JustWriteRyan.

Hi! I'm Ryan! I'm looking for new outlets for my creative writing and Tumblr seemed like the place to go! I plan on posting twice a week, please let me know what you think!

[justwriteryan]

I started a YouTube channel for some of my earlier fanfics! Please give this a watch and if you want to, like and subscribe!

[justwriteryan]

Trying something new!

[justwriteryan]

What if the Avengers Lost the Battle of New York Part 4: ONE NATION UNDER GOD.

While battle raged in the skies above New York City, an urgent command was sent to General Ross’s control room; all forces to fall back. No further explanation was given. When Ross refused, he was summarily relieved of duty and (noisily) escorted off the premises.

With Ross removed, the order was relayed to the units in the field. Yellowjacket, the sole survivor of the attempt on Loki’s life, was all too happy to comply. Darren Cross remained insect-sized until he reached a suitable extraction point.

Colonel James Rhodes regarded the order with utter disbelief. From War Machine’s vantage point, Operation: Thunderbolts was making serious headway. A full-scale evacuation made no tactical sense. And with the order now coming from somebody other than Ross, Rhodey point blank refused until he heard directly from the General in charge. At that moment, Justin Hammer was instructed to redirect his drones and neutralize the War Machine with extreme prejudice. As the hundred-strong fleet of drones fired on him, Rhodey plummeted out of the sky and used the remaining skyscrapers and war-torn environment to evade his pursuers before escaping the combat zone, flying west with all speed.

On the Brooklyn bridge, Abomination and his remaining soldiers were fighting Loki’s ground units to a standstill. When the order reached them, leaving the area without any loss of life would have been impossible. Blomsky himself ordered the soldiers to hurry off the bridge with all speed while he bought them time to escape. He was last seen surrounded by fallen giants and drawing Chitauri fire. A leviathan dive bombed out of the sky, clamped its massive fangs over the lone figure of Emil Blomsky and smashed the bridge with the force of a small meteorite, sending a huge plume of water into the air. Abomination was never seen again.

In Washington, President Ellis was accused of colluding with foreign powers to overthrow the United States and was relieved of his seat. Sitting Vice President Rodriguez was quickly sworn in with Senator Stern, a long-time HYDRA asset, assuming the mantle of V.P.

While Loki himself remained in New York, his newly minted puppet government announced they would shift focus to other anti-corruption and peacekeeping initiatives before turning their attention back to the “rogue state” of New York. In a speech, the Vice President stated:

Too many resources and far too many lives have been wasted trying to reclaim the ruins of New York. Let the aliens have that dead city. We have other work to do.

The “other work” was the expansion of HYDRA’s influence across government, military and law enforcement. This meant rooting out any Nick Fury or Thaddeus Ross sympathisers and replacing them with HYDRA assets or their allies. The aggressive restructuring of the armed forces into a more authoritarian institution led to internal strife across the chain of command. Resistance to the new administration’s new mandates often resulted in early retirement or dishonourable discharge in many cases.

Much of the defence budget was reallocated to the development and deployment of initiatives HYDRA had been observing for years. Factories for Hammer Drones sprang up across the country. The Extremis Project, the brainchild of Advanced Idea Mechanics, had full funding and presidential authority to experiment on wounded and disabled soldiers. And Darren Cross, one of the few surviving Thunderbolts, was ordered to use Pym Labs to produce an army of Yellowjackets.

Under Loki’s clandestine leadership, HYDRA made more progress in one hundred days than they had in the past seventy years. After they had totally secured the United States, the government would begin “annexing” Canada into the fold. Loki did not care which flag flew over which territory. He needed to ensure Earth was fully brought to heel, just as he had assured Thanos it would be. HYDRA’s totalitarian ambitions would help that become reality.

In an ex-SHIELD bunker, in an undisclosed location somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, two thousand men and women took refuge while their commander, the ousted and now rogue General Ross, plotted their next move. As more members of the armed forces and the intelligence services were dismissed or stripped of rank, they followed Ross’s example and underground resistance was formed. Among them was Frank Castle and Marc Spector, Marines. Sam Wilson of the air force, John Walker from the army rangers and Maria Rambeaux, agent of SWORD. Guerilla warfare had allowed them small victories in a series of raids and ambushes, but against the full might of the U.S. armed forces, now bolstered by flying robots, soldiers with fire-based abilities and assassins who could change their size at will (not to mention the Frost Giants, whom Loki had given leave to hunt down insurgents) they could not survive a war of attrition for long. Overthrowing the White House was becoming a fantasy.

To make matters worse, the media had painted their rebellion as a dangerous terrorist organization, giving the public no reason to trust them and no sign of their intentions.

“I can help with that.”

James Rhodes had tracked down Ross after escaping New York and became the resistance’s chief advisor on aerial combat. To the rest of the room he now presented a steel brief case, the contents of which he kept classified from everybody, Ross included. All he would say is that he had recovered it from the wreckage of New York before he escaped. Rhodey took out it out and held it over his head. The whole room was stunned into silence. It’s resilience was legendary, but nobody guessed it would survive the impact of a nuclear bomb.

Yet there it was.

Unblemished. Intact. A beacon in the darkness.

The star-spangled shield of Captain America shone brightly.

[justwriteryan]

OPERATION: THUNDERBOLTS

On the seventh day since the White Event, General Ross launched his counter-attack.

