Guardians by Stephen Crosby

11:27 p.m.

The dead of night had settled on Los Angeles when the motorcycle rolled to a stop. The kickstand dropped and the rider dismounted. His helmet was still on when he walked through the doorway into a housing complex. Whole sections of the compound had been reduced to rubble over the years, but a number of areas were still serviceable. It was to one of these areas that the newcomer set out for at a rapid pace. He was nearly late.
Everybody else was already inside, waiting. Standing in the center was Captain America in full uniform, with that shield slung over his back. Standing across from him at opposite ends of the room were Iron Man and Thor, God of Thunder. None took any notice of the other man’s arrival, but the fourth man already in the room did. Professor Xavier nodded his head.
Those were the men physically in the room, but there were others present as well. A speakerphone in the room was turned on, indicating that somebody was on the other end. On a monitor behind Captain America, four faces could be seen. These faces belonged to Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and the Thing, all collectively known as the Fantastic Four. Finally, there was the shimmering ghost of a man who stood next to Professor Xavier. It was the astral form of Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts.
“Spider-Man, are you still with us?” Captain America asked at the speaker phone. The voice coming from it was recognizable as belonging to the amazing Spider-Man.
“Yeah, I’m here. Sorry I couldn’t make it there in person guys, but cross-country flights are expensive. This phone call alone will have me eating Ramen Noodles for the next two months.”
“You could just send me the bill,” Iron Man replied. “Have me reimburse you.”
“That would mean telling you who I really am, and considering what’s been going on with a certain other crime-fighter in red tights, I’d rather just endure the noodles.”
“We should get started,” suggested Professor Xavier. “I have a press conference to attend in the morning.”
Captain America began. “We all know why we’re here. Three days ago, I encountered five children on Santa Monica Beach. As incredible as their story was, it was quickly confirmed. These children, along with one other, all had parents that belonged to a super-villain team we knew nothing about. For twenty years, these villains had been killing innocent young girls and feeding their souls to power a race of mythical evil giants in exchange for power and wealth. For twenty years these villains ran unchecked, running Los Angeles, only to have their plans defeated in one night by their own children.”
“This actually isn’t the first time,” cut in Doctor Strange. “The Gibborim, as these giants are known, have been assembling Prides for thousands of years. The deal is always the same: twelve servants gather souls to power the Gibborim so that they can wipe out humanity, and at the end the six most loyal servants are granted eternal life and power. The rituals required in this take about twenty-five years, and in the course of this almost all these servants have children. It’s this sudden personal stake in humanity that causes some of the Pride to rebel and disrupt the ritual. The Pride and their children are almost always killed as a result, and the Gibborim wait to try again with a new Pride.”
“In this case,” Captain America told everybody, “All but one of the children survived, and all their parents were killed. These are the children.”
On each wall behind Iron Man and Thor, six monitors came to life. On each was the face of a young man or woman, two boys and four girls in all. It was Captain America who identified each one.
“Gertrude Yorkes, age 15. Her parents were time travelers stuck in this era. She has a pet dinosaur that has been genetically engineered to respond only to her mental commands.”
“Fascinating,” breathed Mister Fantastic. “And she says her parents had purchased it in the 87th century, before their time machine was disabled?” The leader of the Fantastic Four frowned. “That’s strange. How could they have had an animal engineered to only obey a daughter that hadn’t even been conceived yet?”
“It’s time travel, Stretch,” the Thing replied. “Think about it too much, even your brain’ll explode.”
“Moving on,” said Captain America, “We have Karolina Dean, age 16. Her parents were aliens from an as-yet unknown planet who were making a life here as famous Hollywood actors.”
“The Deans were aliens?” exclaimed Spider-Man from the speaker phone. “My wife worked with them and she never….er, that is to say, a woman in the business whom I happen to know…oh pooh.”
But Captain America didn’t let the issue linger. “Karolina was never told about who she really was, and her natural abilities of flight and light manipulation were suppressed by a medical bracelet she wears around her wrist. Next we have Nico Minoru, also age 16. Her parents were practitioners in black magic, and had acquired a number of mystical artifacts. One such artifact, known as the Staff of One, has become bonded to the girl in some way.”
