MV1 COMICS PRESENTS		6
YEAR ONE	by Travis George	JAN

Note: Quasar appears here shortly after his appearances in Avengers Spotlight #43 and Avengers #403.

Quasar.

He's been gone a long time...

A lot's happened while he was gone.

He's been out of the loop -- god knows what his family and friends are doing. Life goes on, of course. His Eternal buddy Makkari. His mom and sis Gayle. His business partner Ken.The members of the Squadron Supreme, stranded at Project P. His former admirer and tagalong, Kismet.

Then there's others he wishes he didn't have to worry about. Pains in the backside, like Presence, Deathurge, and Maelstrom. Maelstrom? He's dead, isn't he? Sure, but that never stopped him before, why should it this time?

It's time to get the lowdown on what went on, and pray not too much damage was done. Damage? The Avengers were thought dead for a while there. If that isn't damage, what is? If someone could take the Avengers, the FF, the Hulk, and so many others out of commission for even as long as they did, then who's really safe? No one.

He'd say it was a good thing he's back to watch out for them, all the people he's close to, but that's not quite how he feels. He remembers the reason he left in the first place. Kayla... the love of his life... trapped on an alternate earth in a distant corner of the galaxy. A madman blaming Quas for his son's death, willing to settle the score by killing off what's left of Quas' immediate family. No, Quas wasn't in the best of shape when he left, but time's passed.

Maybe... a fresh start. An opportunity to make amends for what went wrong, and remembering the lessons he learned, do better this time. It could work.

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

'First things first... got to go see how mom and sis are. Osh Kosh, here I come!'

VDOOOOM!!!!

'Smell that fresh country air. And seeing that big blue tower with hometown's name in big bold letters brings back all sorts of memories. It's good to be home.'

'There's the house... boy is that a sight for sore eyes...'

"Mom?"

"Wendell? Is that you?"

"Mom!!" Quasar greeted his mother with a tight hug.

"How are you, son?"

"I'm fine, mom. How about you? I hope you've been ok. I've heard a lot of things were going on while I was gone, and of course there was that time you contacted me."

"Yes, I'm not sure what kind of standards cosmic superheroes use to describe a life or death emergency but to a worried mother like me, when those aliens were about to attack it felt like one."

"You did the right thing, mom. Anyway, where's Gayle? At class?"

"Well, no son. She's at work, actually. She works as a paralegal at a law firm in Omro. She graduated UW. She was a senior when you left, remember?"

"That's right! I hadn't even thought of that. I used this weird stardate system while I was in space, and between you and me, mom, it's much easier to keep track of time when you're living on a planet."

Wendell's mom chuckled.

*******

'So they're ok. I wouldn't say I was just being paranoid for their safety. I wouldn't think of the Presence as the type to let the fact that he believes I was dead to stop him from trying to murder them. That's why after I see the last person on my urgent list, I'll have to figure out what to do about Pres'

VDOOOOM!!!!

'That was better. Since I left a quantum bubble in New York for me to materialize in, all I had to do was fly completely out of the Earth's atmosphere. Then I was able to quantum jump back there instead of having to fly back without risking any damage to the ozone.'

Quasar approached the headquarters of the world-renowned Fantastic Four. He wasn't here to visit the world's first superteam, though. He actually came because he wanted to check up on his friend and business associate, Ken Tanaka. As Wendell Vaughn, he had leased office space in Four Freedoms Plaza to establish a security firm in order to monitor alien activity. He had done it because he was looking to find the cosmic assassin that he was told would attempt to kill his once mentor Eon. As it turned out, the assassin succeeded. That's when Quasar really learned that life goes on after people die, even when it's an eight billion year old being you've finished mourning. And so does business. That's why he had kept the firm going the times he had headed off into space, and left Ken in charge.

'I'd heard about the changes made to the building because of this new superteam, but they must have done a lot for New York City and the world if they actually gave them the entire building. They actually redesigned the "4" and made into that insignia. It's got to be what that new superteam uses. What did mom call them? The "Thunderbolts". From what she told me, it's like they brought back hope itself. They must have done something really wonderful like prevent the Masters of Evil from trying to raid Avengers Mansion for their files or something.'

Quasar flew straight through an open window. There was no point in being secretive. He had revealed his secret ID the last time he'd left earth after all. He stood in what used to be his office.

'Ken's not here, and neither are the others he hired after I promoted him to senior partner. Wait -- that's not Ken's desk. The nameplate reads *Edwin Cord*. I don't think this space is being used for my firm anymore. I better get out of h -- The door's opening!'

