MARVEL's Avengers: Infinity War: The Cosmic Quest, Volume 2

by Brandon T. Snider

  “I owe you a full explanation, Erik. I’m sorry it hasn’t happened sooner,” Jane began. “It was never my intention to mislead you. Please believe me when I say that. My work led me in a direction that I didn’t plan on going. Involving you and Darcy meant putting you in danger, and I couldn’t do that. I had to go it alone. To be honest, I didn’t plan on even being here today, but I believe Bixby may be up to something, and I needed to know for sure.”

  Selvig nodded. He didn’t fully understand Jane’s perspective, but he respected her tremendously and accepted her response. She was one of the greatest minds on the planet. She knew what she was doing. “Then let us compare notes,” Selvig said.

  “I’m getting the chills right now,” Felix said. “Anyone else?”

  Selvig went full steam ahead. “The decimation event is tied to the items of power we’ve come into contact with, Jane. They have a very specific energy. You and I have felt it firsthand. It’s left a residue inside us,” he explained. “I needed to know more about your experience with the Aether, so Darcy, Felix, and I set out to find you. While Anjelica Tan was unable to direct us to your whereabouts, she gave me access to your video journals. You mentioned a book on Asgard that spoke of items that had the power to control the universe. Is that what you’ve been investigating?”

  “Yes,” Jane said. “But how did you…?”

  “I hacked the encryption,” Felix said with an embarrassed shrug. “Sorry.”

  “While I was being kept on Asgard, I happened upon Odin’s library. I wasn’t supposed to go in there, but I did. What else was I supposed to do? I had a lot of time to kill. There was one book in particular. I thought it was fiction. The story sounded so insane. Colorful stones made up of raw cosmic energy, each one imbued with unique powers. I mean, that sounds made-up, right?”

  “Said the ex-girlfriend of a god,” Darcy whispered. Felix gently elbowed her in the side.

  “I’d forgotten about the book. My experience with the Aether had consumed me completely. It wasn’t until I had some distance that I realized what I’d read. It wasn’t just a story, it was the truth. As the healing process continued, the memories came flooding back. The Aether, the Tesseract, Loki’s Scepter… they’re all connected, Erik. You’re absolutely right. You and I have come into contact with the most powerful forces in existence: the Infinity Stones.”

  Selvig was relieved to hear his mania hadn’t been in vain. He was desperate for more information. “Go on….”

  “The six Infinity Stones were born at the beginning of the universe. Each one represents a unique aspect of the universe: time, space, mind, reality, power, and soul. The stones were far too powerful. So, in order to contain them, each one was placed into a protective casing that would temper its abilities and make it difficult to locate.”

  Selvig was mesmerized by the revelation. “The Tesseract… it’s… it’s just a casing for…”

  “The Space Stone. It creates gateways, Einstein-Rosen bridges, though on a completely different scale. Its wielder can open portals and teleport across vast distances. Nothing is off-limits. No place in the universe is inaccessible. The Space Stone is also an incredible energy source that can be used to power virtually anything.”

  “Its power is so great that the only way it can be contained and controlled is by placing it in an encapsulation shell,” said Felix. “In the Tesseract’s case, a blue cube.”

  “Yes!” Jane exclaimed. “That’s it exactly.”

  Darcy didn’t understand. “But the Aether isn’t a stone… it’s like a… blood cloud?”

  “Correct. And there’s a reason for that. The Aether is the Reality Stone,” Jane revealed. “While it was inside me, I experienced only a fraction of its abilities. Its shapeless form can possess a host body and give the body unlimited strength and unpredictable power. We knew that. But in its solid form, it can create illusions and twist our perceptions.”

  “Then it is a Radical Quantum Selector!” Felix exclaimed. “Hugh Everett III, the super-famous physicist, proposed that there are an infinite number of parallel universes out there. A lot of them would be similar to our own, while others could be totally different. Simply put, any reality you can think of? It exists. Sounds to me as if the Aether functions like a Radical Quantum Selector that allows its wielder to access these alternate realities and manifest them into our physical universe. Am I close?”

  Jane was impressed. “You’re good.”

  “Indeed, he is,” Selvig said. “Continue, please.”