At dawn, Abomination was released from his restraints and travelled north from the base the Jotunns had just destroyed. Two hundred Marines followed the monster at a safe distance, ostensibly to provide support. The company proceeded without any resistance until they reached the outskirts of Brooklyn.

Chitauri aircraft rose over the rooftops, weapons trained on the advancing infantry. The Abomination simply glared at them, standing still to allow the Marines to come to a halt behind him. Through his earpiece came a single word of command from the General:

“Engage.”

Abomination let out a deafening roar and leapt fifty feet, straight into the alien guard. The Marines opened fire, bullets clattering against Chitauri plate armour. As predicted, the bellows of the Abomination and the sounds of gunfire echoed across the ruined borough. More airborne Chitauri raced to the scene. Abomination hurled one of their fallen chariots at the newcomers and raised a gigantic fist in challenge. All about him the soldiers cheered and chanted, then followed their monstrous leader as he charged towards the enemy.

To the North-West, War Machine observed the skirmish from the air. Concealed by cloud cover, Colonel Rhodes counted the thermal readings of ground units sprinting across the city to the disturbance in Brooklyn. He turned his attention to their aerial units. Gradually more and more chariots took to the air as their infantry struggled to push back Blomsky’s attacks. From the wreckage of Madison Square Garden, the suit’s scanners picked up one of their giant flying beasts, the Leviathans, stirring. It screeched once, then rose through the collapsed stadium roof and into the sky.

“Leviathan in the air, General.” said Rhodes.

“Copy that, Colonel. You are clear to engage.”

“You with me, J?”

“Always, Colonel.” answered J.A.R.V.I.S.

“Then blast it.”

As the War Machine suit broke from the clouds, the P.A. system blares a single note, the growl of an electric guitar. A second later, Ozzy Osbourne’s robotic vocals filled the sky over New York City.

“I AM IRON MAN.”

The Leviathan changes its course at the sound of the music overhead. Chitauri steer their chariots to follow the beast instead of crossing the river to Brooklyn. The tiny figure of War Machine opens fire on the ascending aliens, shooting indiscriminately. From a remote location, General Ross issues another command.

“Hammer. Send them in.”

From a control room beneath the Pentagon, Justin Hammer excitedly types the keyboard on his government issued laptop. At the same time, a fleet of one hundred Hammer Drones descend from the clouds to support Rhodes in the air. The same models that had debuted at Stark Expo 2010, now encrypted with the strictest firewalls and constructed using all the resources and manpower the U.S. military could supply.

The skies above New York erupted into a dogfight. War Machine keeping the pressure on the Leviathan as the drones’ charge at the astonished Chitauri, ill-prepared for an ambush from above. With enemy forces now engaged on two fronts, Ross initiated the final stage of Operation: Thunderbolt.

A stealth Quinjet under full cloak flies in amid the tumult. It hovered silently around Manhattan before finding a safe landing zone not far from the former site of Times Square. Down the ramp emerges a small squad of black ops agents with Ghost and Yellowjacket front and center. Their mission is simple: kill Loki.

The landscape of New York had changed dramatically since the Battle of New York. Not only a burned and bombed out warzone, glaciers and pillars of ice had sprung up from the shattered buildings, erected by the army of Jotunnheim. The Chitauri had salvaged what they could from the rubble and fortified key areas of Manhattan for defence and surveillance. Bridges of ice stretched across the Hudson to allow faster traversal for ground troops. And the Jotunns had also unleashed some of their own beasts of war, massive reptilian monsters with sweeping horns and mace-like tails. Impossible conditions for even the most experienced infiltrators.

Which was why this unit boasted two enhanced individuals who disappear and reappear at will.

Ghost used her invisibility powers to completely cloak the group and the Yellowjacket suit allowed the wearer to shrink on command. The alien ground patrols were unaware of their presence until it was too late. As battles raged south of their location and in the skies above them, the covert division of the Thunderbolts ventured deeper behind enemy lines. After interrogating eight Chitauri and one Frost Giant, they finally had a clear idea of Loki’s whereabouts.

Before the attack had begun, Loki had been seen going into an ice mound where the Empire State Building had stood, without any guard.  At the highest point of this frozen mound, the proverbial tip of the iceberg, was a small, hollowed out ice chamber. In that chamber, perfectly frozen behind a wall of ice, was Thor. Unwilling to risk healing his brother, but not daring to murder him, Loki ordered the Jotunns to preserve his body within the ice, alive but in stasis, just as Steve Rogers had been. Loki would visit his brother once a week.

The team infiltrated the mound and ascended a winding staircase. At the top, standing underneath a makeshift doorway was the horned figure of Loki, his green-draped back to the trespassers. Eager to bring the war to an end, Ghost turns herself invisible and charged. Instead of tackling the god to the ground, Ghost passes through and rolled across the icy floor. The Loki had been an illusion. A decoy. The real Loki advanced from behind a wall of ice and skewered Ghost with the end of his sceptre. They tried to phase into their intangible state, but the Infinity Stone in Loki’s weapon overwhelmed their abilities. For the first time since the accident when she was a child, Ava Starr was unable to phase. As she choked on blood, Loki released the sceptre from his attacker’s chest and dropped the body to the floor.

