firelance2361

[firelance2361]

Time Will Be Your Friend Or Your Enemy

(Guess the Reference)

Oliver: We were given the power to change our worlds, and you chose to destroy them, just like Kang. You have betrayed the Sacred Timeline, the multiverse, and every world within it. And you betrayed me. Go. Take the Council and leave. You are...banished, Kamala Khan. It didn't have to end this way.

Kamala: This isn't over, Osnick.

[firelance2361]

Shoot For The Moon

Since Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is announced to end after Season 2B, here’s a piece I did of Lunella Lafayette/Moon Girl in a version of her Fantastic Four suit based off of the suit designs for The Fantastic Four: First Steps and her appearance in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Vol. 1 #30.

Hope you like it!

[firelance2361]

What If...The Wasp Waged A War Across Worlds?

Here's another older What If...? scenario idea for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania from last year that I thought I would share with you guys. I know this is probably outdated given Marvel's current status, but I thought it would still be fun to share either way.

Apologies again for the lengthiness and I hope you enjoy it!

-----------------------------------------

In this universe, Kang's attack on the Pym van Dyne family resulted in Scott Lang, Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne being killed brutally by the Conqueror. In response, a vengeful and grieving Janet van Dyne murders Kang, stabbing him in an exposed part of his helmet and killing him. She also kills M.O.D.O.K. by using Pym Particles to crush his body inside out.

After burying what was left of her family and taking Kang’s armor off of his corpse, she decides that she cannot let his conquest destroy any other worlds. Upon portaling into the Celestium and freeing Cassie - and informing her and taking her to the site of their family's death - she sends her granddaughter home, while taking Kang's ship out of the Quantum Realm for herself.

-----------------------------------------

Five months later, Janet and Cassie have stayed in close contact with each other via Cassie’s Quantum Satellite. Cassie has buried herself in her work to distract her from her grief, while also modifying her suit to be more akin to late father’s, taking on the moniker of Bullet-Ant. 

One day, after Cassie got home from protesting the homeless displacement, she was shocked to find Janet in her home. After a bittersweet reunion, Janet informs the young girl about a potential Kang variant she needs her help dealing with.

-----------------------------------------

They travel to an alternate advanced Earth in the early 31st Century, where Janet sends Cassie down to infiltrate the facility that should be housing this world's Kang: the Baxter-Benefactor-Academy. Upon arriving and infiltrating the Academy, she spies around for anyone who could be the Kang variant in question, before seeing a young man getting chased by a bully named Morgan and his crew of few bullies across the hallway.

She followed them outside, where they continued bullying and mocking him for his invention. As Cassie attempted to step in, they shoved her aside, which angered him. As Morgan taunted him, the boy secretly activated a hidden shocker in his device which sent the others running away. The boy then went over to help Cassie up, introducing himself as Nathan Richards. Cassie admires his little invention, accidentally confusing it for an Ant-Man figure. Amused and intrigued by her history knowledge, Nathan explains it is something similar: A Growing Man stimuloid, which can absorb Kinetic Energy and redirect it to multiply its artificial cells, causing it to grow in size.

Cassie is intrigued by Nathan’s intellect, wanting to know more about his ideas. Nathan then gives her a pamphlet, inviting her to a seminar he's holding regarding temporal traversal. As he leaves, Cassie starts to correctly suspect that he may be the Kang in question, but decides to wait and see if he's as bad as then who killed her father.

-----------------------------------------

Later that night, Cassie attends the seminar, watching Nathan talk to the students about the lessons of temporal wonder, showing them images of the multiverse including the Sacred Timeline. As he talks about his ancestor's studies and research and how to safely traverse said timelines without suffering any side effects, he then brings out his latest project for helping said problem, a red and silver Iron-Man-like suit of armor that he says was specifically designed to handle problems like timeslipping and spaghettification due to quantum instability.

Nathan then demonstrated the suit and its capabilities to the audience, which he nicknamed the "Iron Lad", claiming that it would help pave the way for Multiversal travel and communication. As the audience cheered, he welcomed his audience to the future and bowed, as Cassie looked concerned, yet also with a strange curiosity.

After the seminar, Nathan walked outside though the crowd, his suit retracted and folded in his side. Soon Cassie approached him from behind, asking for a moment to talk. Their conversation was interrupted by a flying fist from Morgan, who pummels Nathan to the ground, telling him it's payback time.

Cassie tries to tell him to leave Nathan alone, only for him to shove her aside, prompting Nathan to summon a gauntlet from his suit and shoot a stun blast at Morgan, knocking him back a few feet, but leaving him alive.

As he helps Cassie up, she's surprised to see that this version of Nathan is a lot more compassionate than the Kang she knew. As Morgan's compatriots show up to try and gang them, Nathan tells Cassie to hold onto him as he summons an energy platform for the two of them, levitating them far away into the sky.

Cassie hangs onto Nathan for dear life, only opening her eyes when she sees the two of them are floating high above the futuristic version of New York. Initially terrified, she soon becomes mystified by the sights of the skyline, saying it looks beautiful.

Nathan then tells her that's not all he can do, as he reveals his suit also has propulsion jet boots like Stark's as well, taking Cassie on a midair trip flying through the city. As she enjoys the flight, Cassie begins to see Nathan may not be as bad as the Kang she once knew.

-----------------------------------------

Both Cassie and Nathan then returned to his apartment with the Iron Lad armor in tow. While she was there, Cassie got a look at the new technology he had designed and developed. Among these designs, Cassie finds the prototype for what would become the Multiversal Engine Core, the very thing that got her father killed.

Nathan saw that Cassie looked concerned about his design, to which he asked what was going on. Cassie attempted to shrug it off, but Nathan said that if she was worried about the designs, she was allowed to say anything about it. Cassie was hesitant to tell him the truth, worried about his future as the Conqueror, but figured maybe letting Nathan know of his future of Kang could prevent him from becoming the warlord.

Cassie then explained everything, about a Multiversal War caused by his variants, Janet's history with Kang, and how she oversized it with Pym Particles to keep Kang from escaping. She then explains how she built a Quantum Satellite to study the Quantum Realm, unaware that Kang had hijacked the device to summon them all there to get him the core back to escape and conquer the Multiverse.

Nathan asks what happened to the rest of her family, to which Cassie sadly reveals that everyone died because of Kang the Conqueror except for Janet, who killed him and took his suit and power for herself to stop the rest of his darker variants.

Nathan got emotional at the concept of him being a world-killing tyrant, realizing that Cassie was sent here to kill him to stop him from becoming Kang. Cassie tries to apologize for hiding the truth from him, but Nathan says that she had every right to, saying she was just trying to protect the multiverse from what he would become.

The young Richards then slumped defeatedly against the wall, horrified by the realization of what he was destined to become. Cassie then reassured him that he was not his variant, and that what Kang did does not have to define them. She says that while he can't fully undo the damage Kang had done, he can still make things right.

Their emotional conversation is suddenly interrupted by a radio call on the comms by Janet, who tells Cassie she has her location and that she's on her way. Cassie tries to shut off the comm signal, but it's too late, as the Celestium roars right above them, knocking out the power to the apartment.

Nathan and Cassie manage to grab only their suits and escape through one of Nathan's portals, landing on the nearby ground outside before the Celestium opens fire on the building, razing it to the ground. 

-----------------------------------------

The duo takes in the destruction before them for only a moment before another portal opens below them, bringing them into Janet's Celestium, with the Wasp ready to imprison or eliminate Nathan from the timeline. 

Cassie tried pleading for her to stop, that Nathan wasn't like the other Kangs, but Janet refused to listen, unleashing her power onto Nathan, who managed to block it with a force field. She ran around the blasts and tried to reach Janet only to find she too had a forcefield protecting her. Thinking of something else, she grabbed two of her resizing discs - one for growing, one for shrinking- and threw both of them at Janet simultaneously, causing a Quantum feedback effect that knocked her back into the walls.

Once she helps Nathan up, the two attempt to escape through one of his portals, only to find that Janet's Celestium is firewalling his armor's teleportation abilities. Thinking quickly, Cassie grabbed Nathan and shrank the two of them through an air vent, landing into another one of the rooms.

-----------------------------------------

After catching their breath and their footing, the two look around the room they've landed in, discovering it's a trophy vault filled with the preserved corpses of Kang variants who had been captured and killed from different timelines. As they examined the horror show, Nathan took notice of their universe designations, finding them quite peculiar and familiar.

He brings up a multiversal holo-display, showing and matching a wave of destroyed timelines, and each one listed matches each of these deceased Kang variants. That's when Cassie and Nathan put two and two together: Janet wasn't just capturing and exterminating versions of Kang, but she was also destroying the timelines they came from to keep them from respawning.