"And so, we were thinking that the next step could be to -- what's that? You, what are you doing in here?"

"I'm sorry -- it seems like I got the wrong floor. You wouldn't happen to know where the offices for Vaughn-Tanaka Industries might be, would you?"

"Cute. If I'd known the previous tenants of this space had superpowered freaks using the windows as revolving doors, I'd have made sure I'd used a different space. Vaughn-Tanaka is on the 25th floor now. We bought into a new lease for this space when theirs expired seven months ago."

"Thanks. Uh -- sorry again about the intrusion, "Quasar said as he flew back out the window.

'Man, not the nicest exec I've ever met. Anyways, I think I'll go in through the lobby this ti -- Hmm, what is that? Those two girls don't look like they're holding down the fort in that office or anything. Wonder what they could possibly want?'

"Excuse me ladies, can I help you to something that's yours, like the right to remain silent, maybe?"

"A cop? No, one of those damned superheroes -- who are you?"

"I recognize him, Chance. There used to be reports that he hung out around this building. His name's Stellar."

"Quasar, but I guess that's close enough for someone who hasn't made the news lately. And now could you tell me your name? I'm interested in knowing who the first people I'll be sending to prision are. Chance? And you're...?"

"The name's Ariel. And a lovely name it is, don't you think? I mean you wouldn't want to arrest someone with such a nice name, would you?"

"Nice try, but after having my mind overpowered by Lord Votan*, I learned how to train myself to resist lower level telepaths. And when you've had Kismet try to woo you like that, you know you can resist some major babes."                 (* in Cosmic Powers Unlimited #5, or should I say last issue? - TG)

"All right, we've tried the feminine approach, and it didn't work. Let's get out of here, Ariel. I told you it wouldn't pay to try this now that all those superheroes are back."

"Good idea, Chance."

The two women bolted for the nearest door.

"You've got to be kidding me, ladies. You must know I can just follow you through there."

"Guess again guy," Ariel said as she disappeared through the door without reemerging in the adjoining room.

Before the other girl could follow suit, Quasar captured her in one of his quantum bubbles.

"An energy force field, huh? Let's see if we can't do something about that." The woman called Chance made some kind of motion as though she was expecting some kind of results, and then made a face when nothing happened.

"So, if there's nothing else, do you mind telling me what you were doing in this office building, and where your friend's gone off to? It's clear that you both have some kind of powers, even if yours don't seem to be working right. You ladies wouldn't happen to be mutants, would you?"

"I don't have to tell you anything, hero."

"All right. I guess I'll have to let the authorities question you, then. I would try being a bit more persuasive, but I have a friend to check up on."

Before Quasar could do anything, Chance made another motion and this time there were results.

"What are you doing? My quantum bubble -- it's getting bigger."

The bubble's size begin to increase, to the point that it extended from floor to ceiling. The expansion, continued, and to avoid damage to the office space, Quasar retracted the quantum energy, causing the bubble to disappear.

Then, the other woman appeared through the door again.

"Chance, are you coming?"

"Damn right I am, Ariel."

"Oh no, you don't..." Quasar flew straight through the doorway, gambling that he could make it through the portal. His gamble paid off. When he came through the other side, he was clearly in a different location. It looked like a sparsely used warehouse, with a few makeshift living quarters here and there. Only a couple looked like they were actually being used.

"Hmm, interesting set-up you've got here..."

Chance, having come through the portal herself said, "Great, Ariel. Your idea really paid off. Not only did we fail to get the account info, but now a superhero's found out where we live."

"Welcome to Beat Street, Avenger," Ariel said with a smile. "What are you going to do to us now."

"That depends. See, I've just got back from a long, long trip, and I'm not in the mood to deal with the standard sending criminals to jail. You don't seem like the type of girls that are doing this because you want to take over the world. Or else you'd have a Serpent Society type headquarters. Am I right?"

"Of course you're right. We only commit crimes because we'd like to be able to eat and maybe have a few basic amenities. Before this last heist, we stuck to small stuff. We didn't want to cause too much trouble. We actually had odd jobs for a while, back when there were more of us, but then Gomi and Bill left, and then the Vanisher... well, he vanished; this time for good. And then our employers found out we were mutants. We would have tried to get new ones, but ever since Onslaught, the public doesn't trust mutants much... not that they were much better before. We were just going to do this last job so it could hopefully get us enough money to go from Beat Street to Easy Street for a long time. That way at least, we wouldn't have to commit any crimes for a while."