The rest of the squad opened fire from the staircase. Yellowjacket used the gunfire as cover to shrink in size and hopefully get close enough to fire a stinger blast in Loki’s eye. With a wave of his left hand, Loki cast a spell that froze the bullets and Yellowjacket in mid-air. The God of Mischief, incensed at how close his enemies had come, fired a volley of blasts from his sceptre. 

The firefight was intense, but short-lived. A portion of the ice-wall had been blown out by Loki’s blasts. The last of General Ross’s would-be assassins staggered backwards and fell through the hole. Loki walked to the precipice and watched him fall.

In that moment, a single high-calibre sniper round ricocheted off one of the horns on Loki’s helm.

From the husk of an apartment building not far away, at the remains of a window frame, the Winter Soldier reloaded his rifle.

When Thaddeus Ross announced his plans to modify the Avengers Initiative for wartime, the mission objective agreed by the President, S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Joint Chiefs was neutralising Loki and liberate New York. However, unknown to Ross, the HYDRA contingent of the Security Council had their own objective for Operation: Thunderbolts; eliminate Loki at all costs, recapture the Tesseract and acquire his sceptre. To that end, HYDRA would use the entire battle as a smokescreen and deploy their deadliest asset the Winter Soldier, escorted into the city by Brock Rumlow’s STRIKE team as soon as Ghost and her team had boots on the ground.

Angrier than he had ever been in his life, Loki teleported from the ice mound to the STRIKE hideout. Within minutes, the wrathful god had slain all but two men. The Winter Soldier was the last to be subdued. After a drawn-out brawl that scaled the dilapidated building, Loki was finally able to use the Mind Stone and freeze the assassin in their tracks.

Meanwhile, in an underground bunker at an undisclosed location HYDRA High Command was getting nervous. Director Pearce, Senator Stern, Defence Head Carson and Secretary Malick had gathered to make sure of the Winter Soldier’s progress but updates had abruptly stalled. Just as they were starting to panic, a portal opened in the middle of the room. Out stepped Loki, with Winter Soldier dragging the battered body of Brock Rumlow across the floor. Loki addressed the room.

“I don’t understand fascism, but if you wish to rule the world you may do so…under me.”

And that was how Loki seized control of the U.S. Government.

[justwriteryan]

PART 1: Fallout

The World Security Council overrules Nick Fury and orders the launch of a nuclear missile on New York City. Before Fury can prevent the jet from launching, the Director is waylaid by Agent Jasper Sitwell, secretly acting on behalf of HYDRA.

Without advance warning from the Helicarrier, the Avengers fail to stop the missile. The jet fires its payload which makes direct impact on Stark Tower, wiping out the Avengers themselves and most of the city in an all-encompassing flash of light.

Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton and Tony Stark are incinerated by the explosion. Loki barely escapes Stark Tower before it detonates, teleporting out of the skyscraper in the nick of time. A split second decision drives him to rescue Thor from the nuclear fireball as well.

The Hulk not only survives the explosion; he attempts to absorb as much of the radiation released by the missile into his own body. While this does drastically reduce the nuclear fallout in the surrounding area, the high levels of radiation pollute the Hulk’s mind. Bruce Banner’s consciousness is essentially burned away from radiation poisoning, while the Hulk himself is reduced to animal-level intelligence and no longer capable of speech. They flee the blast site and disappear into the wilderness.

The Helicarrier, still damaged from Barton’s ambush and Hulk’s rampage earlier that day, failed to enact evasive manoeuvres against the shockwave of a nuclear explosion. The blast sends the aircraft plummeting into the Atlantic. Nick Fury, Maria Hill and all other SHIELD personnel on board lose their lives in the crash.

Loki and Thor reappear somewhere outside the city. Thor lands on the ground unconscious. The God of Thunder is badly burned. Loki looks on at the smoke rising from the ruins of Manhattan in silence. Hanging in the sky above the billowing mushroom cloud is the portal to the far reaches of space. Stark Tower was destroyed, but not before the Tesseract (or Space Stone) had become self-sufficient, capable of opening a wormhole to the end of the universe without any additional power sources. The Chitauri Loki had summoned had been wiped out, along with everyone else on the ground, but reinforcements from the mothership were still poring through, awaiting his command.

Loki spies a news van and camera crew setting up nearby. Sceptre in hand, he approaches and instructs them to record a message.

“People of Midgard, citizens of Earth. I am Prince Loki of Asgard and I came here to rule you all as one nation under one god. The devastation behind me was not my doing. I led an army into that city to quell any resistance, to do battle the honourable way. But those you task with protecting you have no honour at all. The explosion you witnessed was the result of a missile fired by the international peacekeeping taskforce known as SHIELD. They wilfully ignored all rules of engagement and massacred their own people, causing more deaths than my legions ever could. They will be held accountable for this; I swear to you. Until then; I claim what remains of New York City as my stronghold. Any attempt to trespass will be met with deadly force. Do not test me.”

************************

In the days following the transmission of Loki’s message, the effects of the Battle of New York rippled across the globe.

Recognising their position as the planet’s front line against a full-scale alien invasion, the United States government recalled all forces from overseas to bolster their defences against any expansion of Loki’s new territory. Any survivors in the Greater New York are were quickly evacuated and a perimeter was established fifteen miles outside the city itself. From there, the army would make unsuccessful attempts at recapture, only to be repelled by Chitauri patrols every time.