“The Staff of One chose her,” interrupted Doctor Strange. “Even before she was born, Nico Minoru had been meant to join with the Staff of One, which is why it had allowed itself to be obtained by her parents. With the proper training, this girl could very well become this dimension’s next Mistress of the Mystic Arts. This is why I demand that she be turned over into my care immediately.”
“We’ll discuss that shortly,” replied Captain America. “One of the two boys is Chase Stein, age 17. His parents were technological geniuses, though they apparently kept their more sophisticated inventions out of public. Among these were gauntlets that could create and control fire, x-ray goggles and a vehicle referred to as the Leapfrog. The youngest of them all is Molly Hayes, age 11. Her parents were mutant telepaths, and though she hadn’t inherited their abilities she is apparently a mutant as well with enhanced strength-”
“Actually you’re mistaken,” Professor Xavier interrupted Captain America. “I’m scanned the girl with Cerebra, and she doesn’t have the X-gene. However strong she may be, Molly Hayes is not a mutant.”
After a brief pause, Captain America responded. “Whatever the origin of her abilities may be, the girl and her friends all believe that she’s a mutant. Until we can determine her exact nature, I see no reason to inform her otherwise.”
From the speaker-phone, Spider-Man piped up. “Wait, all the other kids are roughly the same age, and she’s about four years younger. All the other couples were having kids while these two were maybe have trouble conceiving. So, I don’t know, I suppose they could have felt left out and maybe asked for some help with experimental procedures. Two parents were geniuses and another two were magicians. It’s even possible that…oh geez…”
“I think we should leave this matter alone,” suggested Invisible Woman.
“I agree,” said Captain America. “The last of the children, the one who didn’t survive, was Alex Wilder, age 16. Apparently his parents were, for all intents and purposes, the ruling crime bosses in Los Angeles. He had no real abilities of his own, but according to the other children he was the one who had unearthed the secrets of the Pride and had convinced the rest of them to go against their parents. Beyond that, however, they’ve been very quiet about him.”
“The black guy always dies.” Everybody fixed their gaze on the speakerphone, with disapproving frowns on their faces. Somehow, on the other end Spider-Man was aware of this. “Oh, come on, I know you were all thinking it. Rocky, Sparky, how many of those movies have we watched? Well, that you two watched until I crashed in uninvited? Look, we know why the kids aren’t saying anything about it. The police had found the place they were staying in through an anonymous tip. If you all had found out your parents were evil, how many of you wouldn’t still love them, still be loyal to them?”
“It doesn’t matter now,” was all Captain America said. “We’re left with five children, five orphans with incredible abilities and resources. This is why I asked all of us to meet. Something like this has never really happened before.”
“Actually, we all have dealt with super-powered children in the past,” said Iron Man. “The Power Pack, New Mutants, New Warriors…there was even a teenaged alternate reality version of myself.”
“I think we’d all rather forget about Teen Tony,” said Spider-Man on behalf of everybody. “But yeah, I was the same age as these kids when I started out. I happen to be an orphan as well, just so you know.”
“It’s the same deal with me,” Human Torch spoke up. “But I had Sue here.” He smiled at his big sister. “And I had the rest of the Fantastic Four too. Even with these guys reining me in, I was still a handful. And no offense, Spidey, but at first we were all scared about which side of the fence you were on.”
“Hey, I happen to be all about the ladies,” said Spider-Man defensively. “My wife happens to be a super-model, so you can just…er, that is…oh right, uh, sure I get what you’re saying. And yeah, I had people too, an aunt and uncle who taught me about responsibility.”
“Thine children’s sires were vile fiends,” Thor added. “Hardly fitting models to be looked towards.”
But Captain America shook his head. “From what I’ve been able to gather, these men and women did everything they could to keep their double lives from affecting their children. Each was raised in a relatively well and stable home environment. It says enough about how these children were raised that they were willing to go against their parents like this when they did learn the truth. It’s a hard thing to fight the people you love, even with the fate of mankind at stake.”
