not your fault, Maxx." sobbed M'Shulla. "It is no-one's fault. What is done is done." He turned to face T'Chalu, the only Freeman who knew anything medical, now that Carmilla Frost was dead. "Can you please check him out, make sure he's okay?"

"Sure." T'Chalu said, taking the boy in her own arms. "But what is his name?"

M'Shulla thought for a moment, trying to think of a name Carmilla would have liked. Then it hit him. "Andre." he said. "Andre Scott." He felt pleased. Andre was the name of Carmilla's father. She'd have liked that. M'Shulla turned to Maxx, and led him outside.

"Maxx," he said. "I want to leave here. Now. How can we get to Costa Verde?"

"Well, while I was going after the Tripods, I stumbled across -- " Maxx didn't get a chance to complete his sentence.

"M'Shulla!" T'Chalu yelled. "Quickly!" M'Shulla ran back inside the mansion, to where T'Chalu waited with his son. "M'Shulla..." she said. "I am afraid your son is dying."

Latveria, Outside Doom's Castle, 31st Century

"Okay, Falcon, how can you help?" Charlie asked.

"Easy." the Falcon reached into his armour, and pulled out tiny metallic objects. After being doused in a serum Doom recognised as a reactant to Pym particles, the objects grew in size, until they were recognisable as being battle armour.

"What are these?" Doom asked.

"These were being developed by SHIELD to fight back against the Martian invasion," the Falcon began. "In most timelines, the research was destroyed before it could be put to use. But in some, they were completed and the battle won. Here are the results." He offered them to the remaining Guardians, and they each climbed in. "They are easy to control. They react to your thoughts. Not to mention the fact that they are made of adamantium."

"What?!?" Charlie yelled. "You had these available all this time and didn't hand them over?"

"Yes." was the Falcon's only response.

Beyond the range of the Deathmonger III, the empty ship belonging to the Guardians of the Galaxy (stolen by Talon last ish!) came by on auto pilot. And soon it saw the Deathmonger, and switched to battle mode, firing several salvos at the Punishers craft.

On board the Deathmonger III, the blasts were felt. The laser blasts interfered with the inner circuitry of many of the Punishers droids, giving Guardian Force the opportunity to get inside the bridge.

"Go, Guardian Force!" Korvac yelled. "Remember: take out Stark and we will win!" Killraven didn't need further instructions. He just grabbed one of his stars and did as he was told. While Spartan distracted Stark with physical attacks, Killraven threw his star, which whirled around in a tight curve and slammed against Stark's neck, decapitating him.

Suddenly, and without warning, the ship began to shake. The Punishers, who knew what was coming, scrambled down to Earth. But Korvac managed to grab one and ask what was happening.

"You fools!" it replied. "You have sealed your own doom!" It broke free of Korvac's grasp and ran. The deck rolled and shook as something from below rose to meet Guardian Force. A figure from below greeted them

"I am the Beyonder," it said. "And I AM YOUR DOOM!"

NEXT ISSUE: The Beyonder attacks Earth, but with only Martinex, the Falcon, Doom, Charlie, Aleta, and Guardian Force to protect it, how can it survive? This calls for an alliance, in 'Guardians of the Galaxy #75: Crime and Punishment pt.5 "Unlikely Alliances"!'

Also, next issue will be a giant-sized ish, with the usual smacks and bangs (although more of it!) plus a very special backup story set in 2025. Also, Talon and his son will return for a special, although brief, appearance!

Letters to the Stars

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I got a letter, and it was from an MV1 Branch Editor, no less! Here is what Scott Chamberlain had to say on the mv1talk list:

Since it's my day off, I've used the time to catch up on some reading
here at MV1. And since I'm so generous, I'll share my opinions on what
I've read.

Spoilers ahead, beware....

Guardians of the Galaxy #71-73
by Adrian Watts

Adrian has come aboard a title long unwritten and done a nice job
breathing life into it. It's a fairly difficult proposition, I know, to
come aboard a title where the previous author left abruptly, leaving
many plot danglers, and go with them, putting your own spin on them. But
Adrian has done this nicely.

I'm especially intrigued by the whole 2025 subplot, involving Killraven
and the Martian Invasion. I'm finding that part of the read more
intresting than the portions the Guardians themselves are involved in,
to be honest.

Also, of personal intrest to me is, of course, the Falcon. Is he the
actual USAgent? Or another clone? What are these SHIELD top secrets he
has, and why are they still important after all this time? And with a
name like 'Falcon' I can't but wonder if he has anything to do with Sam
Wilson.

The thing I had the most trouble with though is how Hollywood's ionic
energy could do anything to help Talon's son. I know it was explained in
the story, but the explanation didn't really seem plausible to me. Oh
well, I guess that's why this is comics.

To sum up, having read some of Adrian's other work at MV1, notably his
Avengers Spotlight stuff, this is easily his best work thusfar. Adrian's
improved a lot, and his Guardians' tales are worth the read.

Scooter
Knights BE
http://www.transload.net/~hawkeye_archer/

For those kind words, Scott, I think that many, many more thank yous should be sent your way. But since my web host won't let me have enough space to put them all in, I'll just need to plug your US Agent series (below!):

US Agent, by Scott Chamberlain. Click here to read the tale of Jack Daniels, the man you've just seen here as the Falcon!