Nathan then hacks into the records from the ships' database, finding what Janet used to do it: An Immortus Engine, a device powered by the temporal energy of all the Kangs she's captured that can reshape or erase entire timelines, and Nathan's is the next to die.

As Cassie reels in horror from the revelation, an alarm goes off as Janet's troops arrive on the scene, prepared to end the pair. Nathan manages to blast them all back with his repulsors and Cassie shrinks and enlarges like a bullet, taking each of them out one by one.

After using one of the fallen Kang variant's weapons, they manage to blow out a portion of the nearby wall, escaping as they plan to take this whole operation down before any more worlds die, including theirs. That's when they hear the rumbling shake the ship, informing them that they need to hurry.

-----------------------------------------

They two of them eventually made it to the ship's center, finding within it the Immortus Engine now affixed to it. Their attempts to deactivate the engine prove futile however, as unfortunately they were then interrupted by a vengeful Janet, who used her armor's abilities to hold Cassie in place, before tossing Nathan around like a rag doll.

Cassie managed to drop a resizing disc on a sharp piece of debris which almost hit Janet, disorienting her, allowing Cassie to break free and escape. The duo fight Janet more some as Nathan begins to deactivate to engine, which primes itself as it the floor underneath it opens, revealing Nathan's timeline as the Engine prepares itself to rain fire.

-----------------------------------------

As Cassie and Janet fought each other, the latter then used her power to infiltrate Cassie's mind, trapping her in an illusion of the Pym Family Residence. In the illusion, Cassie sees her late father Scott Lang there once more. Cassie stood silent as the vision her father approached her, reiterating about how she mistreated Scott even though he helped save the world.

Cassie then broke down, admitting that her harsh feelings toward Scott were because she blamed herself for being unable to find him in the five years he was gone, and then again for losing him permanently at the hands of Kang. An emotional Cassie tells him that all she really wanted was their old life back and to be free from the pain.

The illusion of Scott attempted to sway Cassie, telling her that she could finally be free of the pain, that this could bring their family back, so they could do all that Cassie said she wanted her late father to do, together. Cassie got sad for a moment, but then noticed the strange sky in the distance; she then realized it was an illusion, calling out Janet for the facade. Janet revealed herself and tried to blast Cassie, only for her to dodge and hit her with a resizing kick.

-----------------------------------------

A bitter and enraged Janet then activated the engine, which worried Nathan as he tried to shut it off, only for Janet to blast him away and destroy the console. The duo fought the Worldkiller Wasp in an ensuing battle, but it all ended abruptly as Janet tossed Cassie into the nearby wall, before using her telekinesis to pummel Nathan into a wall, slowly crushing him and telling him his future is over as the Engine prepares to fire onto his world

When all seemed lost, Cassie spotted one of Nathan's fallen gauntlets on the ground; thinking quickly, she grabbed it and hot-wired a red and blue resizing disc into the gauntlet, powering it up with the surge of Quantum Energy. Janet prepares to fully crush Nathan and kill him and his world, only to turn back as Cassie charges at her. She attempts to blast Cassie with the full force of her power, but using her father's wisdom, Cassie shrinks and leaps over it just in time, before resizing and punching Janet with a full-force Quantum blast.

The shockwave sends a massive burst of power outwards that sends Janet to the ground and damages the Immortus Engine, shutting it down and saving Nathan's world.

-----------------------------------------

Cassie then rushes to Nathan's aid, helping him up as the two embrace. A defeated Janet looks up at her granddaughter, and then down in her own reflection, realizing that all she's done was no better than what Kang did, seeing the true monster she's become as she breaks down in tears.

Cassies attempts to comfort her grief-stricken grandmother are interrupted as the Immortus Engine begins to overload, causing the ship to come apart. Cassie and Nathan try to figure out what to do, knowing the device will destroy the ship and take them with it, only for the two of them to find themselves trapped in a force-field bubble.

The two of them then see Janet holding back the explosion with all her power. Although Cassie attempts to tell her grandmother to stop, Janet simply opens a portal back to her world, telling her granddaughter to tell their family that she loves them. Cassie begs for Janet not to do this, only for her and Nathan to go flying through the portal back home, leaving Janet alone in the collapsing Celestium. Janet makes peace with herself, before using all of her power to isolate the resulting Temporal Explosion, sacrificing herself in the process as the Celestium explodes.

-----------------------------------------

Cassie and Nathan wake up safe in the Pym Family residence, finding things different, back to how it was before. She looks down at herself, finding her suit back to its original purple Stature design. 

She checks the date on her phone, finding it as July 24th, 2026. As she comes to the realization of what's happening, the two of them are startled by the appearance of a now alive Hank Pym, who Cassie embraces wholeheartedly before asking where her father is.

Hank tells her that Scott's at the book signing at City Lights Bookstore, so Cassie and Nathan race off to meet him there. After arriving and changing into civilian attire, Cassie then spots her father Scott Lang still alive, reading from his memoir Look Out for the Little Guy! Cassie looks on in tears at the sight of her father, happy to see him again.

Just as Scott narrates the part to the audience about missing parts of Cassie's life, he then spots her standing in the window, excusing himself for a moment to talk with her. Scott barely has time to ask her why she's here before she hugs him so tightly, crying into his shoulder, glad to see her father safe and sound.

As the two Langs hugged each other, Cassie reconciled with her father, telling him it wasn't his fault for missing out on those 5 years of her life, and her father told Cassie that he meant what he said that she was his hero, and always would be. After a tearful hug, Scott then invites Cassie inside to her the last bit of the book signing; Cassie accepts, saying she'll be in a minute.

After Cassie takes a moment to catch her breath, she then asks Nathan the important question of how this is possible. Nathan then pulls up a display of Cassie's timeline, explaining that the Worldkiller Wasp's sacrifice rewrote their entire timeline, causing key changes like the revival of her family and Kang's demise in their Quantum Realm happening earlier than it originally did, preventing him from posing any threat in her present. 

As the two of them process the information, Cassie then asks if Nathan would want to join her inside for the book signing, to which. he graciously accepts, excited to experience living history. The two of them walk into the Bookstore, listening to Scott narrate the last bits of his book together.

-----------------------------------------

By the time Christmas comes around in the new timeline, things have changed greatly for the Pym van Dyne family. Cassie and Nathan are now close friends, Scott and Hope are now engaged, and Hank and Janet have now retired, with the latter not displaying any memories of the original timeline.

As Cassie's mother and stepfather arrive for the holiday, exchanging gifts with the rest of the family. Scott gathers everyone for an important announcement, telling everyone that he and Hope were expecting twins. Everyone celebrates the news, with Cassie happy to now have two extra siblings to grow up alongside with.

The rest of the family and friends celebrate the holiday together, with Cassie assuring herself and Nathan that everything would be better now. Nathan reciprocates, with both of them looking ahead to this new future with hope.

---------------------------------------

Sorry again for the lengthiness - and outdatedness - of this scenario, but I thought it would still be an interesting idea to explore the possible potential of Quantumania, as well as also providing a possible means to introduce Iron Lad to the mainline MCU. I know it's unlikely to happen at this point, but it's still fun to think of what could have been.

IDK, let me know what you guys think! Hope you like it!

[firelance2361]

Happy Halloween From Earth-15594!

In honor of Halloween, here’s a piece I did of Earth-15594’s Oliver Osnick, Leah Odinsdottir, and Cassie Lang dressed up for the haunted holiday in homemade versions of their comic counterparts’ suits.

Hope you like it and have a Happy Halloween!

[firelance2361]

What If...Black Widow Left Her World Behind?

Here's another What If...? Crossover Idea I've been working on for a while, based on a few corners of the MCU's past.

---------------------------

In this universe, Ver's fellow Starforce compatriots intercepted the Skrull Command ship before Talos had the chance to use their mind-scanning device on her, allowing her to escape as a massive dogfight ensued between the two battle cruisers.

---------------------------

During the ensuing spacefight, a rogue Skrull craft was shot down went off course, crash-landing on C-53 in Mount Vernon, Ohio, landing near the homestead of a young Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belova.

Upon hearing the crash in their backyard, the two of them ran outside to see what the commotion was, where they found the Skrull Ship laying in their backyard. The two sisters slowly approached the vehicles, only to hide behind the remains of their swingset as the injured Skrull pilot stumbled out of the vehicle, collapsing on the ground a few feet from the craft.