"OK, I can sort of sympathize. This is the deal. I'm going to leave you both in quantum bubbles. Only..."

Quasar materializes a quantum bubble around Chance. Then, he forms a quantum hand to scoop up Ariel and bring her nearby that bubble, and then forms a larger one containing her surrounding the one Chance is inside.

"If you care about your friend at all Chance, you won't try to use your power on that bubble. You know what will happen if you do. Besides, this warehouse isn't exactly that office space. The ceiling is much higher, and the walls are much farther apart. Twice the size of a bubble that size isn't going to do much damage to anything, and besides even if it did, it would only be your own home you're destroying."

"How'd you know, Quasar?"

"Lucky guess. And the fact that my quantum bands can always register the amount of energy that the shapes take up, even if an external source is affecting them. Anyway, I have to check up on my friend like I told you. When I come back, I'm going to see what I can do about getting both of you a legitimate job, if you're interested. How's that sound?"

"Don't do us any favors, Avenger."

"Or you can both go to jail. I don't think mutants are going to get much leeway in an attempted burglary case in times like these. It's your choice. I'll be back as soon as I can. Think about what you want to do."

Having said that, Quasar checks his quantum bands for his location relative to his last known coordinates, forms a bubble around himself, and then quantum jumps back to the bubble he had earlier formed elsewhere in Manhattan.

********

"Can I help you?"

"Ah... yes. My name's Wendell Vaughn. I'm the founder of this company. I'd like to speak to Ken Tanaka, please."

"Oh, Mr. Vaughn! I haven't heard as much about you as I'd expected to. I'm afraid there's something you should know."

"What?? Ken's ok, isn't he?"

"I'd better let Phil tell you the details."

The unfamiliar woman buzzed Phil through the intercom. As she let him know who their vistor was, Wendell scoped out the new office space with a slight feeling of disillusionment.

'Man, what's happened to my firm? This new space they picked seems so cold, distant. You can only see the reception area from here. I don't know this new receptionist. Where's Brenna? I probably know her best out of the new people Ken brought in.'

"Thanks, Donna," came the reply from inside.

The only door visible from the reception area opened, revealing the man who now seemed to be running Vaughn-Tanaka industries.

"Mr. Vaughn!"

"Hello, Phil. Marlon. How are both of you?"

"All right. And yourself?"

"Fine, I guess. A little disoriented since I got back from sp... uh, my extended business trip. There've been so many changes. What happened to Ken? And Brenna?"

"You'd better come inside..."

********

'I don't believe this! I leave for a little over a year, and it seems like the whole world goes to pieces. They tell me that Ken's been missing since the Onslaught thing... and Brenna... the poor woman... dead! I barely got to know her. And the feeling nags at me. If I were around, would it have made a difference? Could I have saved her?'

Quasar flew over the skies of New York City in a familiar state of discontent, mostly due to the pressure he often put on himself. He'd always made himself feel like he had to be perfect, and would always explain bad things happening as inadequacies within himself.

'Epoch must have known the Avengers were still alive. This is what she must have meant when she mentioned losses.* Wonder if there are any more pleasant surprises I'm going to find out about...'                     (* see Avengers Spotlight #43 -TG)

"Quasar!"

A familiar golden-skinned woman with lustrous, popcorn colored hair down to her ankles called the Cosmic Avengers name. At least for a moment, Wendell had a reason to smile and forget about the difficulties he'd encountered returning to Earth.

"Kizzy!" Quasar greeted Kismet with a tight embrace. "How are ya?"

"I'm fine. I was in the vicinity when I registered your energy signature. It's truly gratifying to have you back on Earth. How are you?"

"To tell you the truth, Kiz, I could be better. Things aren't like I was hoping. There's so much to deal with and it all seems like a no-win situation. What happened to you? Last we spoke, you were waiting for the Enclave members to wake up."

"Yes, they did. We decided to explore space, but then they returned to Earth for reasons they didn't want to share with me. I fear I had expectations out of the experience that weren't completely met. But it wasn't completely disappointing. I did get a brief sense of belonging from my assocation with them. In any case, I'm ready for other adventures. Were you planning to go off into space again? I'd love to join you if that's what you intend."

"No. I've barely begun to take care of business here. I realize I've made poor choices in handling the many sides of my life. The people I'm close to on Earth, my responsiblity to the Avengers, and my duties as Protector of the Universe. I haven't found a way to make it so I keep them all from messing up the others."