“Now that they’ve done it, it’s up to us to decide what to do with them,” finished Professor Xavier. “For the most part, the New Mutants were well-supervised, and we knew very little about the New Warriors when they first appeared, and even so several of them were adults at the time, fit to watch over the others. A mistake was made with the Power Pack, I agree. Children so young shouldn’t have been allowed to go unchecked with their powers. Something must be done with these five young runaways.”
“Then it’s agreed,” said Doctor Strange. “The boy can be placed into the system, as can the girl once we’ve placed her dinosaur in a suitable holding location. The Savage Land, most likely. Nico Minoru I’ll take on as an apprentice. The other two I’m sure Professor Xavier would be more than willing to place into his school.”
“They’re not mutants,” the Professor pointed out. “While I do agree they need proper supervision, my school operates within a very delicate environment. To allow in anything that could upset that balance would most likely result in a riot of some kind.”
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” the previously silent newcomer said. “These heroes saved the world! Yeah, that’s what they are. They’re heroes! From what I understand, it was the youngest of them that actually stopped this ritual. These five people who I can only described as adults defeated a much more powerful and experienced threat that had them outnumbered by more than two-to-one. They saved the world from something that had been going unnoticed by everybody in this room, and you’re all trying to decide what to do with them, like they’ve been naughty or something!”
“Well, when you put it like that,” said Human Torch, “It does sound kind of unfair.”
Invisible Woman turned to glare angrily at her brother. “Johnny, we’ve talked about this! These are still children we’re dealing with, minors who need proper supervision. One of them happens to be an eleven year old girl!” She turned back to face the others. “Reed and I have already discussed it. If Professor Xavier isn’t willing to accept them, we’ll be more than happen to take those two girls in.”
“Hold on a minute there!” the Thing loudly cut in. “Since when were you gonna fill in me and the Matchstick here? When we got moved into bunk beds? It’s bad enough I got the Yancy Street Gang pulling pranks on me left and right-”
Behind the Thing, Human Torch blushed slightly.
“-but how is hanging around a little kid that can beat me in arm-wrestling gonna help my self-esteem?”
“I would love to see a picture of that on the front page of the Daily Bugle,” said Spider-Man from over the speaker-phone. “But, well, I see what the guy I can’t see is saying. What makes these children our responsibility? Shouldn’t we leave them to the Child Welfare Services or something? I mean, they’re the ones with the experience in this sort of thing.”
There was a strange sound from Iron Man. “Hunh. Sorry.” He straightened up, composed himself. “Look, these children are far from normal. The state is not equipped to handle them. And to be honest, I wouldn’t trust our government with something this powerful!”
“Says our new Secretary of Defense,” retorted the dissenter. “Hey, did anybody notice that if you changed the ‘o’ to an ‘a’ he’d be the Iran Man?”
Iron Man shot him a withering look. “I happen to agree with Doctor Strange and Mrs. Richards. We should take these children in; teach them out to use their abilities responsibly while keeping them in as normal an environment as possible.”
“I’d say they already know how to use their powers responsibly,” Spider-Man remarked. “Oh, hey, when are we gonna talk about the city? I mean, these Pride guys sound pretty bad and all, but at least they maintained some kind of order. With them gone, won’t a lot of our enemies decide to jump coasts?”
“Iron Man and I have already decided to reform the West Coast Avengers,” Captain America began.
“No, Cap, you decided,” interrupted Iron Man. “As I was telling you before, our resources are barely enough to cover one team. We may be able to call on reserves for emergencies, but a full-time team is just unrealistic at this time.”
“This city of Pride is best left to thy heirs,” said Thor. “They hath proven themselves to be valiant warriors.”
“Are you out of your mind!” screamed Invisible Woman. “They are children!”
However, several in the group were nodding in agreement, and the man who’d arrived last spoke up. “That’s actually not a bad idea. We kind of do have a ready made group here in Los Angeles already. They know the area, and they have proven themselves.”
“Absolutely not.” Captain America’s voice was tight. “After what these children have been through, I’m not about to ask them to risk their lives just to help maintain the status quo.”
“Then how about we stop arguing about what’s best for these kids and leave the decision to them,” Human Torch suggested, “Stop looking at me like that, Sue. Here we’ve been talking about splitting these kids up, forcing them into careers that we think would be best for them.” Doctor Strange bristled. “The fact is that we don’t know the first thing about their hopes and dreams. All we really know is that they got through this whole thing together, that they are the only family they have left.”