As Nat attempted to examine the unconscious warrior in front of them, a curious Yelena ran over to the Skrull ship, climbing into the cockpit and messing around with the buttons. Nat ran over to the craft, trying to get Yelena out of the pod, only to fall inside of it herself as Yelena accidentally activated the craft, sending the pod flying off into the space with the two of them inside it.

---------------------------

Nat and Yelena flew off in the spacecraft for moments, only to be caught in a Tractor Beam by The Helion, who took the craft with them as they returned to Hala, assuming they caught a Skrull survivor.

As Starforce prepared to take on the Skrull combatants, Vers opened the pod, finding Nat and Yelena still inside of it. As the two sisters emerged from the pod, Nat grabbed on of Att-Lass's guns, trying to defend herself and Yelena from danger. The rest of Starforce readies themselves, believing the two of them were Skrulls, until Vers stepped in, telling them to stand down until they knew for sure they were Skrulls.

Vers then slowly approached Nat, telling her that they were friendly, and that they wouldn't hurt her or Yelena. Feeling some sense of sincerity in Vers, Nat relinquished her weapon, putting her trust in Vers.

---------------------------

After interrogating the two of them and learning of their past within the Red Room, the crew determines the sisters are human, but divided on what to do with them. Some of Starforce including Yon-Rogg believe they should return them to C-53.

Vers, on the other hand, objects to the idea, saying that if they do then the so-called "Red Room" will turn them into agents of infiltration and destruction like the Skrulls. She then volunteers to look after the girls herself, a decision everyone is reluctant to accept, but Vers vehemently stands her ground, feeling sympathy for them. Everyone eventually caves, but Yon-Rogg warns her to keep a close eye on them.

---------------------------

In the following two and half years after taking them in, Vers does her best to help Nat and Yelena adjust to their new environment, becoming a mother of sorts to them.

- Nat and Yelena are given Kree blood transfusions and new codes to help them identify themselves.

- Nat is enrolled in the Kree Combat Academy, raising quickly to the top of her class as the top student.

- Yelena finds comfort in her new cosmic lifestyle from Hala, learning about all the different planets and worlds outside of Earth. She also becomes intrigued by Vers' powers, finding her bioluminescent abiilities astounding.

- Vers still suffers from the effects of the Skrull mind-reading device, continuing to ponder about the pieces of her past, trying to put them together with any help from the girls she can get.

- The search for the Skrulls and their "superweapon" continues, but without any leads from Vers, Talos and the remaining Skrulls have retreated into the further corners of the galaxy.

---------------------------

One day, after picking Nat and Yelena up from class, Vers surprises the girls with a trip to on of the Kree colonies as part of an escort mission on Planet M-67. During the trip, however, the escort gets ambushed by a strange assassin who bombs part of colony, causing a panic.

As Vers moves to protect the ambassador, she then notices the masked assassin approaching from behind Nat and Yelena in the crowd, immediately blasting her before she can grab them. Vers takes the girls and moves through the streets of the Colony, attempting to evade the assassin. However, the trio gets cut off as the assassin lands directly in front of them, engaging Vers in combat.

Vers attempt to use her powers to take down the assassin, only to discover she has the same powers as her. The fight thankfully manages to end when Nat shoots the assassin with a Kree pistol, incapacitating her.

Vers unmasks the assassin, and she, Nat, and Yelena are shocked to discover that it is not only human, but also a brainwashed Black Widow agent. Everyone of them is stunned at the sight, when they suddenly see a strange label on her bracelets' display screen, with the words "Icepick Protocol" on display in Russian.

---------------------------

The Widow was taken to the Kree Supreme Intelligence, where they quickly removed the mental barriers keeping her from telling them her information. After coming to, Yon-Rogg ordered her to start giving them information as to why they were on M-67.

She told them she'd been sent by General Dreykov of the Red Room to retrieve Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belova for him, and given cosmic-level enhancements to make her more powerful for intergalactic field-work. Before Vers could ask how many of them there were, the Widow then broke free of her restraints, killing herself before they could get any more answers.

---------------------------

After hearing this, Vers attempted to persuade the Supreme Intelligence to let her go to C-53 to confront Dreykov, believing this is somehow connected to her strange memory lapses. The Intelligence refused, forcing Vers to take drastic action to protect her adopted daughters, deciding to sneak her off the planet herself to take down Dreykov.

As she was exiting Hala in her ship The Hoopty, Vers was soon surprised to find Nat and Yelena stowed away in the cargo hold. Despite some initial arguing, Vers eventually caved, allowing them to tag along under the belief that Dreykov would just send more enhanced Widows to Hala to take them again.

---------------------------

After a while Vers, Nat, and Yelena finally arrive at C-53 to find some answers to the Icepick Protocol. Natasha uses her knowledge of the Red Room to determine that either Melina Vostakoff or Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian may be the best key to determining the source of the Icepick Protocol, since both were Dreykov's right hand lieutenants.

After managing to hack into the World Wide Web, they soon find that Alexei was incarcerated in the Seventh Circle Prison in Russia, so they covertly travel to the prison, managing to break Alexei out without being detected. Alexei, although overjoyed to see Nat and Yelena was met with a cold reception from both children.

Vers gets right to the point, asking Alexei about the Icepick Protocol, to which he explains that when Natasha and Yelena disappeared in '95, Dreykov called both him and Melina back as their cover for the infiltration of the North Institute was soon blown.

However, thanks to their moles inside of S.H.I.E.L.D. they were able to find out from the deceased Skrull of the existence of a Power Core belonging to Wendy Lawson, one that could give it's user powers similar to Vers. Thus, he began what he called the Icepick Protocol, sending out Superpowered Widows to spread Dreykov's will across the galaxy.

When Melina and Alexei tried to stop him, Alexei was imprisoned while Melina was forced to become his chief scientist for the project. Vers correctly determines that the Power Core must be the same Skrull Superweapon the Kree have been searching for.

Natasha then asks how Dreykov found the Core, to which Alexei says the mole found a Black Box with the coordinates to the Core included. Vers then tells them to take them there, to which he agrees, happy to have one more family adventure with Nat and Yelena however, none of them are in a happy mood about the situation.

---------------------------

The group began their journey to the Red Room's new base of operations, The Bolshevik. Vers piloted The Hoopty into the base, surprised to find it is a former Kree Battle Cruiser. After successfully docking and infiltrating the base, the group moved quickly and quietly to where Dreykov's office was located, finding the Tesseract located within the room. They also find hidden inside the walls' airducts none other than Goose the Flerken, whom Yelena takes an immediately liking to.

Their attempts to take it are halted by none other than Melina Vostakoff, who holds Alexei at gunpoint demanding to know what they are doing there; Natasha stops Melina from opening fire, telling her they just came for the Tesseract. Vers then recognizes Melina as Nat and Yelena's adoptive mother, marking the moment as an awkward family reunion before asking Melina how Dreykov got a hold of a Kree Battle Cruiser. It's only when Melina closely examines Vers voice that she recognizes her as the woman from the Black Box.

Confused, they all then gathered at the nearby computer to listen to the Black Box Dreykov found, with Melina revealed they found it during the widespread search for Nat and Yelena. Listening to the events that transpired eight years ago with Vers and Mar-Vell. After hearing what was on the recording, Vers reclaimed her memories as Carol Danvers, learning that Yon-Rogg killed Mar-Vell and took her to Hala.

Most everyone is taken aback by the truth about the Kree using Carol her as a weapon. Alexei attempts to lighten the situation, only Nat to shut him up and scold Alexei and Melina, calling them cowards. Melina's attempts to justify herself only set off Carol, calling them out for even letting the possibility of Nat and Yelena going back to the Red Room even pass by in their heads, and for what's worse, fabricating their entire family as lie to serve a twisted madman.

Melina then pointed out that Vers never even bothered to take Nat and Yelena back home to Earth, to which Carol explains she did that to keep them away from the life of danger that her and Alexei would have put them in had she brought them back. Vers then asked what the Red Room would do to the girls when they returned, to which Melina and Alexei gives only silence, but it was an answer enough for her.

The group's argument is interrupted as the lights go out, with the other Superpowered Widows bursting in and subduing everyone inside the room, rendering everyone unconscious.

---------------------------

When Carol awakens, she finds herself restrained with Dreykov standing over her. She attempts to blast him with his powers, only to find her power unresponsive. Dreykov then remarks at her incredible abilities, and how thanks to her and the Kree's technology, he was able to utilize their little inhibitors to his own benefit to control his Widows.

Carol calls out Dreykov for his actions and twisted methods, especially for endangering young children like Nat and Yelena. He shrugs it aside, monologuing about how he owns the world, and now thanks to Carol's potential, he will own far more.

