MAY YEAR 3
MV1 Presents ... The Star Spangled Avenger ...
CAPTAIN AMERICA # 483
MAMAS, DON'T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE PORCUPINES
written by Mark Bousquet

From the History Books … Viper is out to make herself a force to be reckoned with. Already, she has commissioned Mysterio to put Captain America through a complex simulation that made Cap think he was on a distant planet, and tricked him into working for a Nazi-like group. She has engineered a feud between Sharon Carter and the Falcon, making Sharon think the Falcon is under mind-control. Now, Viper has left HYDRA and has moved into a new facility, the Menagerie, hidden in Vermont where she hopes to launch a new criminal empire. In her first move, she has sent Paul Gentry, the son of the original Porcupine after Captain America in a new Porcupine suit, knowing full well that he isn’t ready to face Captain America.

PROLOGUE

Ashley Andersen felt nothing but pain in her back as she tried to perform her duties as a staff archaeologist at the Storm Museum.

It wasn’t a new feeling. She had felt nothing but pain there for two weeks. Now, she had wings growing out of her back.

The Storm Museum was built in the post-Onslaught world that thought it had lost it’s heroes. It was set up by the Storm Foundation to help give the world a place to come and remember the fallen heroes and their adventures, to help give the average person a place to go where they could try to fathom the enormity of what it was like to be a super hero.

Ashley worked here in the area the resident staff had dubbed Pandora’s Box - the Basement rooms where new artifacts were first brought and where they went through, cataloging them.

Two weeks ago, Ashley had been working on a box sent up from a Montana plain. Inside had been various artifacts - all appearing to be Native American in origin. There wasn’t anything particularly unusual about the artifacts, making Ashley wonder why the box had even been sent to the Storm Museum and not a museum more proficient in normal artifacts.

But, for whatever reason, the box had been sent to her and she was there, late at night, working on it. Ashley liked working late at night. She was not a people person, not by any stretch.

It was one of the reasons she had chosen to take up archaeology. She wanted nothing more than to go lose herself in a desert or jungle somewhere and forget about … forget about the past.

The past was not a place Ashley liked to visit.

The irony was not lost on her as she sat here, sorting through a box of what looked like Kree weaponry, thinking about just that, the past.

One of the items she had been working on that night was a carved totem pole, five faces upon it’s foot high structure. One of the faces on the pole, the one that was second from the top, had white diamonds for eyes. That was, as far, as Ashley could tell, the only oddity of the whole piece. Totems didn’t ever have jewelry upon them, as far as Ashley knew.

That wasn’t the weird thing, though. No, the weird thing came next.

The diamond eyes had begun to glow bright white.

Naturally, Ashley began to take a closer look at the face around the eyes. It was that of a Golden Eagle. Her eyes had drifted back to the eyes and she was immersed in their beautiful white radiance. She felt drawn to them and she couldn’t tear her eyes away. Not that she wanted to.

The light seemed to beckon her, calling her forward into another place. Ashley followed, dropping into the light, further and further down a tunnel … further … further … searching for something … further …

And then Ashley Anderson woke up and discovered that six hours had past. She was fine, she thought, except for the aching in her back. The back pain continued for a few days, when Ashley finally decided to go to a doctor and have it looked at.

That’s when something broke through the skin of her back. She was naturally terrified about what was happening to her, but the white bone that began to work it’s way out of her skin made her more unwilling to go to the doctor then when she thought it was nothing more than a simple back-ache.

By the end of the day, it was clear to Ashley that she was sprouting wings.

And here she was, two weeks after initial contact, still coming to work as if nothing had happened.

What else could she do?

END PROLOGUE

New York City

"Look, mister," Cap set his jaw, "I don’t know who you are or what you think you’re doing, but I knew the man who used to wear that suit and I know how he died. You’re mere presence disgraces what he tried to accomplish at the end."

"Shut up!" the Porcupine yelled, sending a group of quills headed towards Captain America. Cap knew he could easily dodge to the right and avoid them, but they were in an alley and his back was to the street. He couldn’t let the quills get passed him and possibly injure others, so he stood his ground his ground and deflected the quills with the shield.

"Why don’t you stop right now?" Cap asked.

The Porcupine said nothing, but fired twice as many quills at Cap. Again, Cap stood his ground and deflected the projectiles.

"We can do this all day, mister," Cap relayed, but didn’t take a step forward, noting that the quills fired from the costume weren’t replaced. He just had to wait out the several hundred quills on the costume and then approach directly. Not the most daring of plans - he could just see the Marvel Comics folks arguing against this non-action strategy if he suggested it for the X-Men book he was drawing for them - but it should be effective.

If all this Porcupine suit had were the quills. The original Porcupine had also equipped the suit with a wide array of armaments including laser fire and poisonous gas.

"Shut up!" the Porcupine screamed. "It’s all just a big joke to you, isn’t it?" More quills. More deflections. Cap took the opportunity provided by the cover of his shield to look up to the roof-tops to see where the Falcon was. Cap gave him a quick shake of the head, informing Falcon he could stay right where he was, above and behind the Porcupine, then flashed his hand towards the entrance to the alleyway.

