Chapter Text
AVENGERS: UNDER SIEGE PRELUDE PART I
“Hey Max, how’s it hanging in there?” Edward, an orderly for the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane taunted as he passed by a special containment cell.
“HEY! That’s Electro to you, asshole! Do ya hear me?! E-LEC-TRO!” Electro shrieked as he slammed against the glass of his cylindrical container.
The container hung precariously over a pool of water, suspended by plastic chains that threatened to drop the cell in should he ever break out of the non-conductive rubber suit that prevented Electro from using his powers. The whole set-up was further secured behind a set of specially prepared wooden doors lined with rubber, with bulletproof glass windows, which the orderly peered through.
“Yeah? Well, I’m Ed-ward Whe-lan! And if you disrespect me again, I might have to give you a little recreational swim time! You hear me?!” Edward shouted as he reached his dark brown hand toward a lever fixed right next to the wooden doors, which would release the chains holding Electro’s glass cell, and send him plunging into the pool of water.
“Such incivility. Truly, your behavior must be emblematic of the decline of your once ‘great’ nation!” A smooth voice, its speech displaying a clear German accent, called out from the shadows of the long, dark hallway that Edward Whelan stood in.
Edward whipped around, searching for the source of the voice. The bright white of his work uniform clashed with the shadows of the hallway. It was late, and Edward was on the night shift, meaning that most of the lights in the building were out, unfortunately obscuring anything more than five feet away from him from his vision. Distinctive footsteps, produced by hard-heeled boots, began to sound off in the dark, heading in Edward’s direction. Edward backed up against the doors to Electro’s cell, fear and confusion coursing through him. Finally, a figure stepped into the light, revealing himself to Edward. He was tall, with a purple and gold suit and mask, which completely obscured his body from any prying eyes. White and black fur sprung out from the shoulders of the costume, reminiscent of many capes worn by the nobility of the past. Attached to the man’s side was a scabbard, containing a long, thin sword. The man stopped roughly three feet in front of Edward, towering over the confused orderly, and directing all of his imposing menace upon him. Edward cleared his throat, attempting to gather his courage, and then spoke.
“Alright, I don’t know who the hell you’re supposed to be, and honestly, I don’t care, but clearly, you belong here in the loony bin. I’ll-” Edward was cut off, as the man dressed in purple grabbed the golden hilt of his sword, withdrawing it from its scabbard with lightning-fast speed.
“You will hold your tongue before I cut it from your throat. Do you understand me, vermin ?” The man asked as he pressed the edge of his sword to the orderly’s throat.
He leaned in close to Edward, the menacing white eyes of his mask narrowing. Intimidated, Edward nodded his head, his whole body shaking in fear. The man leaned back, withdrawing his sword from Edward’s neck.
“Good, now…” the man said as he pointed to Edward’s belt, “...give me your keys.”
His hands still shaking, Edward reached to his belt and removed a set of keys, handing them over.
“Very good. I find you amusing, so I will spare your life. Run along, before I change my mind.” He said to Edward.
Edward wasted no time in sprinting away and disappearing into the shadows of the Ravencroft building. The man in purple watched Edward disappear, then turned to the door, inserting a key in and unlocking it. He stepped into the room, where Electro sat in his containment cell, curious.
“Who the fuck are you supposed to be?” Electro asked.
“I am Baron Helmut Zemo, and I intend to free you from this prison.” Zemo said.
“Really?!” Electro exclaimed as he stood up in excitement.
Beneath his rubber mask, a skeptical look overtook his prior expression of excitement.
“Wait…what’s the catch? What do you want from me?” Electro asked.
Zemo chuckled.
“Very intuitive, I like that. Yes, I want something from you Electro…I want your help, and in exchange, I swear that I will assist you in the destruction of your enemy, Spider-Woman.” Zemo said.
That caught Electro’s full attention.
“Ha, nice! I’m in, what's the job?” Electro asked.
The outline of a grin appeared beneath the cloth of Zemo’s purple mask, and he pulled out a Luger pistol from a holster on his belt, aiming it at the glass of Electro’s containment unit.