Using his ring to access the information in the ship's computer, Dreykov shows Carol that thanks to Mar-Vell's work on the Tesseract, he has agents across dozens of cities across hundreds of planets. With the Icepick Protocol, he will spread his Superpowered Widows into his new Soviet Union across the universe.

---------------------------

Elsewhere, Nat and Yelena awaken in a cell next to Alexei and Melina, both of them concerned for their safety, but nether girls were in the mood to talk. After collecting himself, Alexei proceeded to apologize for his misdeeds as a father and ask for her forgiveness. Yelena then expressed her anger towards him and Melina for not only lying to her about the Red Room but also the fact that she would have just handed them over to Dreykov when their mission was over like they never even mattered.

She laments that the hardest day of her life on Hala was the day the Natasha had to tell Vers the truth so that the Kree would believe they weren't Skrulls, which meant telling Yelena that not only was the only good part of her life was a lie, but that when it was over they would have been sent back to the Red Room to becomes killers and assassins, a life that neither she or Natasha never chose nor wanted.

Despite denying it at first, Melina realizes the true damage of what she actually did to her daughters, and realizes why they stayed with Carol. Having a change of heart, Melina realizes that she always worried that either Nat or Yelena would have caused them to fail the mission, but now she sees that if the girls was happier with Carol, then the only real failure was her and Alexei.

Natasha asks if they will really help them end this for good, to which Melina says they will or die trying. Unexpectedly, the cell door opened and when she asks why, Romanoff revealed she swiped one of the keys from Dreykov's desk during their infiltration. After managing to subdue one of the guards, they free Goose from imprisonment and reclaim Alexei's old Red Guardian gear, before making their way to free Carol from Dreykov.

---------------------------

Back in his office, Dreykov sees the family moving through the halls, activating the Icepick Protocol once more and ordering his Widows to apprehend them. As he watches, Carol then gets an idea, beginning to mock Dreykov for how pathetic he is, goading him into punching her repeatedly as she continued to antagonize him. After Dreykov kicks her in to the nearby wall, the resounding impact causes her photon inhibitor to be crushed.

With everything she needed from Dreykov revealed, Carol smiled, however, confusing Dreykov as she thanked him for giving her the information she needed. She then blasted Dreykov into the nearby wall. Before she could kill Dreykov, she was stopped by the other Superpowered Widows as he escaped through the The Bolshevik's halls.

Danvers then attempted to release a powerful pulse, knocking them all away, but the other Superpowered Widows matched her power levels beat for beat, swarming her and overwhelming her with their power. Thankfully, the onslaught is stopped when the Widows are flail them about by a set of tentacles, knocking them all out and freeing Carol from the swarm.

After reuniting with Nat and Yelena, she tells Melina that they need to land the ship as soon as possible. Melina tells her that Dreykov protected The Bolshevik's controls with his ring, only for Carol to reveal she swiped it during her interrogation, using it to hack inside the ship's mainframe, redirecting the coordinates to land on a safe spot on Earth.

Melina then says Dreykov will attempt to thwart them by taking out the engines, so Carol tells Nat and Yelena to take Goose and the Tesseract and get to the nearest dropship and get off the station while the rest of them handle the engines. As Melina tries to warn them that the Tesseract is too dangerous for anyone other than Vers to hold bare-handed, Goose suddenly swallowed it, much to their shock. Nat and Yelena gives all three of the adults a big group hug before running off to the escape pods, as Carol, Melina, and Alexei make their way to the engine to stop Dreykov.

---------------------------

A furious battle then erupted inside The Bolshevik for control of the Tesseract. During their escape from the base, Nat, Yelena, and Goose find the imprisoned Skrulls Mar-Vell sheltered during her time here. Despite being hesitant at first, Nat and Yelena ultimately decides to free them, believing they shouldn't have to suffer from the Kree or the Red Room anymore.

The freed Skrulls manage to provide a big enough distraction for them and Nat, Goose, and Yelena to get to the escape pods. However, just as they get to the pod, one of the widows shoots the pod and cuts off their escape, recapturing the girls and dragging them to the hangar bay.

---------------------------

During the ensuing fight through the base, the parents ran through dozens of Widow soldiers, finally making it to The Bolshevik's engines, managing to defuse a rogue bomb and using Alexei's shield to trap the blast, preventing the engines from being destroyed.

However, the victory is short lived as they hear Dreykov over the radio, telling his troops to bring Nat and Yelena to the hangar. Just as they were about to make their move to the hangar, they were cut off by a squadron of Superpowered Widows. Carol tells Alexei and Melina to get the girls, and they run off as she holds off the squadron, finding herself evenly matched by the troops. She fights them off to the bone, determined not to let them win.

---------------------------

Dreykov finally arrives to The Bolshevik's hangar where Nat and Yelena were dragged to, telling his troops to bring them aboard the dropship. Before they could however, a spray of Widow bites incapacitate them and the vehicle as Alexei and Melina have arrived.

Dreykov then grabbed the girls and used them a human shield, holding his blaster to their heads. Nat whispered for Yelena to stay calm, saying they would be okay. He told Alexei and Melina to drop their weapons, threatening their daughters lives. Yelena, still in Dreykov's grasp, manages to flash and slip Natasha a stolen tool she took from the fallen Widow guard.

Understanding her signal, Nat signaled for Alexei and Melina to be ready to fire as they steadied their ground. Nat stabbed the tool into Dreykov's arm, grabbing and pulling Yelena away as Alexei threw his shield into him, knocking him back into the vehicle; Melina then followed up on that by shooting Dreykov in the leg and stomach, crippling him.

As Dreykov collapsed to the ground, the girls ran to them, hugging them both. Dreykov attempted to pull a gun on the family, only to be blasted back into the hangar wall by a photon blast. The group turns to see a weary and battle damaged Carol and Goose stumbling into the room, with the girls embracing them. After the hug, Carol then walks over to the bloodied and defeated Dreykov, kneeling down and telling him that his empire is over, and that after all that talk of being powerful, here he'll die as a pitiful and pathetic monster. With his dying breath, Dreykov tells Carol that if he can't have his Widows, no one can.

Carol then realizes what he means, but not before an explosion occurs, caused by a backup bomb linked to Dreykov's heart. The engine erupts, sending The Bolshevik crashing down towards Earth as it's pulled down into the atmosphere. The Hangar bay also bursts, trapping Melina and Alexei under some debris, leaving them helpless as the atmospheric vacuum sucks Carol, Nat and Yelena outside as the emergency doors close behind them.

---------------------------

As they were falling at a fast pace, Carol managed to glide over and catch both Nat and Yelena, holding the girls close to herself as they prepared for the end. During the fall, Carol apologized for everything that happened to them and her failure to break them free of their past, all her efforts amounted to nothing.

Despite being scared, Nat told Carol that it wasn't her fault, reassuring and admitting to her and Yelena that their family was real to her, no matter what. As they embraced each other, prepared for the end, Carol then began to focus herself and her power to protect their family. Suddenly the trio stopped falling as they opened their eyes, shocked to find themselves is floating in midair. Everyone is shocked and excited by Carol's new ability to fly, relieved they are saved.

Carol and the girls then took a moment to enjoy the fact that she could now fly, letting out loud cries of joy, only for their cheers to halt when Yelena sees the ship about to crash. Determined, Danvers then flew them safely to the nearby ground before flying back up to land The Bolshevik. Flying up to the underside of the ship, Carol braces herself and slows The Bolshevik's descent to the ground, steering their ship towards a safe landing space as it crashes down onto Earth's surface.

---------------------------

Carol then manages to open the ships' hangar doors, finding Alexei, Melina, and Goose wearied but alive. She manages to free them and bring them outside where Nat and Yelena embrace all three parents with a big hug. That's when the Carol gets a call from Yon-Rogg again, demanding for her to explain what has happened on C-53. Now with the full truth in hand, Carol swears off Yon-Rogg, breaking her comm in half.

The battle being over, the groups scours the remains of The Bolshevik, finding The Hoopty still intact and functional. As she fixes up the ship, Carol tells the girls that she has a lot of things left to do, telling them that after she frees the other Widows, she's going to Hala to end the Kree-Skrull War for good, and then says if any of them want to come with her, there's always room.

Despite not wanting to let Nat and Yelena go, Alexei and Melina fully realize that the girls will likely never be safe on Earth with Dreykov's associates still out and about. Understanding that Carol may be better equipped and better suited to look after the girls Alexei and Melina bid farewell to their children as they leave them in the care of Carol.