  “The purple Power Stone has the ability to destroy worlds. Whole. Its casing is known as the Orb. The green Time Stone allows its wielder to go backward or forward in time, changing whatever they see fit,” Jane explained. “Erik, you mentioned Loki’s Scepter and you’re right. It factors into all this as well. The Scepter was merely the thing that housed the yellow Mind Stone, capable of controlling thoughts and actions. Once all the Stones have been assembled, the wearer could control the totality of existence,” said Jane. “The Stones could be on Earth right this very moment. I believe the decimation event was triggered by the Stones working in concert.”

  “You said there were six stones,” Felix said, “but you mentioned only five.”

  “The orange Soul Stone is the mystery of the bunch. Its power is unconfirmed as are its whereabouts,” Jane said. “At first, I thought Bixby might actually have one of the Stones, but then I intercepted a communication that… scared me. I know you think Bixby is a fool, and there’s truth to that, but you need to understand the stakes here—if you’re involved in something he wants to be involved in it, too. I’ve been keeping tabs on him, and he’s been keeping tabs on you. Now he’s built some kind of device he’s going to use to destroy the planet.”

  “No,” Selvig said. “That’s not what the Crescent was meant to—” Selvig bit his lip. “One night as I lay in bed in that dank motel room, restless, exhausted, a concept came to me. One of many that ate at my once-clouded brain. I forgot about it, wrote it off, until I saw the symbol on Anoki’s invitation.”

  “Wait a minute,” Darcy said. “That half-moon you scribbled on your wall was the same symbol from the invitation? And it’s a device?”

  “Bixby has somehow co-opted my idea…. He’s mocking me….”

  Jane looked Selvig in the eye. “What does the Crescent do, Erik?”

  Suddenly, the lights dimmed, and the crowd quieted. Bixby was about to make his grand entrance.

  “Ladies, gentlemen, scientists of all disciplines, the time has come for you to silence your phones. The main event is upon us! You’ll not want to miss out!” A voice that sounded strikingly like Bixby’s boomed over the intercom. “Seriously, make sure your phones are turned off.” There were ten seconds of silence while the crowd collectively checked their phones. “All right! You know him as the inventor of the Handi-Pan. You know him as a television personality who’s appeared on shows like Doodad King and What IS That? He has over five hundred thousand followers who are definitely not bots. Please put your hands together for the one, the only, the self-taught, Ignaaaaaatius BIXBY!”

  The lights turned on as the man of the hour emerged from behind a velveteen red curtain. Applause erupted like a volcano of sound. The assembled super-science wannabes couldn’t get enough.

  “Pathetic,” muttered Selvig.

  Bixby soaked it all up. He closed his eyes and thrust his fist into the air as if he’d just won the lottery. “You spoil me,” he said, adjusting his microphone headset. As the applause died down, Bixby strolled around the balcony, working himself into an emotional lather. “Look at the person next to you. Do it.” The crowd followed the order. “One day soon the person you’re looking at is going to be someone. They may be an unimportant nobody now. Your peers may consider you a joke or ‘not a real scientist.’ Are they right?”

  After an awkward pause, the crowd released a series of angry, insecure boos.

  “Exactly! Because you are real scientists!” Bixby shou
ted. The room filled with cheers and applause yet again. The master of ceremonies was pleased.

  “Ugh. This is so gross,” Darcy complained.

  “You’re never gonna believe this, but I was like you once—a complete nothing,” Bixby said, sauntering around his space. “I wanted success so bad I could taste it. All I had was failure, and guess what? It didn’t taste good!” He pantomimed spitting. The crowd tittered. “I did what I had to do to survive. I learned to take other people’s work and elevate it—”

  “Stole,” growled Selvig. “He stole other people’s work.”