“Why, the complete and utter humiliation and destruction of the Avengers, of course!” He said, venom dripping from his voice, before he pulled the trigger.
Electro, expecting a bullet, flinched, curling in to protect himself. Instead, a hot laser was fired, colliding with the glass and melting a hole in it before Electro’s eyes. Electro unshielded himself and tentatively stepped up to the hole, staring outward to freedom.
“Well then, shall we make our leave?” Zemo asked.
Electro looked down at him and grinned.
AVENGERS: UNDER SIEGE PRELUDE, PART II:
Janet Van Dyne stared blankly at an open locker. It was just one in a large row of them, situated in a small room in Avengers Mansion, which contained the current and past costumes of everyone who had ever been on the famed team. This locker specifically held a reminder of a still fresh and still very sore memory. At least, the locker should have contained it. The costume normally hanging inside was bright hazard yellow and black, with a black cowl that left only the lower half of the wearer’s face exposed, and yellow eye lenses. On the sides of the cowl, where one’s ears would be, were yellow antennae, which pointed straight into the air, reaching just above the head. On the shoulders, where the bulk of the black color scheme lay, before it trailed off around the waist and gave way to yellow, were two black protrusions, rounded on the edges, and giving the vague appearance of wings. Notably, the black chest of the suit displayed the simplistic yellow silhouette of a yellowjacket, representative of the codename of the former owner of the costume, her ex-husband, “Hank” Henry Pym, who was now court-martialled, expelled from the Avengers, and completely disgraced. But it wasn’t there anymore. Somebody had stolen it.
Janet, still in her red and black Wasp costume, reached out and grabbed the locker door, slamming it shut in a fit of anger, and let out a frustrated scream.
“Jan? Is that you in there?” A voice called.
The door to the locker room opened, and Captain Marvel walked in. She was in costume as well. What had once been a Mardis Gras outfit that Monica had quickly thrown on when she first got her powers, was now a bonafide superhero costume. It was silver and black, with a black star on the chest, and a silver mask covering the upper half of her face. Janet turned to her, outrage evident on her face.
“What’s wrong, Janet?” She asked.
“Hank’s costume is gone. Somebody stole it from right under our noses!” Janet said, a seething fury underlying her tone.
Janet grabbed her Avengers I.D. card from a concealed pocket in her suit, then pressed down on the communicator button and shouted into it.
“Avengers, ASSEMBLE!”
AVENGERS: UNDER SIEGE PRELUDE, PART III
Janet Van Dyne surveyed the streets from the sky, searching for the thief who had stolen her ex-husband’s costume. Its disappearance was dragging out relatively old but still very fresh memories, once that she was trying her hardest to shove into the back of her mind.
Hank Pym: From kind, brilliant inventor, to Ant-Man, to Giant-Man, to Goliath, to Yellowjacket, to a- Janet shook the thoughts from her head, and continued with her search.
Still, she kept on remembering the recent past. How Hank had once been kind, how he had wanted to change the world. She supposed everything began to change after he created Ultron. She had tried to assure him that Ultron’s turn from a machine meant to help humanity to one hellbent on destroying it hadn’t been his fault, that all the death and destruction it had caused wasn’t on him, but he hadn’t taken her words to heart. That was when his downward spiral had begun. Or maybe it had started long before then. Maybe there had been signs that he was unwell long before then, like his inferiority complex, or his lack of commitment. Janet’s Avengers I.D. card started to hum, and she pulled it out of a concealed pocket in her suit and answered the call.
“Wasp? We think we have a lead on the thief!” Said the voice of Iron Man.
“Lay it on me!” Janet ordered.
“Uh, right.” Iron Man said, caught off guard by her authoritative tone.
Janet sighed. He’s still not used to me being in charge. Heck, I don’t think anyone is, and that includes me!
Iron Man started talking, his voice slightly distorted, hiding his true identity from everyone except a small group of people who truly knew him. Janet was proud that she and the team could finally be counted among that group.