The Falcon nodded and headed for the alleyway to make sure it stayed clear of pedestrians.

"I hate you!" the Porcupine screamed. "I know all about what you did to my father, you bastard! You won’t do it to me!"

Steve’s ears picked up at the words. "Who’s your father, son?" he asked. This couldn't be the original Porcupine’s child, could it? He thought that Alexander Gentry didn’t have any family?

"Don’t play games with me!" The Porcupine started walking forward. "I know you lied about what happened to my father at the end! I know all about it! The internet is filled with sites that tell the entire truth about all your exploits!" More quills fired towards him as the Porcupine’s march forward picked up steam.

Steve glanced back towards the front of the alley to make sure there wasn’t any pedestrians in the crossfire because there was no way he could block all of the quills in the latest attack.

This wasn’t going well. He’d hoped the Porcupine was waiting in the alley because this was some kind of trap. Steve wouldn’t have minded that because it put all the danger onto him. But if Porcupine was going to head out into the streets … who knew how many people could be harmed by this dangerous suit of armor and weaponry?

Cap knew what he had to do, he had to stand his ground and not let this person - Gentry’s son? - leave the alley.

Whoever was in the armor was upset, the attack on Captain America was clearly a personal one. Steve had to use that.

"Are you saying your father was Alex Gentry? The original Porcupine?" Cap shouted, causing the Porcupine to halt in his tracks. Yep, Steve thought, that must be who’s in the suit. "He was a brave man, son and he died like a hero. Why would you want to disgrace his memory?"

The Porcupine said nothing and bowed his head. The battle stopped.

Steve didn’t stray from his defensive stance, but he wondered what was going on inside the Porcupine’s mind. Was he thinking about what Cap had just said? Was he going through some kind of emotional crisis? Cap gave the Porcupine suit a look over. Over half of the quills were gone.

"I can help you, son. Just like I helped your father."

The Porcupine picked up his head and met Captain America’s gaze.

"The only way you can help me," he started, his voice calm and cold, "is to die."

The Porcupine fired quills at Captain America at the same time he aimed his hands upwards and outwards and fired a strong laser blast at the two building that framed the alley.

Cap couldn’t jump back without risking being taken down by the quills - he had to take into account the fact that they may be poisoned - so he crouched down behind his shield to wait the attack out.

But the attack didn’t stop. The Porcupine kept firing the quills and, Cap noted too late, the laser beams that he fired into the air was the real point of the attack - the quills were just a diversion.

The Porcupine hadn’t been having a crisis of confidence at all. He must not be intimate with the suit yet and was pausing to figure out how to fire the laser beams from inside the suit.

All this was cold comfort to Captain America as an innumerable amount of bricks crashed down around him, covering him completely.

Vermont - The Menagerie

Viper sat on a large, comfortable chair, watching the battle against Captain America on a large screen television, the images coming from a camera mounted inside Porcupine’s costume.

As the bricks crashed down around the Sentinel of Liberty, Viper had to smile. "Why, my dear Paul, maybe you do have some talent, afterall."

Viper didn’t care about the young Paul Gentry, who was, in fact, the son of the original Porcupine. He was merely a tool she could use to build her new criminal Empire. She thought of the Puppet Master, for some reason. ‘This must be what he feels like,’ she mused, ‘when he takes that clay and molds it, bending it to his will.’

She sighed and stretched, enjoying the way the tight green material clung to her shapely body. It was so easy to mold one as young as Paul, she smiled. The poor young man didn’t stand a chance against her.

There was no reason to become complacent, however. She still had a long way to go to build her new organization to prominence.

New York City

"I beat Captain America! Yes!"

The Falcon hung just outside the alleyway where Cap was battling a new Porcupine. He couldn’t believe his ears. Cap had lost to this chump?

Falcon’s sidekick bird, Redwing, carefully flew around the corner, then floated in the air to get a look. When he excitedly began to flap his wings, Sam Wilson knew that Cap was in trouble.

He rounded the corner to see a massive pile of rubble, piled as high as his chest. Across the bricks he could see the Porcupine pumping his arms wildly, shouting in joy, "I did it! I can’t believe I did it! Viper was right!"

The Falcon’s blood ran cold. Viper?

The woman whom Sharon Carter still insisted had planted subliminal commands into the Falcon’s brain?*

* See CAPTAIN AMERICA 477 - 480 - You Will Obey Mark …

What connection did this new Porcupine have with Viper?

Or better yet, why would Viper bring the world a new Porcupine?

The Porcupine brought Sam out of his pondering by jumping straight into the air. "I will crush you, Captain America! You’re going to die, just like you killed my father!"

The Falcon reacted quickly, leaping into the air, towards the Porcupine’s path. He made no shouts, no proclamations to alert the Porcupine to his presence. Sam leapt straight for the Porcupine’s head, grabbing it between his hands and used his leverage to flip his body over in a somersault, sending the Porcupine hurtling towards the back end of the alley. Porcupine smashed into a collection of boxes and garbage, but he wasn’t hurt.