Despite the emergence of a genuine global threat growing in the U.S., the international community was reluctant to send aid. Various nations marshalled their own forces and held them at the ready for when the conflict would inevitably spread beyond America. Most parties viewed the American government’s research into the Tesseract as the root cause of the attack itself. Additionally, after Loki announced to the world that SHIELD had authorised the use of a nuclear warhead on one of the most densely populated cities on Earth, confidence in the institution plummeted. Governments, corporations and intelligence services began openly disavowing SHIELD and began to limit any communication with them.

Now that a beachhead had been secured on Earth, Loki reported to the Other, his liaison to Thanos. The Tesseract was safe, the portal was open and Earth’s protectors had fallen. With reinforcements, Loki could conquer the planet in no time at all. Thanos however, realising that his Asgardian servant now held two Infinity Stones and not trusting the would-be king, told Loki further reinforcements would take time to muster and to make use of the Chitauri he had been supplied with already. Dismayed but determined, Loki sent envoys to his ancestral people the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. Declaring himself as the long-lost son of the late King Laufey, the God of Mischief urged the Jotuns to rally to him and conquer Midgard as his father had once attempted long ago. With no other clear leadership to challenge them, the people of Jotunheim consented and within a few days an army of Frost Giants travelled through the portal, ready to battle in Loki’s name.

[justwriteryan]

Part 2: the White Event.

Planet Earth always had some degree of protection from the darker forces in the galaxy, even if they didn’t know it. Unfortunately, at the time of the Chitauri Invasion many of these powers were already engaged in conflicts across the cosmos.

The Nova Corps were deeply embroiled in the ongoing Kree-Skrull War, so failed to notice when a legion of Chitauri attacked Terra. Captain Marvel, Earth’s own champion among the stars was fighting her own one-woman war against her former Kree oppressors and at the same time providing safe passage and asylum for Skrull refugees.

Asgard had always kept a weathered eye on the affairs of the mortal world from afar. The recent destruction of the Bifrost, however, meant that they lacked the means or the manpower to defend Midgard. Reconstruction of the Rainbow Bridge went slowly and seven other realms still required protection from bandits and warlords’ eager for plunder.

The Sorcerers of Kamar-Taj held sanctums in major cities across the globe. From the Sanctum Sanctorum in Greenwich Village the Ancient One herself helped repel Chitauri marauders completely undetected by the troops on the ground. But as the nuclear missile approached, she hastily strengthened the building’s protection spells to withstand the impact and enchant the brownstone to appear as another crumbling ruin in a bombed city. Back at their stronghold in Kamar-Taj, the Ancient One decreed that the Chitauri invasion was not a metaphysical threat to their reality and so it was not their responsibility to intervene further. Already simmering tensions began to rise among the other masters at this news. Kaecillius, already growing disillusioned with their leader’s refusal to act, argued against staying hidden while the planet faced a danger like never before. Wong believed that contact with extra-terrestrial life of this magnitude was inevitable, but it was their duty to stand guard for threats like Mephisto or Dormammu. This discourse carried on and on, while Loki’s armies remained unopposed from the only magic practitioners with the skill to match his.

                                               **********************

Four weeks had passed since New York City was occupied by foreign invaders. The perimeter manned by military, National Guard and SHIELD stood strong. Loki’s forces, bolstered by an army of Frost Giants were fully entrenched in the ruins of the city and thwarted every attempt to breach their base. A stalemate had descended on the war torn region. A stalemate that would break that very night.

As the sun set over the Manhattan skyline, a military base south of Brooklyn detected a change in the local atmosphere. Although it was still June, thermal readings showed the temperature around the base begin to drop. One of the officers standing guard noticed movement coming the shadows under the horizon. They watched as a swirling, bubbling mass emanated from the twilight. It grew in height, stretched in diameter, until a dense white vapour could be seen gliding over the abandoned suburbs and ravaged highways. The air grew colder and colder as a great freezing most approached the base, buffeted by an icy wind. Commands were barked, positions manned and artillery prepped for deployment. As the mist swept over the base, the temperature plummeted below zero. Teeth chattered, frost formed across the ground and any equipment not built to withstand polar conditions quickly short circuited and was rendered inert.

Still the temperature fell. Surveillance systems went down. Then communications. Finally, the floodlights blew out. The encampment was totally enveloped by the mysterious fog and completely cut off from support. An order was given to fire flares into the darkening sky. As the last flare was shot, the red blinking light cast shadows on what appeared to be extraordinarily tall men with pale blue skin, charging towards the base on foot and covering great distance in long, loping strides. The commander of the base gave the order to open fire. What the Jotunn warchief bellowed at his reavers, no human could translate.

Six hours later, the sun rose. The freezing mist dissipated and the air became thick and humid once more. Army transport vehicles and medical vans that had been kept at bay by the freak weather conditions rushed to the base. Representatives from different military and intelligence services hurried to the scene, helmet cams relaying footage to the White House, Pentagon and Triskelion. When the convoy was not met by guards at the gate, their worst fears were confirmed.