“Traffic cameras a block away recorded a black van with tinted windows heading in the direction of Avengers Mansion around ten minutes before Hank’s suit was stolen. That same van was only seen on the opposite end of the street two minutes after the suit disappeared. That means it was sitting on our block for a while.” Iron Man explained.
Captain America’s voice suddenly popped up on the channel. “Then I’d wager we have our man. Do you know which way the van went, Iron Man?”
Janet sighed in frustration. She had only been elected as chairwoman of the Avengers recently, taking the Captain’s place after he had spent nearly two years filling the role. She understood that it was hard for him not to take the lead, but it was still frustrating when he did with no regard for her.
“It left the city and went into Westchester County. I can give you the coordinates for the last sighting of the van, but we don’t have an exact location.” Iron Man explained.
“Send them over! Now!” Janet harshly spoke.
The data appeared on the face of her card, and she swerved to the right, toward Westchester.
“Where should we rendezvous Janet?” Captain America asked.
Janet furrowed her brows, hard determination and anger seeping in.
“We won’t, I’m going in alone.” She said.
“But Janet, respectfully, there are too many unknowns, we should do this as a team!” He responded.
“Sorry Cap, but this is personal for me! I’ll meet you all back at the mansion!” Janet said, and with that, she hung up and increased her speed, ready to confront whoever the thief who had crossed her.
AVENGERS: UNDER SIEGE PRELUDE, PART IV
Janet stood on the branch of a tree that overlooked a large house, her house specifically. She had shrunken down, making her invisible to the naked eye, as she observed the scene before her. A black van with tinted windows was parked in her driveway, the same one that had been spotted peeling away from Avengers Mansion several hours earlier, and the front door was hanging open. After going to the last known location of the black van, Janet had received an intruder alert from her home’s security system, and she had taken off immediately. It dawned on her that her house was only thirty minutes from where the van was last seen, causing her to become suspicious. Those suspicions had been confirmed when she found the black van sitting outside her house. Janet fluttered her bio-engineered wings and took off, soaring toward her home. She peered into the windows as she flew past them, looking for anything suspicious, but found nothing. Just empty rooms with all the lights turned out.
Whoever this thief is, I bet they’re in Hank’s old lab area. He left some equipment behind after he moved out!
She decided to check out the van before going into her house, and flew over, going straight through the open window on the passenger side, then grew to full height, causing her wings to retreat back into her body. Crouching down, she found shreds of yellow and black cloth strewn about the seat. She reached down and grabbed a particularly large black piece, then turned it over to find the yellowjacket symbol, torn in two, on it.
It’s Hank’s old uniform! But it’s been ripped to shreds, and all the inner circuitry has been removed! What is going on?!
The door opened, and Janet turned to find a woman, who was covered from head to toe in a recreation of the Yellowjacket suit, holding the door open with one arm. The chest symbol had been ditched in favor of a black arrow that pointed downward, and instead of yellow lenses, the eyes were covered in what looked like goggles, with clear glass that allowed Janet to see the woman’s brown eyes perfectly. She was carrying a red metal box in her arms, presumably full of equipment stolen from her home. She stared at Janet, wide-eyed.
“Uh-oh.” She muttered.
Janet’s face twisted with anger. “How dare you break into my home?!” She shouted. She cocked her arm back, then brought it forward, striking the woman across the face with a furious left-hook. “And how dare you dress that way!”
The woman fell down, landing harshly on her back with a grunt. She lifted her arm and closed her hand into a fist. It began to glow, with a dark magenta halo surrounding it, until an energy blast was shot forth, which Janet barely was able to dodge by shrinking down and flying out of the car. The blast tore through the van, igniting the gas tanks and causing it to erupt. Janet flew away, and the Yellowjacket impersonator leaped away, tucking and rolling to safety as she landed, just as the van blew itself to bits.
“Shit! I didn’t mean to do that!” The woman exclaimed. “Well, I guess I can just steal another, shouldn’t be too hard now that I’m the new Yellowjacket!”
She suddenly screamed out in pain as a yellow blast struck her left shoulder. An angry Janet hovered above her, now nearly grown to full height, as her wings kept her in the air.
