Avengers: Incursion

Point of No Return

The tremor of terror that passed through the team was a palpable force as it hit each of them that an incursion was taking place.

"This has to be a mistake," Whizzer gasped as he fell back into a seat and began to shake his head. "No, I want to hear it from Percy himself. I want proof."

As if conjured by Whizzer's statement, the screen on the far wall lit up with the visage of Percival. He stared at the team with dread etched across his withered face. Nightstar looked at the man and the weight of the situation sank further in before he even opened his mouth to speak.

"I don't know what to tell you," Percival said in a forlorn tone. "I wish I could offer some words of comfort to all of you. But this situation is beyond anyone's control."

Nighthawk tapped a button on his keyboard and video footage from earth began to play across every screen before the spacefaring heroes. They watched in silent horror as their planet began to disintegrate into nothingness before their very eyes. More footage from satellites showed that similar events were taking place beyond earth, originating at the center of the universe and gradually expanding like a tidal wave of Armageddon.

"It won't be long now," Percival said before burying his face in his hands and weeping.

Nightstar was dumbfounded. Since he'd known Percival, the man didn't so much as flinch, let alone show emotion on this scale. To see him in such a state hit him hard. With shaking hands, he attempted to connect with his father on one of the monitors. The video call failed and desolation fell deep into his bones.

He's gone.

"I'm going to try to get the others," Nighthawk said as he scrambled to dial in to HQ.

There was no answer.

"There!" Power Princess shouted as she pointed at a screen.

The footage showed their teammate Amphibian swimming alongside a large ship. Using both his powerful swimming abilities and his strength, he was fighting to push the ship away from the void that was gradually expanding across earth. It swallowed up ocean water and any poor creature it came across. As it moved, Amphibian's valiant effort to push the ship full of people out of harm's way quickly proved futile. With one last grunt of exertion, the aquatic hero was pulled into the void, his body reduced to nothing before the footage cut out.

"This can't be happening," Whizzer went on, his denial clearly a defense mechanism to shield him from the reality of what was taking place.

"Poor Kingsley," Power Princess muttered, her eyes welling with angry tears.

"Poor everyone," Hyperion said in a hopeless voice.

More footage appeared and went, each image more tragic than the last.

Squadron members Golden Arrow and Skylark were attempting to move a group of school children away from the streets where pure chaos had broken out as a cloud of oblivion rushed across the scene. The children cowered under the two heroes who simply looked at each other with tears streaming down their faces. Before death claimed them, Golden Arrow pulled Skylark into his arms and kissed her, knowing it would be the last time.

Tom Thumb, faced with impending doom, activating his shrinking abilities, likely with the hope that perhaps he could be come so microscopic that he might perhaps bypass his fate somehow.

Blue Eagle, racing through a street full of abandoned vehicles, was carrying a young woman across his shoulders. He leaped onto an SUV, then jumped through the air as the approaching storm caught up with him and reduced him and the woman to nothingness.

Power Princess dropped to her knees when footage of Utopia appeared next as the unraveling of the universe tore it apart. She watched her entire history and people become erased in the blink of an eye. Indeed, paradise was lost.