Yesterday this had been a bustling military base with a barracks of three hundred troops and a state of the art command centre on the frontlines of a border war. Today it was the site of a massacre. Bodies and body parts lay in every direction. Walls and fences had been smashed as something through them. Tents had been flattened and trampled as if by a stampede. Armoured trucks had been rolled over and crushed. The radio tower had been pulled down and snapped into pieces. A Chinook helicopter had been ripped in two. And everywhere, all over the blood sodden ground, clearly distinguishable among the melting frost and sloshing mud were giant footprints, criss-crossing in a frenzied pattern with no indication of order. The only object standing upright among the devastation was a lone flagpole. The flag unfurled itself, without wind, as if commanded to by an unseen force. The banner displayed a green field emblazoned by a golden helmet with two long, curved horns.

Twenty-four hours later, inside an aircraft hangar not far from Washington D.C., General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross addresses a select gathering of individuals.

“You’ve all seen the footage. At twenty-one hundred hours a joint operations encampment along the New York Perimeter was swamped by a weather anomaly the media are calling “the White Event”. By sunrise, it had been neutralised. With prejudice. There were no survivors. The despot who seized control of our most beloved city just showed the world that he’s ready to take this conflict to the next stage. So are we. Conventional methods of ground and air combat have failed and any suggestions of risking the nuclear option on U.S. soil again get laughed out of the room. But the late Nick Fury did have one good idea. The Avengers Initiative works in principle but the candidates Fury selected…well, let’s not speak ill of the dead. The World Security Council feel it needs a new direction. People with experience in military action, air force levels of endurance, a lifetime of espionage and intelligence gathering. People who can make the hard choices and still toe the line because that is what they’ve been trained to do! I have convinced the powers that be that you, assembled here, are the heroes this country needs.”

Joining the General in this meeting is Colonel James Rhodes, WAR MACHINE. 

Ava Starr, GHOST enhanced SHIELD black ops specialist. 

Darren Cross, head of Pym Technologies, wearing a silver and yellow mech suit: YELLOWJACKET

Justin Hammer, former C.E.O. of HAMMER INDUSTRIES.

and the enormous, shackled figure of Emil Blonsky, the ABOMINATION.

Abomination snorts at the General before him. “You want us to be Avengers?”

“No.” Ross replied. “The Avengers was Fury’s. This team will be mine.”

“Do we still work for SHIELD, then?” asks Ava.

“You heard him.” answered Rhodes, looking directly at the General. “We’re Thunderbolt’s.”

[justwriteryan]

PART 1: Fallout

The World Security Council overrules Nick Fury and orders the launch of a nuclear missile on New York City. Before Fury can prevent the jet from launching, the Director is waylaid by Agent Jasper Sitwell, secretly acting on behalf of HYDRA.

Without advance warning from the Helicarrier, the Avengers fail to stop the missile. The jet fires its payload which makes direct impact on Stark Tower, wiping out the Avengers themselves and most of the city in an all-encompassing flash of light.

Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton and Tony Stark are incinerated by the explosion. Loki barely escapes Stark Tower before it detonates, teleporting out of the skyscraper in the nick of time. A split second decision drives him to rescue Thor from the nuclear fireball as well.

The Hulk not only survives the explosion; he attempts to absorb as much of the radiation released by the missile into his own body. While this does drastically reduce the nuclear fallout in the surrounding area, the high levels of radiation pollute the Hulk’s mind. Bruce Banner’s consciousness is essentially burned away from radiation poisoning, while the Hulk himself is reduced to animal-level intelligence and no longer capable of speech. They flee the blast site and disappear into the wilderness.

The Helicarrier, still damaged from Barton’s ambush and Hulk’s rampage earlier that day, failed to enact evasive manoeuvres against the shockwave of a nuclear explosion. The blast sends the aircraft plummeting into the Atlantic. Nick Fury, Maria Hill and all other SHIELD personnel on board lose their lives in the crash.

Loki and Thor reappear somewhere outside the city. Thor lands on the ground unconscious. The God of Thunder is badly burned. Loki looks on at the smoke rising from the ruins of Manhattan in silence. Hanging in the sky above the billowing mushroom cloud is the portal to the far reaches of space. Stark Tower was destroyed, but not before the Tesseract (or Space Stone) had become self-sufficient, capable of opening a wormhole to the end of the universe without any additional power sources. The Chitauri Loki had summoned had been wiped out, along with everyone else on the ground, but reinforcements from the mothership were still poring through, awaiting his command.

Loki spies a news van and camera crew setting up nearby. Sceptre in hand, he approaches and instructs them to record a message.

“People of Midgard, citizens of Earth. I am Prince Loki of Asgard and I came here to rule you all as one nation under one god. The devastation behind me was not my doing. I led an army into that city to quell any resistance, to do battle the honourable way. But those you task with protecting you have no honour at all. The explosion you witnessed was the result of a missile fired by the international peacekeeping taskforce known as SHIELD. They wilfully ignored all rules of engagement and massacred their own people, causing more deaths than my legions ever could. They will be held accountable for this; I swear to you. Until then; I claim what remains of New York City as my stronghold. Any attempt to trespass will be met with deadly force. Do not test me.”

************************

In the days following the transmission of Loki’s message, the effects of the Battle of New York rippled across the globe.

Recognising their position as the planet’s front line against a full-scale alien invasion, the United States government recalled all forces from overseas to bolster their defences against any expansion of Loki’s new territory. Any survivors in the Greater New York are were quickly evacuated and a perimeter was established fifteen miles outside the city itself. From there, the army would make unsuccessful attempts at recapture, only to be repelled by Chitauri patrols every time.