  “And now I’m rich. You do the math,” Bixby said with a shrug. The crowd withheld their applause. He remained unfazed. “Our planet recently experienced a great catastrophe. I was in my hot tub when it happened. My poor assistants, Kaitlyn and Connor, disintegrated into the water right in front of me. It was terrible. I had to drain the tub, disinfect the whole thing. I couldn’t use it for weeks.” He stopped to sniffle. “And my assistants were gone.” His sad tone soon replaced with anger. “That day I vowed to get to the bottom of the decimation event. What my research soon uncovered was shocking. We think of the Avengers as heroes, but have you ever noticed how they’re the ones who attract unsavory elements from beyond the stars? Aliens, robots, other assorted phenomena. These things didn’t exist until people like Captain America showed up. Love him, btw, but c’mon. Tony Stark?! Who does he think he is?! These people sickened our planet with cosmic power when their battles ended and the dust settled; these cosmic energies didn’t evaporate. They seeped into our cities, our lands.” He paused for effect. “And maybe even our bodies. Who’s to say? But the fact remains—our world is littered with celestial forces whether we like it or not. Think of them as cosmic backwash.” The crowd erupted with laughter.

  “That’s my line,” growled Darcy. “He stole my line.”

  “That’s what he does,” Selvig muttered.

  “We must not be controlled by these forces! It’s time to fight!” Bixby cheered. An assistant wheeled out a pedestal upon which a mystery item sat covered by shimmering black cloth with detailed gold fringe. “It’s time to get our souls back.”

  Bixby stared at the audience, smiling. He flicked his tongue. “You guys wanna see what’s underneath?”

  “YEAH!” Now the audience was frothing at the mouth.

  Bixby whipped off the cloth to reveal a sleek silver device. It was the size of a Frisbee and curved, resembling a half-moon. There was a tiny, open control panel on its underside.

  “There it is…” Felix gasped.

  “This, my friends, is the Crescent. My greatest invention. It serves as a conduit of cosmic energy that will allow humanity to access the heavens themselves.” He circled the pedestal, presenting the device for all to see. “We will no longer be pawns in the universe’s sick games. Earth shall be reclaimed by humanity!”

  Selvig was incensed.

  “We gotta steal that thing out from under him,” Felix said, bursting at the seams. “Hear me out, okay? If it’s a conduit of cosmic energy, wouldn’t we be able to use it to jump-start the Water of Sight? I know I’m not supposed to bring that place up, but deal with it. Since the Water of Sight is supposed to be, like, a window into the universe, or whatever, why can’t we get those Gravimetric Spikes you used during the Convergence and use them in conjunction with the Crescent to stabilize the event? That would work, right? In theory. I mean, we could blow this whole Infinity Stones thing wide open.” Felix rubbed his forehead. “My brain hurts.”

  Selvig was quiet, lost in thought. Felix’s idea made sense, but executing such a thing wouldn’t be easy. It would require a detailed plan as well as considerable time and effort. At the moment, they didn’t have any of those things. “Bat sem ek óttask geymir þat sem ek þarfask,” Selvig said. “The thing I fear contains the thing I need,” he whispered. “Felix is right. Now that we know the vast cosmic scope of our mission, it’s time to face the music. We’ve got to steal the Crescent and get to the Water of Sight before Bixby gets there first.”

  “Say what now?” Darcy asked.

  “Felix saw the bigger picture, and now so do I,” Selvig said. He turned to Jane for guidance. He wasn’t about to embark on this mission without her. “Can we do this?”

  “Can we accomplish the task of activating the Water of Sight using that device?” Jane asked. “Maybe. My knowledge of the Water of Sight isn’t much outside of a passing mention, but I’ll be able to figure it out. I’d obviously need my equipment.”

  “We’ll get everything we need,” Selvig said. “Right now is our only chance to retrieve the Crescent. We must take it.”

  “This is crazy talk,” Darcy pressed. “We are not these people!”

  Selvig was undeterred. “Jane, you’ll need to sneak upstairs and snatch the Crescent on my signal. Darcy, Felix, you’ll have to create a distraction once Jane has the device.” He placed his hand on Darcy’s shoulder. “Thank you for never giving up on me. I need you. Now more than ever. Are you with me?”

  “Of course. I can’t say no now. Then I’d be the jerk,” Darcy said. “What are you gonna do?”

  Selvig stood up. He ripped off his goatee and wig and tossed them into the crowd. “I’m going to give Bixby what he wants.”

  Felix’s eyes widened. “It. Is. On.” He and Darcy slipped away to get into their positions.