After gifting Natasha with his old shield as a memento, Alexei finally gives Natasha and Yelena an apology for everything, telling them that they would be all right, and that they would be there to take care of each other. After the girls bid them goodbye and board The Hoopty with Goose, Carol assures them that she will take care of them as best as they can, to which Melina replies that she will do all she can to handle the surviving Skrulls and dismantle Dreykov's operations Earthside.

Before leaving, Carol gives them a note with Maria Rambeau's contact information, instructing them to let her know she'll be back as soon as possible. Alexei and Melina then watch as The Hoopty leaves the planet for space once more as the pair was left by themselves amidst the rubble as the local authority arrives and surrounds the pair.

---------------------------

20 years after these events, Carol, Nat, Yelena attend the funeral for Maria Rambeau, giving condolences to Monica for her loss. Before they left, Monica told Nat and Yelena that if they wanted to put their skills to use, S.W.O.R.D. would be more than accepting for them. Nat tells them they'll consider it, walking back to their ship with Goose in tow.

As Carol sees the two of them getting along, Monica comments on how well she raised them; Carol simply replies that she can't get all the credit, since despite their rough past, Alexei and Melina deserve some as well for helping save their lives. After giving Monica her condolences again, she boards The Hoopty with the girls, heading off to embark on another cosmic adventure.

---------------------------

Sorry if the lengthy bio, but I thought it would be a both interesting crossover concept for a future What If..? scenario to examine how these two different parts of the MCU's past would interact.

IDK, let me know what you guys think! Hope you like it!

[firelance2361]

Rosebuds

Inspired by The Batman (2004), here’s a piece I did of Barbara Gordon and Pamala Isley both now with the powers of Mother Nature.

Hope you like it!

[firelance2361]

What If...Ant-Man And The Wasp Fell Through Time?

Here's a piece and a What If...? Scenario I did for the MCU's original Shrinking Superheroes Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne, remixing in a few different elements of the MCU's past and future.

Apologies again if it's lengthy.

---------------------------

In this universe, in their attempts to thwart Elihas Starr's progress on the Quantum Tunnel, a misfire from one of the guards caused the tunnel to overload, sucking both Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne into the Quantum Tunnel and killing Starr and his wife in the process. Both Ant-Man and the Wasp fell aimlessly into the Quantum Realm, accidentally fall into a time vortex, landing 24 years into the future.

After waking up in a S.H.I.E.L.D. hospital room, both Hank and Janet quickly broke out and retrieved their gear, trying to escape the facility, only to be stopped by both Nick Fury and Bill Foster. Upon seeing Bill older than he should be, both Hank and Janet correctly assume that they were down in the Quantum Realm longer than they thought, surrendering themselves to gain answers.

---------------------------

After some time, the couple are briefed by both Fury and Foster about the past 24 years. When Hank and Janet went missing in 1987, Bill took in both Ava and Hope, looking after them from them on. While Ava was treated by Dr. Foster using their Quantum Technology, Hope went on to join S.H.I.E.L.D. as a field operative in Ava's place, becoming close allies with Nat and Clint.

The two then unfortunately learn that Hope was killed on an assignment with Nat outside Odessa by the Winter Solider. Her death led to them uncovering and exposing of H.Y.D.R.A.'s moles inside S.H.I.E.L.D. As both Hank and Janet grapple with the revelation of their daughter's death, Nat comforts them by telling them it wants their fault, and that Hope wouldn't want them to blame themselves for her choice.

---------------------------

After the pair return to their old home - kept as it was by Bill out of respect for Hope’s wishes - a grieving Hank and Janet agree to put the hero lifestyle behind them and just try to move on with their lives, as hard as it may be.

- [ ] Hank started up a new company with Pym Technologies, focusing on the mass manufacturing of Pym Particles for global usage. He eventually hired Scott Lang as his assistant, who also helped him with adjusting to the new time.

- [ ] Janet pursued a career in fashion design, starting up the Winsome Fashion line, quickly becoming a social icon. She spent some of her time whipping up some new suit ideas for her and Hank.

- [ ] The two of them were temporarily pulled out of retirement due to the Battle of New York, in which they fought alongside the Avengers to defeat Loki, before they returned to their normal lives. They became close friends with the recently revived Steve Rogers, bonding over how the world had changed for them since their disappearance.

- [ ] Hank and Janet soon have a second child, Henry Pym Jr., who despite his young age, takes well after his father's scientific style.

---------------------------

In 2014, 3 years after landing in the future, Hank and Janet have so far managed to adjust to their new lives here with Henry Jr. However, things become complicated when Hank receive a call from Nick Fury about something found from Rogers' latest mission at the Lemurian Star.

After leaving Henry Jr. in the care of Scott, the two quickly suit up and fly over to the Lemurian Star, where Rogers, Barton, and Romanoff stand waiting for their arrival. The two of them lead Hank and Janet to the cargo hold, where they find a modified Cyrostasis Chamber containing someone wearing a black and red Wasp suit.

As Janet examines the tank, Natasha shows them the information they were bale to pull from the ship's database regarding the mystery figure, confirming her as an operative codenamed "Orphan." Their conversation is interrupted however, as the tank suddenly explodes, knocking everyone back. The others get up to see the Red Wasp in question now standing conscious, before shrinking and attempting to escape.

Hank and Janet give chase, following her through the ship and engaging with the foe as the others follow behind. During the ensuing fight, Barton manages to shoot the Red Wasp in the mask, knocking her back. The group looks in shock as the enemy Wasp is revealed to be a still alive yet brainwashed Hope underneath the mask.

Putting her mask back on, the Red Wasp flew upward, raining a barrage of resizing discs on the ships's compartments, forcing the others to jumped in the water to escape. As they resurfaced, Hope was gone, and both Hank and Janet knew this just got a lot more complicated.

---------------------------

Back at the Triskelion, both Hank and Janet confronted and berated Nick Fury about the reveal of their daughter's false death. Fury explains that S.H.I.E.L.D. tracked down any rumors of Hope's survival for years, but every lead they found came up dry.

Rogers asked how Hope could have been brainwashed if H.Y.D.R.A.'s Winter Soldier program was shut down. Romanoff suggested maybe the Red Room had instead brainwashed Hope and were using her as a pawn to commit their terroristic acts as revenge for Romanoff killing Dreykov. After coming to terms with the mission to save Hope from the Red Room, Hank asks what Hope's target was, to which Fury reveals it is none other than Bill Foster.

Down in the lower levels of the Triskelion, Dr. Foster is working with Ava to stabilize and reverse her condition, when Rogers, Barton, and Romanoff storm in, telling the both of them that they need to move before the Red Wasp gets to them. The moment was interrupted as Ava spots something in the reflection of her Quantum Chamber. Cap manages to shield Bill from a barrage of oncoming Widow Bites, before being knocked back by a resizing Hope.

Clint and Steve get Bill to safety while Natasha and Ava attempting to subdue the Red Wasp. Their attempts prove unsuccessful as Hope overpowers Natasha and flies away, only to be cornered by her parents. Hope, Hank and Janet then fought in the hallway as they attempted to reach their daughter attempted to through the wall the building and into the sky. Janet managed to then turn Hope's Widow Bites against her, incapacitating her as Janet and Hank manage to bring her in carefully.

---------------------------

With orders from Fury to trace this attack to it's source, Hank, Janet, Steve, Clint and Nat work to find a cure for Hope. Upon further examination of the transmission of the Lemurian Star, they find a secret message embedded within the transmission, with coordinates to St. Petersburg. They travel to the home of Melina Vostakoff, finding it in ruins.

The team slowly approaches the house. wondering what to expect, only to get surprised by a sniper on the rooftop firing a warning shot. Natasha steps forward telling whoever's there that they mean no harm, and that they received a transmission send them here. The sniper steps out from the shadows, unmasking herself a none other than Yelena Belova.

They quickly bring Hope inside the house and restrain her to the table, where Yelena fills them in on the whole situation. When H.Y.D.R.A. fell, the Red Room took whatever they could from the organization's remains, including Hope.

During her time as the Red Wasp, hope was paired up with dozens of Black Widow operatives, including Yelena herself. She says on a mission to retrieve the Red Dust from Oksana, Yelena was freed by none other than Melina, who then informed her that Taskmaster had ulterior motives for the Dust.

However, before she could tell her, both Melina and Oksana were killed by Hope, who Dreykov sent as reinforcement. Yelena attempted to use the Dust on Hope to free her too, but the Red Room's Pym Particle's effects on her brain chemistry prevented it from fully taking effect. After managing to escape by disabling Hope's wings, Yelena went on the run for sometime, using her skills to evade capture from the other Widows before ending up here.