Despite the emergence of a genuine global threat growing in the U.S., the international community was reluctant to send aid. Various nations marshalled their own forces and held them at the ready for when the conflict would inevitably spread beyond America. Most parties viewed the American government’s research into the Tesseract as the root cause of the attack itself. Additionally, after Loki announced to the world that SHIELD had authorised the use of a nuclear warhead on one of the most densely populated cities on Earth, confidence in the institution plummeted. Governments, corporations and intelligence services began openly disavowing SHIELD and began to limit any communication with them.

Now that a beachhead had been secured on Earth, Loki reported to the Other, his liaison to Thanos. The Tesseract was safe, the portal was open and Earth’s protectors had fallen. With reinforcements, Loki could conquer the planet in no time at all. Thanos however, realising that his Asgardian servant now held two Infinity Stones and not trusting the would-be king, told Loki further reinforcements would take time to muster and to make use of the Chitauri he had been supplied with already. Dismayed but determined, Loki sent envoys to his ancestral people the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. Declaring himself as the long-lost son of the late King Laufey, the God of Mischief urged the Jotuns to rally to him and conquer Midgard as his father had once attempted long ago. With no other clear leadership to challenge them, the people of Jotunheim consented and within a few days an army of Frost Giants travelled through the portal, ready to battle in Loki’s name.

[justwriteryan]

Thank you to everyone who got me to 100 likes!

[justwriteryan]

I watched Madam Web.

Sydney Sweeney was right there.

People like her, she seems like the new Scarlett Johansson.

How hard could it have been to make a Black Cat movie instead?

Her dad, the original Black Cat, gets killed or if you want to avoid that trope, just gets kidnapped by some Mafia types. As payback, Felicia takes up the mantle and systematically robs their homes and businesses to ruin them.

If you want to make it in the MCU, the villain can be Kingpin. If not, let's say Tombstone. He's an interesting character who could fill that slot.

The end scene or the post-credits can show Black Cat breaking into a swanky apartment, she's about to cartwheel in when suddenly you hear "THWIP!" A string of web fluid pulls her forearm back. She turns around and gives a flirtatious smirk to someone just out of shot.

There, Sony. How hard was that???

[justwriteryan]

Check out my podcast, Please exBlane, on Spotify for Podcasters: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/grainne-murphy-blaney

Please exBlane • A podcast on Spotify for Podcasters

One man's quest to know things.

[justwriteryan]

Please ExBlane

Please ExBlane. 2 likes. Podcast

I did it. I started a podcast!

[justwriteryan]

COSMIC PROPORTIONS

Exterior shot. Space. An endless black ocean amongst a myriad of stars. The view pans down and the glowing blue surface of the Earth comes into focus. The Northern Hemisphere rotates on its axis. The most majestic sight in all creation. Suddenly the stars twinkle out. A black hole bursts open besides the planet’s orbit. But that’s not the worrying part. A colossal figure appears from the vortex, towering over the Earth. So big it’s almost imperceptible. The figure is humanoid, clad entirely in dense red armour and a helmet adorned with six glowing eyes. It reaches its great hand towards the Earth. Three tiny specks fly up from the planet and hover before it in the blink of an eye. Three people. They hover before it, completely at the giant’s mercy. A moment later, the black hole reopens. The red giant and it’s three captives disappear into it. The singularity blinks out of view. The heavens return to normal.

The view moves back from the spot where the black hole collapsed in on itself. Light beams onto a long white space station, shaped to a point like a needle. The station hangs adrift in Earth’s orbit, just out of range of where the vortex was. The station’s name is SABRE. We see people staring open mouthed behind thick glass windows. Among them is their director, NICK FURY. Only he can find words to say.

FURY: What in the Hell…?

                                                            TWELVE HOURS LATER.

Nick Fury is once again gazing out a window, looking at the Earth. This time from his office. He has a glass of whiskey in one hand and rubs his face with the other. It has clearly been a long day.

FURY: These are the facts. 

Fury turns away from the window.

FURY: Twelve hours ago a black hole manifested itself just beyond Earth’s orbit, completely          undetected and without warning. Miraculously, it did not pull the planet into itself and we’re all pretty glad about that. What it did instead was allow an inconceivably huge robot from the depths of space to pop out, float for a minute and kidnap three people! The atmosphere could barely handle the intrusion, weather systems, tidal patterns, geomagnetism all went haywire. Emergency services the world over dealing with disasters that came and went in less than a day. All governments are denying any involvement, but that’s to be expected, even if it’s true. Terror cells across the world are making noise pretending it was them, but nobody’s buying that. The public are in a panic, of course. Giant inhuman head in the sky causes global disruption. Hard to get folks to calm down and be reasonable after something like that. What they need, what every world leader needs, what I need… are some damn answers.

A number of holograms are being projected into Fury’s office, each one lined up in a semi-circle before his desk. Every hologram is in the image of a different person. Fury has called a meeting of some very important people.

BRUCE BANNER, THE HULK. Still in his “Smart Hulk” form, nine feet tall and bespectacled.

WONG. Master of the Mystic Arts, ruler of Kamar-Taj and Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme.

CAROL DANVERS, CAPTAIN MARVEL. Spacefaring superhero.