“Calling yourself that was a big mistake! You’re lucky I didn’t decide to blow your arm off with that sting!” She shouted.
Yellowjacket stumbled back, terrified, and pressed a button on her belt. She started to levitate off of the ground, and quickly repelled herself back, flying into the woods surrounding Janet’s home. Janet was in hot pursuit, weaving around trees as she strained to keep the woman in her line of sight. She shrunk down, increasing her speed, and quickly began to gain on her opponent. Yellowjacket was clutching her left arm, which dangled uselessly. She looked back to see Janet’s shrunken form gaining on her, and began to panic.
“Still one thing I can do to get away.” Yellowjacket muttered. “But I’ve never done it before!”
She reached down and tapped another button on her belt, which caused her to rapidly shrink down in size. Janet stopped, looking frantically around, but couldn’t spot her. She touched down on the ground, slipping between the tall blades of grass that surrounded the forest floor.
Oh great! If she’s small, then I may never find her! She could be anywhe- Janet’s thoughts were cut off as heard a shrieking sound just a few inches away. She ran through the grass, parting them with her hands in order to get through, and soon found Yellowjacket cowering in a patch of dirt, with a beetle towering over her. It chittered threateningly as she sobbed, stepping closer and closer to her. The woman was breathing loudly and rapidly, almost as if she were having a panic attack.
“So big, so big! Everything’s so big!” She cried.
Janet raised her arm and released a bio-sting in the direction of the beetle. It struck the ground near the beetle’s legs, causing it to scamper off in fear, disappearing between the blades of grass.
Good grief, she’s hysterical! Janet thought.
“No-no-no-no-no-no.” She muttered repeatedly, covering her face with her working hand.
Janet reached down and grabbed her by the shoulders, hoisting her up. “Get a hold of yourself!” She shouted. “First time you’ve ever shrunk?” Janet pressed a button on Yellowjacket’s belt, and the woman rapidly began to grow, with Janet joining her. “Give up?” She prodded. The woman nodded, and Janet removed the belt from Yellowjacket’s costume, just in case she tried anything. “What’s your name?” She asked.
The woman shook her head. “I-I don’t have to say anything. I want a lawyer!”
Janet watched on as three cops guided a handcuffed Yellojacket to the back of an armored police truck, made especially for the containment of superpowered villains. Behind her, she heard the sound of rockets powering down, and a slight thud sounded on the ground. She turned to find Iron Man standing there, adorned in his typical bulky red and gold armor.
“How are you feeling, Janet?” He asked in his modulated, robotic voice.
Janet looked away. “I dunno. This…brought up a lot of unpleasant memories. I thought I was over it, but I guess everything still feels…fresh.”
Iron Man lifted an arm and gently patted her on the shoulder. “Everyone on the team is thinking of you right now, even the members who weren’t around during the…incident. Just know that we have your back.”
Janet smiled. “Thanks.”
“But Janet? Try not to go in without backup next time. That’s the whole point of this team.” Iron Man lightly scolded.
Janet looked down, slightly ashamed. “I know, I know. I just…got caught up in all the emotions. It won’t happen again.”
“Good. We can’t afford mistakes like that, especially now that you’re our leader. We’re all depending on you now, Janet. I hope that you can handle that.”
“I can.” Janet said confidently.
“Perfect.” Iron Man responded. “I’ll catch up with you later, I’ve gotta go. I just wanted to check in with you. Pepper has another important meeting set up for me that I need to ignore.” He said, annoyed.
With that, he took off into the sky, the light blue energy produced by his arc reactor trailing behind him. Janet turned back to the police car. Two of the cops shoved Yellowjacket in, then stepped in after her. One was a large and bulky bald man who sported a black goatee, and a ferocious scowl, and the other was a blonde woman with silky, flowing hair that was tied up in a bun, emerald eyes, and fair skin, who grinned almost deviously. They sat down across from Yellowjacket, and the third cop slammed the doors shut and then locked them. He turned to Janet, revealing a face littered with old scars. He was also bald, and his eyes almost seemed to glow with electricity, but Janet just chalked that up to her exhaustion. He smiled and nodded to her, and she nodded back. He then walked over to the driver’s side door and hopped in, starting the car and driving away. Janet breathed a sigh of relief, then turned to her house.