---------------------------

Yelena shows them one of the vials leftover from her recovery mission, saying that she sent the secret encryption in the Lemurian Star's message to bring Hank and Janet here, as they may be the only ones who can help stop this.

Soon Hank gets to work on synthesizing the formula, using his expertise with the Pym Particle to isolate the properties needed to treat Hope's effects.

As Hank continues his work, Janet looks over the now restrained and unconscious Hope, feeling guilty for leaving her behind. Nat consoles her, telling her that all that has happened was because of Dreykov, and that she did all that they could to protect her.

Eventually, Hank finishes modifying the Red Dust, telling the team that it's time. After disabling her suit and making sure she can't shrink away, Steve, Clint, Nat, Yelena, ready themselves as Hank and Janet shrink down, flying into Hope's brain through her ear.

The sudden shock immediately wakes up Hope, who immediately begins fighting it out with the other the others manage to hold her down as Hank and Janet make their way to her brain. Once they finally arrive, Hank activates the modified Red Dust into her brain nervous system to free her.

However this doesn't fully stop Hope, as she continues to pummel Natasha until she has her in a chokehold. That's when Hank confirms there is an additional control device somewhere on Hope that's interfering with the process. That's when Clint spots finds a control hip on the back of her neck, using a taser arrow to short-circuit it. Hope then collapses to the ground unconscious as the Red Dust finally takes effect. Steve checks her pulse, confirming that she's alive.

---------------------------

After about an hour of watching and waiting, Hope finally awakens, free from the Red Room's influence. After sharing a tearful reunion with her parents and catching them up on everything they've missed, she tells them everyhting. She reveals that when Natasha killed Dreykov, his daughter Antonia survived, rising to become the Red Room's new leader Taskmaster. When the Winter Soldier shot her in Odessa, Taskmaster then kidnapped and brainwashed her, giving her a new alias as "Nadia."

Taskmaster sent her to retrieve the Red Dust in a plot to not only corrupt the its effects, but also use their reverse-engineered Pym Particles to evolve it into a widespread agent against possible Red Room rebels. When Steve asks why they sent her alone, they all suddenly soon realizes the answer. Looking through Hope's former control chip the team finds a tracking device Taskmaster installed inside the chip.

The lights then go out, with other Widows from the Red Room stunning and incapacitating the others. Te Pym van Dyen family attempts to fight off the Widows, only to be subdued by a barrage of Widow Bites. The last thing they manage to see until they are all knocked out is the face of Taskmaster, glaring down upon them.

---------------------------

The family awakens to find themselves in cuffs inside of Taskmaster's office, with Antonia standing menacingly over the three insects. Janet asks if they are in the Red Room right now, to which Dreykov confirms, welcoming back Hope into the fold as Nadia. Hope spits in her face, telling her that she used them to hurt her friends and her family.

Taskmaster retorts, saying it's retribution for her friends making her like this, brandishing her scars as a symbol of her past. Hank asks why she kept them alive, to which Taskmaster explains she saw the potential in the Pym Particle for the Red Room program, and that she allowed Yelena to send the encryption to bring the both of them here for her plan.

She then reveals her plot, and how she plans to use the Pym Particles to spread her corrupted Red Dust worldwide, saying that after so many years of being used like a puppet by her father, now she gets to be the puppet master. Janet tells her she'll never win, to which Antonia says she already has. She then whips out a vial of the corrupted Red Dust, spraying it directly in Hope's face to revert her to the Red Wasp. She struggles to fight off the corrupted Dust as her parents beg for Taskmaster to stop, watching in horror as their Hope struggles to fight back.

After some struggling, Hope finally stands, seemingly under Antonia's influence, who orders her to execute her parents.

---------------------------

Down in the holding cells of the Red Room, Steve, Clint, Nat, and Yelena are sitting silently, contemplating their next course of action. Soon, a squad of Taskmaster's Widows walk into the cells, prepared to end them only for the lights to flicker mysteriously as gunshots and shouts can be heard.

The Widows turn their weapons to where the noise came from, only to be taken out one by one by none other than Ava and Bucky, who free the team from their holding cell. When Steve asks where the Pyms are, Nat tells them they should be in Dreykov's office.

The team then splits up; Steve, Clint and Yelena go to retrieve the Dust, while Bucky, Ava, and Nat storm through the facility to get to the Pyms.

---------------------------

Back in Dreykov's office, Hope stands over her parents, readying her bracelet to execute them against their pleas. Despite Janet's attempts to appeal to Hope's humanity, Antonia tells them it's pointless, as her as long as her corrupted Dust can access her nerves, Hope will remain under their control.

With that information revealed, Hank gives Hope the signal, who turns her Widow Bites on Antonia, shocking her with a stun blast. After removing the stun disc from her armor, Taskmaster furiously asks how this is possible, to which Janet reveals Nat told them that Antonia might try this, so she and Hank shrunk down and secretly severed the nerve, preventing her from being infected by the Corrupted Dust.

Angered, Taskmaster sicks her Widows on the family, before retreating to escape. Despite their best efforts, the other Widows managed to pin them down, beating them to a pulp. Thankfully, they were soon saved by Bucky shooting smoke grenades filled with the Red Dust into the Room, freeing the others and the Widows.

After helping them up, Nat takes the other Widows to escape, while Hope reveals she stole Dreykov's ring during Taskmaster's threatening, using it to hack into the Red Room database to download their data and contact S.H.I.E.L.D. with their position before fleeing the scene.

---------------------------

As the Red Room's troops began rebelling and escaping the facility, Cap, Hawkeye, and Yelena manages to break into the facility's science center, stealing back the Red Dust before destroying all of Taskmaster's contaminated variant with one of Clint's explosive arrows.

The group then made their way towards the exit as they heard the sound of the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier overhead of them, engaging with the facilities defenses. However, they were soon stopped by Taskmaster, who shot at them with an arrow. Not amused, Clint grabbed the arrow and shot it back at Antonia as the three heroes engaged with the enemy, who managed to best them beat by beat. As she was about to crush Yelena's windpipe, she was then blasted back by a barrage of Wasp Stings and Widow Bites as Hank, Janet, Hope, and Ava enter entered weapons blazing.

Taskmaster engaged with the heroes, using every tactic at her disposal to gain the upper hand. But before she could stab Hank through his helmet, Ava was able to use her powers to phase into her brain to disorient her long enough for Hank to kick her blade and shield away and shrink them beyond use as both Janet kicks her away and Hope hits her with a resized undercut swing.

The team stands defensive for a moment before the wall of the room they are standing in gets blown open, as a jet flown by Bucky and Nat hovers closeby. Janet tells Antonia to back off as S.H.I.E.L.D. has the Red Room in their sights. Though vastly outnumbered, and angered about Barnes, Natasha and Yelena's desertion, Taskmaster demanded Hope's return, and provoked her by threatening to have her parents and baby brother Henry Jr. executed.

Hope leaped into the fray to battle Antonia, even as her father pleaded for her to stop. Eventually, Hope managed to use her sizing abilities to leap over and dislocate Taskmaster's arm. Antonia then goaded her, saying if Hope doesn't she'll never fully be free and if she does, she'll be no better then the parents who abandoned her.

Hope hesitates for a moment, but one look at her parents convinced to let Dreykov live, telling Antonia that she doesn't get to do anything family ever again. As she attempted to walk away, Taskmaster grabbed one of her spare knifes and leaped in to kill Hope for good, only to be knocked out by a resounding double-timed punch by Hank and Janet, leaving her unconscious on the floor.

The team finally board the jet and leaves the Red Room as S.H.I.E.L.D. overtakes the facility and arrest Taskmaster. While on board, the family finally reconciled their past, and Hank and Janet apologized for leaving her behind her, assuring her that it was finally over.

---------------------------

Sometime after this, S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers have been taking point on the remaining Red Room, with Nat and Yelena leading the search for any remaining Widows under Taskmaster's command.

Hank and Janet have officially retired for good from the hero life, opting to make up for lost time with Hope, who has moved back into her old home and started to get along quite well with her new baby brother Henry Jr. However, not wanting to leave the Avengers without at least one shrinking hero on the team, Hank decides to leave the mantle of Ant-Man to Scott Lang for now, before making sure Scott was fully trained to use the suit, with some help from Hope and Janet.

And so, as one generation of heroes retires, another one arises into the ranks of the Avengers.

---------------------------

Sorry again for the lengthiness for this, but I thought it would be an interesting idea to explore in the near future. Plus it would be an interesting way to give Hank and Janet some more action in the MCU without disrupting anything in the main timeline.

Hope you like it!