  “Ignatius!” Selvig yelled. “What do you think you’re doing with my idea, fraud?”

  The smirk on Bixby’s face said everything. After years of chasing Selvig, the man had finally shown up on his doorstep. The timing couldn’t have been better. “Took you long enough,” Bixby said. The crowd quieted. They were deeply engaged in the unfolding drama. “Jealous that I did what you couldn’t? My Crescent is going to change the world. It made me nervous playing the long game, I’ll admit. Courting you and that beautiful mind of yours was exhausting. I knew I drove you crazy, but I had to do it. Then I stopped. Wanna know why?” Bixby took joy in the slow burn of his revelations. “Girls used to crush on me all the time in high school. I’d chase them, they’d recoil. I’d stop chasing them, they’d come crawling to my doorstep. As a man of science and logic, you see where I’m going with this, yes? I knew once I stopped trying to court you, it was only a matter of time before you’d show up.” Bixby leaned on the balcony railing, tilting his head ever so slightly. “Miss your motel? Never been to New Mexico myself, but I did have an interesting conversation with a man named Ken who managed a little dive called the Seafarer. Did you know Ken will do practically anything for money? Some people, right? No morals. Anyway, hope your room didn’t have any bug problems.”

  That’s how Bixby knew, Selvig thought.

  Jane had moved into position while Bixby ranted. She peeked out from behind the balcony curtain and nodded to Selvig.

  “Bixby, you’re a disgrace to science! A manipulator who cares nothing for discovery or innovation. You’re an egomaniac,” Selvig declared. He looked around to rally the crowd and was met with a sea of blank stares. “Join with me, sisters and brothers! Together we will rise up and unseat this self-serving charlatan!”

  The crowd was silent until a voice called out from the back of the room, “Selvig thinks he’s better than us!”

  Bixby’s plan had worked better than he’d hoped. Selvig was in the lion’s den, and it was about to be feeding time. An enormous flat-screen television descended from the ceiling. Bixby pressed a button on his watch and a video played. It was of Selvig running around Stonehenge naked while being chased by the police. The crowd roared with laughter. Selvig’s stomach sank. He felt powerless and frustrated. Remembering the mission, he shook out of his funk and focused. Selvig made eye contact with Jane, who stealthily removed the Crescent from its suspiciously unguarded perch. The first phase of the plan was complete. Selvig scanned the room but couldn’t find Darcy and Felix. Seconds ticked away as Jane reappeared at the foot of the stairs. She caught Bixby’s eye, and everything we
nt downhill.

  “Stop that woman!” he shouted, rallying his followers. They weren’t a particularly active bunch. Most of them avoided physical exercise. None had ever been in a fight. But their leader had given them a command and they loved to follow orders.

  “Take that!” screeched a man wearing a name tag that read Doctor Globulus. He weakly tossed a nanite-filled Smart Blob at Jane. She dodged it with ease and took off toward the front door. Empowered by Globulus’s act of bravery, the other attendees began grabbing nanite Blobs in an effort to stop Jane’s exit. Selvig finally spotted Felix and Darcy. They were hovering near the Gene Drive booth.

  “Time for the perfect, nonthreatening distraction. Killer bunnies, attack!” Felix shouted. He and Darcy swiftly tossed open each cage as the colony of rabbits quickly spread out across the floor. The crowd yelped and shrieked, tripping over themselves trying to avoid the bunnies.

  Near the exit, a clunky, junky android had blocked Jane’s escape. The midsize drone’s body was made of dull metal and looked as if it had been cobbled together from a combination of old animatronic amusement park attractions and department store mannequins.

  “What are you supposed to be?” Jane asked.

  “I. AM. THE. VYSION,” the robot belched. “YOU. WILL. GO. NO. FARTHER.”

  Undeterred, Jane reached into her waistband and retrieved a small, sharp blade. “Shoddy workmanship, inferior materials, and a general lack of imagination. Your vision is shortsighted. Now get out of my way!” She plunged the blade into the android’s stomach, twisting as she ripped through the cheap metal, moving it all the way up through its head. Having been split in two, the android collapsed onto the ground in a pile of sparking circuits. “Shoulda been vibranium,” Jane said, bolting to safety.