SHURI, THE BLACK PANTHER. Queen and Protector of the Kingdom of Wakanda.

VALKYRIE. Warrior Goddess and ruler of the alien citizens of New Asgard.

NEBULA. Former daughter of Thanos. Current member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

SAM WILSON, CAPTAIN AMERICA. Heir to the shield and mantle of Steve Rogers.

and SCOTT LANG, ANT-MAN. Former burglar, sometime Avenger.

SCOTT: Well, don’t look at me!

FURY: Lang, all I need from you is whether or not that thing came from this Quantum Realm of yours.

SCOTT: Oh, well in that case: no.

FURY: Beautiful. Anyone else?

CAROL: I’ve been all over the universe, never seen anything like that.

WONG: It may not be from this universe at all.

HULK: Nothing man-made has that kind of power. A machine that can manipulate singularities and disrupt a planet’s atmosphere from beyond orbit? Not even Tony Stark with a million years to spare could invent a weapon that potent.

SHURI: Master Wong, did it seem magical to you?

WONG: Not exactly, Your Highness. The power coming off it was unlike any sorcery or witchcraft I have ever come in contact with. It felt…bigger. Older. Primordial.

SAM: It worries me that you don’t have the answer, Wong.

FURY: Don’t your spell books say anything about God?

WONG: God?

SCOTT: A lot of people think it was God. And that the people it scooped up were part of some…rehearsal Rapture. Evangelists are having a field day in SF.

NEBULA: Well, they’re partly right.

All heads turn to the cyborg.

NEBULA: It was one of the Celestials. A god.

Valkyrie scoffs.

VAL: “God” is relative, speaking as one.

NEBULA: But you’ve seen them, right?

Valkyrie says nothing.

WONG: Celestials…our resources on them are limited, but we dismissed them as little more than myth. Elder Gods older than the universe itself. You’ve encountered them before?

NEBULA: I’m standing in the skull of a dead one.

The room is stunned.

FURY: So they can be killed.

NEBULA: Yes. I also helped kill one with the Guardians some years ago. Its name was Ego.

CAROL: I thought Ego was a planet?

NEBULA: It was both.

HULK: Oh, man.

SAM: How did you kill it? 

NEBULA: Blew up its brain from the inside.

SCOTT: Oh, easy.

SAM: What can you tell us about the three people it abducted?

Fury types a command onto the keyboard at his desk. Three faces appear on a holographic screen above him. Two men and a woman. Their names and last known addresses listed below.

SCOTT: Holy shit, that’s Kingo!

HULK: The Bollywood guy?

SCOTT: Bollywood icon, yes. Hope’s mom is a fan. 

FURY: Yep, that’s him. Indian government practically threatened to send the whole ISRO up to find him if they don’t think I can.

SHURI: The other two. Do they have families?

FURY: Phil has a husband and kid in Chicago. They called the Chicago PD, along with half the city. Worried out of their minds. The woman in London, Sylvia. She was seen walking in the park with her partner, a Mister Dane Whitman. He’s in the wind.

CAROL: Abducted?

FURY: We don’t think so. But right after this happened, he went underground.

CAROL: Maybe he knows something we don’t. 

FURY: We’ll keep looking. If he knows anything about Big Red’s whereabouts-

VOICE: Arishem.

The whole room looks around. A new voice is coming from somewhere. A second later, a new holographic figure joins the meeting. It’s a teenage girl. Caucasian, with short-cropped hair. This is SPRITE of the ETERNALS, recently turned human. As her transparent image strengthens, she looks around at the others.

SPRITE: Whoa, there’s a lot of superheroes in this room!

FURY: Young lady, how did you get into this meeting?

SPRITE: I’ve been around a while, picked up some things.

SCOTT: You’re younger than my daughter!

SPRITE: No, I’m older than all of you. But not as old as him. Arishem the Judge. He’s the Celestial you met today. And the people he abducted- Kingo, Phastos and Sersi. They’re my family.

The gathered heroes exchanged puzzled looks. Fury is watching Sprite intently.

SPRITE: If you plan on rescuing them, I want in.

  END.

I could have named this one "What If....Marvel cared about the Eternals at all?"

[justwriteryan]

THE CONQUEROR COMETH.

Exterior shot. An unfamiliar location; a grey featureless landscape, shrouded in an ethereal fog. No distinguishing landmarks or buildings. A silhouette takes shape through the haze, approaching slowly. A tall and thin figure, almost human if not for their oversized bald head and glowing eyes. It is UATU THE WATCHER.

UATU: Time grows short. Assemble.

Around the Watcher, the mist begins to shift and blur, twisting and twirling until six pillars of cloud materialize before him. The mist recedes, the clouds dissipate. Six people appear in the space before the Watcher, looking around the scene wildly.

SCOTT LANG, the ANT-MAN.

WONG, Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme.

CAROL DANVERS, known throughout the universe as CAPTAIN MARVEL.

GAMORA, former Daughter of Thanos, current member of the Ravagers.

SLYVIE, a variant of LOKI from an alternate timeline.

And SAM WILSON, the new CAPTAIN AMERICA.

SCOTT: Oh man, where the hell is this? Sam! Is that you?

SAM: Tic Tac? Is this one of your Quantum things?

SCOTT: I don’t think so. Congrats on the promotion, by the way.