[firelance2361]

I Am Ant Man

Since I’m dealing with a bit of art block right now, here’s a quickie piece I did of my Ant-Man version of Tony Stark based off of the Avengers Forever Storyline.

Hope you like it!

[firelance2361]

Thinking of You

Since I wanted to switch things up a little bit, here's a comic strip I did of Oliver Osnick of Earth-15594 paying his respects to his family's variants on the Sacred Timeline.

Hope you like it.

[firelance2361]

World's Greatest Heroes

In preparation for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, here's a redrawing I did of the cover for Marvel Team-Up #1 from 2019 by Stefano Caselli, with my Fantastic Four versions of Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel from the World of Tomorrow.

Hope you like it!

[firelance2361]

Transformers OC - Rory

After watching Transformers One recently, I thought I would throw out my own OC Autobot.

Name: Rory

Age: 23 Years Old

Gender: Male 

Alt Mode: Alfa Romeo 8c Competizione

Faction: Autobot

Hope you like it!

[firelance2361]

Ollie and Leah Against the World

Just a follow-up/crossover chapter to my Steel Spider-Centric What If...? explaining how Oliver met his sister Leah. Apologies again if it's lengthy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One year after donning the mantle of Steel Spider in the Fall of 2017, Oliver Osnick is busy at his school when he awkwardly and accidentally tumbles into Leah Astrid by mistake, knocking the both of them over. After apologizing, helping her up, and giving her back her cane, Leah introduces herself to Oliver, says she's a new transfer student to the school. Oliver apologizes again for accidentally knocking into her but she assures him that no harm was done. As they finished walking to Leigh's next class, Ollie is surprised to learn she has the same history class as his, to which they cannot help but laugh at.

Upon arrival and settling into history class, the teacher tells each of the students that their Final project will be over Norse culture, and that two of each student will partner up to explain one aspect of the Norse mythology in detail. After announcing the rest of the partners, the last two to get paired up are Ollie and Leigh, both of whom are cautiously optimistic about the experience.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After school, the two discuss what exact subject of Norse Mythology they should focus on for their project, since Thor is extremely popular nowadays.

Leigh suggests maybe focusing on the origins of Asgardian history before Thor, which she says she has some knowledge on. Ollie agrees, thanking her for the idea. Before he gets on the bus to leave, he asks Leigh if she's available to come over to his place later, to which she says yes.

The following evening as his mother and stepdad are on a date night, Ollie is working on homework with his friends Peter and MJ babysitting him, when he hears a knock on the door. He opens it to see Leigh there with her dog Fen in tow. After letting both of them inside, Leah sets down a few books she brought on Asgardian History. As the two of them start discussing and working on the topic for the project, the two of them soon became friends, bonding over their respective interests and hobbies, something Peter and MJ can't help but smile at. Soon, however, Leah suffers a bad headache, which concerns Ollie a little bit as he asks if she's okay. Thankfully, after a minute, she says she's alright.

Before Leah leaves with Fen for the night, she asks Oliver if it would be okay to hang out again tomorrow, to which he happily says yes to. After she's gone Peter and MJ can't help but rag on their budding friendship, to which Oliver just shrugs off, saying it's nothing much.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the next couple of weeks go by, Oliver and Leah grow very close together as friends, with their project, titled  "Asgard Before Thor", going exceptionally well thanks to Leah's knowledge. Leigh eventually gets to meet Oliver's mother Zelda and stepfather Gerry, who immediately find her a joy to be around, even volunteering to look after Fen while they are working or having fun.

As they grow closer, the two of them learn a great many things about themselves, with both of the surprised at how much they love the musical "Wicked." However, despite their strong bond, Oliver begins to suspect that Leigh may be hiding something about herself, especially with her frequent migraines, but he doesn't pressure it out of respect and concern for her.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One day after class as they're walking home, Oliver finally asks Leah how she knows so much of this kind of Asgardian Mythology, to which she says that she's descended from Norse ancestry. As they are talking, Oliver asks if he can meet her parents, Leah nervously dodges the question, quickly walking away with Fen as she tells Ollie she'll see him tonight. Oliver stands there confused, but just walk back to his home still pondering Leigh's statements.

That night, back at Oliver's apartment, both the kids along with Oliver's family and friends are having a nice dinner, chatting about their daily lives. After a while, Zelda asks Leah about her family, to which she tries to shrug off. As they talk, Leah tells them that Ollie has only been a good friend to her, one of the first she's had in a while since Fen. She laments to the group that her home life hasn't been that well for her lately as she recounts stories about growing up in a rather bad household where she never knew love or affection from her father.

As Oliver is about to ask if Leigh is okay, suddenly she has another bad headache, this time so severe she has a nosebleed. Leah then suddenly excuses herself from the table, leaving in a hurry with Fen in tow. A concerned Oliver tries to follow her, only to see that she has disappeared. Now worried, Oliver suits up as Steel Spider to go look for her, while Zelda calls the police.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oliver swings for a while through the city looking for Leigh, worried if she's okay. Just as he's getting ready to call the authorities himself, he then sees her and Fen sitting on the ledge of an abandoned construction site.

Upon entering and seeing the massive setup, Ollie realizes this is where Leah has been living this whole time.

That's when he sees Leigh in tears cuddling with Fen on the nearby ledge wall, slowly approaching and sitting next to her. When Ollie finally asks Leigh what's wrong, Leah starts telling him the real reason she knows that much about Asgardian history before Thor: because she lived through that history herself. She then tells a confused Ollie that Leah is an anagram for her real identity: Hela Odinsdottir, The Goddess of Death.

Leah then stands up then strikes her cane on the ground, causing a surge of magic and lightning in front of her friend. When Oliver opens his eyes, he sees Leah in a green and gold Asgardian attire, and her cane has morphed into Thor's hammer of Mjolnir, while Fenris has grown to the size of the both of them.

Oliver, bewildered by this reveal, asks how this is possible. Leah then tells him her whole story, how she was born raised on Asgard during its imperialistic era, and how Odin wanted her to be a warrior for his empire. She tells him that one day when she was cuddling with Fenris, Odin chained him by a leash against Leah's wishes, telling her that a leader must tame his threats to ensure they fight for him. Odin presented her with the crown, representing her gift of becoming the Goddess of Death. Leah says she was scared of the crown that Odin offered her, seeing in her reflection of it her future as a weapon in Odin's war.

Deciding that she not did not want to be a part of her father's conquest at a young age, she fled with Fenris from the throne room, using Mjolnir to escape from the Royal Palace of Valaskjalf.  She say that by using the same Bifrost leaks hidden in the nearby mountains Loki later used, she managed to escape into the Nine Realms, crash-landing on Midgard.

After landing and hiding out on Midgard with Fenris in a nearby cave, the two of them laid low until a strange group of armored men with the letters TVA on their uniforms came to their reality looking for them, led by a woman named Dox. They soon left, but not before soon leaving behind a reset charge, which soon detonated, destroying her entire reality. As the two fled and were soon cornered by the reset wave, Fenris hid behind Leah, scared for the end, causing a defensive Leah to activate her sorcery to protect Fen, enchanting the reset wave and forming a portal to another world.

After she climbed on top of Fernis, the two of them leaped together through the portal, escaping in time as their universe faded away into nothingness. When they escaped, they both landed in Oliver's world in the year 2013, where she found a much older and world-weary Odin in retirement nearby. Since she realized she could not go home to the Asgard she knew anymore, she started a new life here as Leah Astrid, leaving her past as far behind her as possible.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Leah melancholically sits on the edge of the balcony, she tells Oliver she often wonders what things could have been if she hadn't run away, but she still worries either way about what she would have become, and what her parents must think of her now. Ollie then sits next to her and gives her a hug, lamenting to her about the loss of his own father at the hands of Loki's army in the Battle of New York, and that his loss weighed heavily on him for a long time. He then tells her that what Odin tried to make her into isn't who she is now, and that for what it's worth he's glad to have her in his life.

As Oliver hugs a sad Leigh in her arms, she then suffers a massive migraine worse than before. She then sees flashes of things happening beyond her present, including Asgard in wreckage. That's when her vision comes across that of Hela herself, as the minds of both variants of the Goddess of Death collide.

That's when Leah finds herself seeing through the eyes of her future self, seeing Asgard's people lined up for execution in front of her. When Skurge rushes to check on the Queen, Hela waves him away, trying to find the source of the mind. That's when the migrane happens again, and the memories of the two of them flash together in a massive blur of magic and madness, until Leah falls back, her nose bleeding again. Ollie rushes to see if she's okay, and a panicked Leah tells them they need to go now. The two then climb on top on Fenris, riding off back to Oliver's friends as fast as they can.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back on Asgard, Hela, unsure of what she saw, orders the crowd of Asgardian civilians to tell them where Heimdall is, which one of them reluctantly does out of fear for their lives. After tracking down Heimdall's forces and taking him hostage, she orders the gatekeeper to tell her about who she saw.