Thing agreed. “The Matchstick’s right. We try to split these kids up; the first thing they’ll do is run away and find each other. They certainly ain’t gonna listen to us, the guys who barreled in and took over after they finished the heavy lifting.”
“This experience hath left them mistrustful of authority,” added Thor.
“They’re more than welcome to change the system as soon as they’ve come of age,” argued Iron Man. “Until then, they don’t have a choice in the matter.”
“I say we let the state take them,” said Spider-Man through the speaker-phone. “Wait, hear me out. But if they don’t like the situation, if they decide to run off and all that, we let them. I’m saying we keep an eye on them, be ready to step in if necessary, but otherwise we just let them go their own way.”
“That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” shot Doctor Strange. “This children need discipline, particularly the mystic. The slightest misstep and she could be lost forever to the forces of darkness.”
“Still, it’s not without merit,” Professor Xavier remarked. “I did often allow my students to deal with problems by themselves. It’s necessary to prepare them for greater challenges ahead.”
“How many of your students have died, Xavier?” asked Invisible Woman loudly. “I’m not accepting any decision that puts these children in danger!”
“You’d rather keep them in a bubble their whole lives?” asked Human Torch. “Reed, do you have anything to say about this?”
“Yeah, Stretch, this is the longest time you’ve ever gone without talking.”
“This isn’t something I have the most experience with,” Mister Fantastic replied. “But I do know that if, heaven forbid, anything ever happened to Susan and I, that our friends would take care of Franklin and Valerie. As far as these children go, I’m in agreement with whatever Susan says.”
“I think we’ve reached our decisions,” said Captain America. “Either we take these children in directly, or we leave them to fend for themselves, under our close observation.” He shook his head. “For me, there’s no alternative. They need to be properly supervised by adults.”
“I say they’re already adults,” said the unnamed man.
“So do I,” Spider-Man agreed.
“People will come after them,” Invisible Woman argued. “Try to use them. We need to protect them.”
“We are protecting them, Sue,” her brother argued back. “We’re allowing them to take care of themselves.”
“Sorry Suzie.”
“This is madness,” breathed Doctor Strange. “I won’t allow a mystic with this much potential to go unchecked!”
“What better place is there for her than with friends?” asked Professor Xavier. “I’ll allow the young girl to stay at an X-Corp Embassy here in the city. If one of her friends does for her, I’ll allow her to leave.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Iron Man replied. “With both Thor and I voting with Cap, it’s decided. These children are coming to New York.”
“I say thee nay,” decreed Thor, Lord of Asgard. “I shalt not allow thine warriors to be caged. The path to walk is theirs to decide, not ours.”
“Booyah!” the unnamed man pumped a fist into the air. “Thor comes in with the save!”
“By a vote of 5 to 6, it’s been settled,” stated Captain America. But he wondered at what cost. The Fantastic Four had split on the decision, as had the three Avengers. “We’ll place them into the system, and take no further action from there. Ms. Yorkes’ velociraptor will be placed into an old Avengers storage facility here in the city, along with the Leapfrog. The robots guarding this facility will be programmed to give minimal resistance should the…should these young heroes arrive to collect their property. Is that clear, Tony?”
Iron Man nodded, visibly upset. Even more upset by this was the Invisible Woman.
“What about some kind of supervision? We can’t just leave these children alone to face unspeakable dangers.”
Captain America nodded. “I move we appoint a handler to keep watch over them, and to update us with regular reports. In the event of an emergency, this handler will notify us immediately.”
“Watch a bunch of teenagers from the shadows?” inquired Spider-Man. “Sounds pretty creepy to me. Definitely not a job I want.”
“As handler, I nominate…” Captain America pointed at the up-until-then unnamed man. “Rick Jones!”
The young former sidekick to half the Marvel Universe pressed his hand up to his head, as though nursing a headache. “Oh great. I knew I should have blown this meeting off.”

Go read about the consequences of this Earth-shattering decision in the pages of Runaways 18, then in the all-new second volume of Runaways!