Enraged, he rose to his feet, "Who dares?" He spotted the Falcon hovering ten feet above the ground and let loose an array of quills, which the Falcon easily avoided.

"Remember who you’re fighting," came an alluring voice in his helmet that Paul Gentry knew belonged to Viper. "We don’t want him hurt now, do we?"

"Of course not, Viper," Porcupine grimaced. He saw no reason not to crush the Falcon, but he had his orders from Viper. Certainly, if he could defeat Captain America, he could take out a second stringer like the Falcon, so why wouldn’t she let him strike him down as well?

"Good boy, Paul," came the voice that Paul couldn’t deny, no matter how tough he thought he was. He shivered in the suit at those three simple words, remembering the last time she had spoken them to him.

"Distracted? Sign of a rookie," Falcon scolded as he dove down at the Porcupine, leading with his feet. He struck Porcupine hard in the face and the blow knocked the criminal to the ground for a second time.

Again, protected in his suit, the Porcupine was uninjured and again he rose to his feet, his eyes glaring at the Falcon. "You’re dead, Falcon!"

Vermont

At the Menagerie, Viper had strapped on a headset to feed orders right to Paul’s ears. She watched the pile of rubble that had trapped Captain America with more interest than she watched the Falcon and his pet bird. She wasn’t foolish enough to believe the falling bricks had done anything more than slow the Captain down.

As if her mind was controlling the action she watched completely, the brick pile began to shift and move. Bricks began to fall to the ground as something tried to push it’s way free of the brick womb.

Captain America, of course.

Viper felt a shudder of excitement run through her as the Star Spangled Avenger pushed himself free.

New York City

Captain America welcomed the fresh air that burst into his lungs as he broke free of the rubble. His first gaze was to the Porcupine to see if another attack was coming, but just as Steve had suspected, the Falcon was keeping him busy.

His second gaze was upwards to see what kind of damage the Porcupine had done to the buildings that flanked him. The damage wasn’t severe enough to cause any real concerns about the structure of the buildings, Cap suspected, and it was good to see that they were both warehouses or factories and not residential buildings.

Reassured that there were no civilians in danger, Cap redirected his eyes towards the Porcupine.

In her Vermont hideaway, Viper said nothing to Paul Gentry, but did move her finger to the teleport button that would ensure she could whisk the Porcupine away if things got out of hand for the young criminal. She wanted to see just how he would fare a second time against Captain America.

Cap stepped out of the rubble, his eyes drinking in everything he could about the scene in front of him. He wanted his actions to be the quickest way to end the battle. He watched the Porcupine fire quills at the Falcon, but, Cap thought, he was doing it in a very haphazard manner. Almost as if he wasn’t trying …

But that could be because his supply of quills was dwindling, down to only about a quarter of what he started with.

"Very good, Falcon!" Porcupine shouted. "You dodge these easily, it’s impossible to tell just how much Viper has—"

SP-TAAAANG!

Captain America’s circular shield slammed into the Porcupine’s head, staggering Paul Gentry. He shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs. That last attack had hurt him.

"I see you’ve returned for another go ‘round!" Porcupine screamed at Cap as the shield returned to it’s owner’s hands. "But you shall fail again!"

Porcupine launched another set of quills at Cap, more than he had been launching at the Falcon, Steve noted to himself. It was easy enough to deflect them away with the shield and Steve followed that up by twirling around and hurling the shield at the Porcupine again.

SP-TAAAANG!

Again the shield connected to Porcupine’s head, causing the man inside the costume to bring his hands to his head. He’d have to ask Viper to put more padding inside the helmet for next time.

"You can’t stop me!" Porcupine screamed at the two heroes and launched himself towards Cap. Steve set himself, prepared to meet the attack head on with his just returned shield, but the Porcupine never reached his goal, as the Falcon came down hard on the villain’s back, sending him to the pavement.

Reflexively, Paul let a barrage of quills from his back shoot upward, but the Falcon was ready and managed to dodge all but one of the quills and that one simply grazed his leg.

"Give up, son," Captain America spoke quietly as he took a step towards his fallen foe, but the Porcupine never answered. A blue light flashed out in a circle from the Porcupine’s belt and when it sucked itself back in, the Porcupine vanished.

"Hrm," Cap relaxed his stance, disappointed that Porcupine had escaped, but glad that no innocents had gotten injured.

The Falcon landed next to him, "What do you make of all that?"

"I don’t know," Captain America answered solemnly, "but I intend to find out."

EPILOGUE

Ethos stood in his grey robes in front of the Statue of Liberty, looking up at the grand old lady with sadness in his eyes.

"To all things a beginning. To all things an end. Soon, Captain America, very soon we shall meet."

END CAPTAIN AMERICA 483

AMERICAN GRAFFITI

letters c/o mariner2@tiac.net

Note - because of various things - notably the Charter and my desire to write a forthcoming project, there will be no lettercol for CAPTAIN AMERICA during my run as the last five issues of my tenure on this book have all been posted on the same day. Once again, I urge you to try out a new title from one of the new authors - be it Triathalon, MV1 Saga or whatever - and send them some much appreciated feedback. Thanks for reading everyone.

-- MBQ 21.February.1999