Heimdall reluctantly tells her about Leah, and how she is a version of Hela from a long-gone timeline. Hela is shocked to hear this news, as she knows this could prove a threat to her new empire. Heimdall tells her that she won't win, as ether Leah or Thor and their friends will stop them long before they can conquer the realms. After stabbing Heimdall in the leg, she takes the sword for herself, telling her troops to prepare, as after the handle the rubble on Asgard, they plan for an invasion of Midgard.

Back at New York, Ollie and Leah are at the Avengers Compound with Peter, MJ, Tony, and the rest of the remaining Avengers, Young Avengers, and other heroes of New York, telling them about Hela and that she is assembling her undead army to invade New York as they speak. When Peter asks how they are supposed to fight her undead army, Leah asks if there is any leftover relics or artifacts from either Thor or Loki's battles made of Uru they could use, which gives them an idea.

Within a few hours, Tony manages to bring the remains of the Destroyer armor to the compound, and MJ uses her Pym Particles to enlarge its remain's proportions to bigger size. When Happy asks how they are supposed to melt that kind of metal, Leah steps forward, providing a solution. She takes out a small stone case, opening it to reveal a small flame inside of it, telling them that when she left, among the things she took was a piece of the Eternal Flame in case she needed it, waiting for a moment like this to use it.

With a swirl of her green magic, Leah grows the flames to massive size, using them to melt the enlarged Destroyer Armor into Uru chunks. She then swirls her magic again, forming pieces of the molten metal into new Asgardian suits for the Avengers, which everyone is extremely excited for.

As the heroes prepare for the coming battle, Oliver's mother pulls Leah aside for a moment, telling her that she doesn't have to join the fight, but Leah reassures her that as long as Hela is around, she will never truly be free from Odin's path.

Zelda tells her and Oliver that no matter what happens out there, she will always have a home with them. Leah thanks her, and tells her that she is happy she had a friend like Oliver in her life. They share a big hug together before they head off with the other Avengers to face their Asgardian foe.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Within hours, the streets of New York City are evacuated as Hela's forces attack the city. The Avengers attempt to hold off the hordes of the undead, but  quickly find themselves overwhelmed as they try to fend off the attacks from the undead. The first wave of zombies soldiers come straight for Ollie and Leah, who manage to blast them away with their weaponry while riding on top of Fenris, clearing a way through the street of the undead. They manage to fend off the horde until they arrive at where the undead troops arrive. After Ollie and Leigh disembark Fenris, they blast through what stands guard at the Bifrost Entrance, coming face to face with the Goddess of Death herself.

Hela - surprised and intrigued by the truth about another version of herself being confirmed - steps forward, greeting the younger goddess and complimenting her on having her own executioner and Fenris. After giving her with the same schtick she gave Asgard's rebellious soldiers, Hela then offers Leah the chance to join her new Asgardian Empire.

Leah then nonchalantly tells her off, which angers Hela, who demands to know why she would defy the Queen. Leah retorts by saying that what Hela is now is the very epitome of everything only Odin wanted her to be in his mad quest for power, a quest she wanted no part of. She stands her ground, saying Midgard is her home, Oliver is her family, and that no one will take either of them away from her.

Angered, Hela, summons her crown, throwing necroswords at Leah. Oliver webs and catches them mid-throw, using his nanotech to morph them into his own steelblades. This shocks Hela, but does not deter her, as she leaps into battle with her foes. The Arachnid and Asgardian battle the Mad Queen, who put up more than a match for them. But as the fight progressed, Hela continued throwing her necroswords all over the place, littering the battleground with her weapons.

Leah uses this to her advantage; with a spin of Mjolnir, she lifts Hela's necroswords off the ground with a gust of the winds, forming and unleashing a tornado of weapons upon her. This attack angers Hela, who blast the tornado away with her magic, before summoning Mjolnir to herself with Leah still holding it, preparing to do the same thing to that hammer as she did to Thor's. Oliver sees this, and shoots his webs at her from behind to stop her.

Then, as Mjolnir flew towards Hela's hand, Leah used this to her advantage, releasing her grip of the hilt to grab Mjolnir's strap. As Hela caught Mjolnir in her hand once more, Leigh used the momentum to swing herself upward, propelling herself off and over Hela with a kick, sending Leigh backflipping over her as Oliver's webs attached to the back of Hela's crown. Taking the chance, Leah enchanted Ollies' webs with her magic, using them to rip Hela's crown right off of her, throwing it into the ocean.

As Hela fell to the ground, Leah again summoned Mjolnir, blasting Hela back with a smash of the ground. As the Goddess of Death lay defeated in front of them, Ollie and Leah stand tall as the victors, with the other Avengers finally breaking through to the battleground.

Leah steps forward to her villainous variant, telling her that what Odin did in the past cannot be changed, but that does not mean that it has to define them. She offers Hela a hand, offering her mercy. Hela, rejects it, grabbing Leigh by the throat, grabbing Mjolnir and blasting Oliver and everyone away and forming a massive crevice dividing them.

Hela mocks Leah for being a disappointment for defending a mortal realm like Midgard, calling her weak; Leah retorts, saying empathy and vulnerability is not weakness and that she is glad will never be a Goddess of Death like Hela, saying no God should have dominion over death who cares for life itself.

Annoyed, Hela almost kills Leah with the hammer, but her mercy allowed Leigh to summon and take Hela's crown for herself and gain access to her full power, allowing her to overpower Hela and steal Mjolnir from her, blasting away her armies of the undead and clearing the skies.

As Leah float over Hela, she tells to stand down now. Defeated, but still impressed by her resilience, Hela finally yields. Oliver and Fen then comes to Leigh's aid, making sure she's okay before the two of them share a hug together, glad that the nightmare is over. As the rest of the undead troops fade away into nothingness, Hela's Fenris limps torwards her, cuddling with her one last time before turning to dust.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shortly after the battle, Heimdall arrives with Sif, Skurge, and a few surviving guards in tow as the Avengers hand Hela over to them. The defeated queen relinquishes the throne of Asgard, surrendering herself for judgment. As the guards take her away, Hela tells Oliver and his family to look well after Leah and Fenris, a promise they intend to keep.

After Hela is blasted back to Asgard via Bifrost, Heimdall thanks the young heroes, telling them Asgard is forever in their debt. When Tony chimes in, asking where Thor is, Heimdall assures him he's already informed Thor of what's happened here and that he will be arriving shortly, with Bruce Banner in tow.

Before leaving, Heimdall asks Leah is she would like to return to Asgard, but she respectfully declines, saying she's found a new home with Oliver and his family. Heimdall allows this, telling them that if any one of them needs help, Asgard will forever be there for them. Heimdall leaves, and the Avengers go off to celebrate their victory.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the following winter, things have changed for the better for Oliver, Leah has been adopted by his family, their history project got a resounding A+, and the Marauders have accepted Leah as one of them.

By the time Christmas comes, everyone celebrates the holiday with Oliver's family, sharing gifts and trading stories with each other.

After dinner, Oliver receives a special gift made from Leah: an enchanted hammer-shaped pendant made from a piece of Mjolnir, which she tells him will keep him safe from any magical or mystical dangers. Oliver thanks her for the gift, fully accepting Leigh his new sister.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry again for the lengthiness, but I thought that would be a nice follow-up idea for Earth-15594.

Hope you like it!

[firelance2361]

There Is No Buddy Like a Brother

Since it’s been a while, here’s a piece I did of Earth-15594’s Peter Parker and Ollie Osnick being silly together.

Hope you like it!

[firelance2361]

Always Well-Armed

Since I'm having a bit of art block recently, here's an older piece I did of Oliver Osnick's first costumed identity of Kid Ock.

Hope you like it!

[firelance2361]

No God Should Have Dominion Over Death

Just a cool piece I did of my version of Leah Odinsdottir facing off against her future self as the Goddess of Death, Hela in the thundering rain of Asgard.

Hope you like it!

[firelance2361]

Tails Adventure Logo

Since there have been rumors swirling of Tails getting a spinoff series after Sonic the Hedgehog 3, here's a potential logo I came up with for the idea.

Hope you like it!

[firelance2361]

The Enemy Of Your Tomorrow

Here’s a piece I did of my most featured characters from the past year, Oliver Osnick/Steel Spider and Kamala Khan/Kamala Kang, dueling it out all anime-style.

Hope you like it!