SAM: Thanks.

CAROL: Guys. I think this might be because of him.

The gathered heroes notice the Watcher hovering before them.

UATU: Greetings. I am the Watcher.

GAMORA: The what?

WONG: An inter-dimensional archivist of major events across the multiverse.

UATU: That is correct, Master Wong.

Uatu bows to the Sorcerer Supreme. Wong nods back, awkwardly.

WONG: His presence here does not bode well.

SYLVIE: HIS PRESENCE? Where is this place?

SCOTT: Wait a sec. Who are you?

The Asgardian straightens up and glares back at him.

SYLVIE: Sylvie.

SCOTT: Anyone else get the feeling that was a lie?

UATU: You are all standing in a nexus point between dimensions. I have called you here because your universe is in tremendous jeopardy. Each of you have touched the multiverse in some way, so you understand how fragile the fabric of reality can be. And it’s only getting worse.

CAROL: How?

UATU: A myriad of disasters, each one chipping away at the walls between worlds. The emergence of the Scarlet Witch and her dream-walking crusade. A magic spell gone wrong at the behest of one Peter Parker. The Ultron Intelligence mastering the Infinity Stones and declaring war on reality itself. The activation of the Ten Rings against the Dweller in Darkness. Gorr the God Butcher acts of deicide, murdering the ancient gods of the cosmos. The Kree’s abuse of the Quantum bands, creating volatile jump points across time and space. And of course, the recent uprising in the Quantum Realm. All of which has enabled a terrible threat to reignite its voracious attack on creation.

SCOTT: Oh no…

UATU: An army, comprised of many armies spanning all of space and time. Led by many versions of the same man. An uncompromising tyrant from the far future with only one mission in the life: to conquer.

Uatu raises an arm. A holographic image appears above their heads. Hundreds of people. Thousands of people. Person. Thousands upon thousands of variants of the same man. Different builds, body types, races. All clad in the same purple and green armour.

UATU: Behold, the Council of-

SCOTT: Kang…

SYLVIE: This is impossible.

UATU: For a time it was. There was an…element in place to keep them separate. Keep them apart and out of your universe. But it was removed.

SAM: Why?

The Watcher looked at Sylvie. She looks away.

UATU: It doesn’t matter. Something else was put in place to keep the timelines in order. However, the damage to the fabric of reality is already too great. I fear he won’t prove a match for the Kang’s onslaught.

GAMORA: “He?” There’s a person in charge of all time and space?

SYLVIE: Not a person. A god.

UATU: Yes. But even a god can fall. So go. Prepare. The war for the multiverse is nigh.

The heroes fade away into the gloom. All but one. Sam Wilson takes a step forward.

SAM: I haven’t “touched the multiverse”. Matter of fact, I barely understood anything you said. Why am I here?

The Watcher looks down at him.

UATU: Sam, if there is one constant truth across the multiverse. Every fighting force needs the right Captain.

Sam smiles.

SAM: Copy that.

Captain America disappears. The Watcher turns back to the holograms of the Kang variants arrayed around him and scowls. He waves a hand dismissively and they fade away. The Watcher bows his head and stalks off into the mist.

Interior shot. A compact kitchen area where a large man and a small girl are drawing pictures on scrolls at the kitchen table. The man is THOR. The girl is the daughter he adopted at the end of THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER. Gorr’s daughter, who became known as LOVE.

THOR: Who’s that red guy?

LOVE: It’s a Frost Giant.

THOR: Are you sure? Every Frost Giant I’ve ever met was blue.

LOVE: This is a red one.

THOR: Very well. Red Frost Giant. Looking good.

A noise causes the pair to look up from their drawing. Thor holds out an arm and Mjolnir flies from the corner of the room and into his grasp. Love’s eyes glow menacingly. A portal opens and closes in the small kitchen. Out of the portal steps Sylvie.

THOR: Who the Hel are you?

SYLVIE: I am Syl-

She sighs.

SYLVIE: I am Loki. And I am burdened with glorious purpose. Brother.

THE END.

Posting this while Kang is still a character the MCU is considering and before any announcements comes out. My idea for a prologue for Kang Dynasty. I tried to tie in as many multiversal story points that were scattered across the past two phases.

[justwriteryan]

I'm watching the new episodes of Bluey and one story is presented mostly through imaginative drawings between the parents and kids. It culminates in a scene where the mum has to say goodbye to the horse she drew and for most people it would be emotional as the horse symbolises the character's own mum who died when she was young.

But I teared up because it reminded me of something else...

[justwriteryan]

Home Alone Reboot idea

Kevin McAllister is co-founder of a security firm with his brother Buzz. Together they've created the most advanced home security system on the market. However a disgruntled employee knows that the inner workings and overrides for the program are kept on Buzz's work laptop, which was absent mindedly left at home over the Christmas.

The only thing protecting the family business is GAVIN MCALLISTER, Kevin's brilliant nephew who inherited his uncles resourcefulness and ingenuity.

[justwriteryan]

I was today years old when I realized why in Muppet's Christmas Carol the extra Marley ghost is named ROBERT MARLEY.

[justwriteryan]

Last Christmas, my son thought the baubles on the tree were apples. This Christmas, following a year of learning about Spider-Man, he now believes they are pumpkin bombs and won't stop throwing them at people.