Great, now I have to check for any damages that thief might have made! She bitterly thought.
She approached her home, and as she did, she was unable to prevent her mind from wandering toward the thought of her ex-husband.
Sometimes I wonder if it was all my fault, what happened to Hank. But then I remember everything. How he would increasingly resist any support I offered, as his mind seemed to deteriorate before me! How he started to think that everyone was out to get him, how delusional he became! He pushed away his friends, he pushed away his career in science, and most importantly, he pushed away me! I know that there was something wrong. The chemical accident that seemed to mess with his mind. The despair he felt after Ultron turned on us. His failures as a scientist…but…he still chose to do what he did! Janet entered her home, then walked over to her room, stipping out of her costume and into more comfortable clothing. She looked over sadly at the framed pictures on her bedside table that she had turned over, to prevent her from seeing them. She looked to the empty half of the room, once filled with Hank’s things, that she had neglected to fill in. He hit me. He hit me! First, he began to ignore me. Then the belittling started. Then he went off the deep end, and when I tried to get him help…he hit me!
Janet reached up and felt her right eye, where an ugly, black bruise had once been, only recently completely healed over. She had decided to take a break from the Wasp, and from the Avengers after that, but then all she felt was empty. She needed to do something. And so the Avengers had welcomed her back with open arms, and when she had proposed that it was time to elect a new leader, because Captain America had served as chairman for so long, she had nominated herself. And the others supported her, wholeheartedly accepting her. For that, she was grateful.
I have a lot to learn. And a lot of experience to gain. But I’m ready, I won’t let my team-my family-down. She thought. Because right now, they’re all that I have left.
Yellowjacket looked down at her feet, upset that not even a day into her career as a costumed villain, she had been so easily defeated.
And by the Wasp no less! She thought bitterly. What happens now? How long will I be behind bars because of this?
The blonde cop that sat in front of her, who had been eyeing her amusedly for the past fifteen minutes, suddenly stood up, and then turned to her partner.
“Unlock those restraints.” She ordered.
Her voice was funny, almost like she was part of a Shakespeare stage production. Yellowjacket watched, confused, as the burly cop stood up and reached down, grabbing her cuffs and pulling out a key. The woman walked over to the other side of the truck, then slid open a small slit that allowed her to communicate with the driver.
“Electro, please notify Zemo that we have the woman.” The female cop spoke, then closed it shut.
Yellowjacket’s handcuffs fell to the ground, and the burly cop stepped away.
“Thank you, my Executioner.” The woman said as she strutted over to them.
Every word that came from her mouth seemed smug and confident, with a hint of malice behind it all. She raised her hand and snapped, and a green smoke emerged out of nowhere, covering her and the other cop from head to toe. When the smoke dissipated, the duo emerged in completely different attire. The woman’s hair was now let down, reaching just past her waist. An emerald green headpiece, with horns on the top, framed her face. Dark green armored sleeves were on each of her arms, encasing them from the wrists to just below her uncovered shoulders. She wore an emerald green strapless piece, with the skirt being extremely short, and black leggings beneath it all, as well as tall black heels. Next to her, the burly man wore a dark blue outfit, which was mostly concealed by the dark grey steel armor that covered his torso and legs. Painted on the chest piece was a red labrys, which perfectly matched the real labrys that he had strapped to his back. On top of his bald head were black tattooed lines which arched down and pointed at his eyes.
“W-who are you guys?” Yellowjacket asked, wide-eyed.
The woman gave her a wicked smile. “We are Asgardians. I,” the woman began, placing a hand on her chest, “am the Enchantress, and this,” she pointed at her partner, “is my Executioner.”
Yellowjacket looked between them, gulped, and then spoke again. “So, what do you guys want with me?” She asked.
The Enchantress grinned condescendingly. “Don’t worry, my dear, you’ll find out soon enough!”