"Is there any way I can assist you?"

"Hmmm... I don't... yes! Yes, there is. There's something I have to take care of. It isn't exactly something I'm looking forward to. That's why I'd be glad if I didn't have to do it alone."

"I'd be more than happy to help. Tell me, then. What is this task you dislike so much?"

********

"So that's the story. Pres threatened to kill my mom and sis. It was a low blow, even for him. I'm surprised he didn't go after them anyway. The sicko doesn't seem to have any sense of fair play."

"It seems the only constant in your life is the danger your activities pose to the people you care about."

"Yeah, you're right. I mean, we're going to Russia now to confront Presence. But say we do manage to straighten things out? What happens then? How long before the next loon threatens to hurt them or someone else I care about? I mean look at the pattern so far... My dad was killed by Maelstrom, I had to kill my own mentor Eon in an attempt to prevent that creep from taking his cosmic awareness, and I failed that anyway. Then there was Kayla... targeted by being after being because of the power I gave to her by accident. I had to fake my own death to avoid my mom and Gayle being murdered, and now I find out that people working for me were at risk because I thought it would be cool to have a business in the same building as the FF. I never once really considered the danger that might pose. I should have known better. Ken was even attacked once before."

"I think you're subjecting yourself to too much scrutiny, Quasar. I'm sure you're not the only one who encounters these situations. It's simply part and parcel of being a superpowered champion of life. There's always those who will target your loved ones simply because of who you are."

"I know. But what's the point of my being the Protector of the whole damned Universe if I can't even protect those closest to me?"

"Maybe you need help. Maybe one being isn't sufficient to take on the entirety of the many tasks that come with the role. Have you considered forming a team of Protectors? We could recruit powerful beings who would be willing to join the cause. There could be routine training sessions to increase the efficiency of the membership."

"Well, that could work. It's sort of what I was doing when I was a member of the Starmasters. But it's not just that. What about my friends and family? Their numbers are dwindling because of superhuman threats that I'm not around to save them from."

"Then we could have a subdivision in the team that would be permanently Earth based so they would have protection while you were off planet. We could instill specific protocols to deal with life or death situations such as the ones that threaten your loved ones. An early warning system could detect such dangers."

"Hmmm... I'm not sure about all this, but you've definitely got me thinking. Listen, Kismet, I wanted to say -- "

"Yes?"

"Well, back when you were -- hold up, my quantum bands are detecting an energy source not far from here."

Kismet prepared to investigate the energy source, but she couldn't help but wonder what Quasar was going to say. She chose not to prod further, but didn't forget the inflections that Quasar used when he began his statement.

"All right. It's less than a mile up ahead. Hold up. This is familiar. It's darkforce. Unless I miss my guess... yep, there's Darkstar, and some of the other members of Siberforce. Only... holy, is that... Vanguard?!??"

NEXT ISSUE: Vanguard's alive? When did this happen? And where's Presence? Also, be here as Quas gets more clues as to Ken's fate, and find out more about what, if anything, comes of his plans to work with Kismet. See you in thirty!

___________________________________________________________

9.3.00

Welcome to the debut issue of Cosmic Powers Unlimited. For those of you who don't know, CPU was a short-lived (obviously) series featuring cosmic characters such as Quasar (of course), the Silver Surfer, Beta Ray Bill, Kismet, Genis, and others. Since I'm a new writer to MV1, we've picked this series as my test-run before I can hopefully follow through with my plan to continue the adventures of Quasar in his own series.

What I'll be doing with the cosmic Avenger:

First of all, I want to resolve the many subplots that were mostly left hanging in the air after his series ended. There weren't so many cliffhangers per se, but there were a few problems around late '96 to late '97. These stemmed from the fact that a) there were issues when Quasar was shown to be back on Earth without getting into how it was made possible. Busiek touched upon this briefly in a dialogue between Quas and the Vision in Avengers v.3 #1, but there was never an opportunity to go into any kind of detail. Did it happen long enough before that issue to have also taken place in MV1 continuity? We've decided to answer those questions here. Then there's b) There were several other characters besides Quas that made his namesake title their home, and most of them haven't been seen since Gru passed away. And the few that we have seen were often shown in stories that completely ignored Quas' continuity. That's another problem we're trying to solve here.

Once I've taken care of that, I'd like to continue telling Quas' adventures in way that honors Gru's enjoyable tradition. I have some ideas that seem like the logical continuation of what Gru was doing in his series, and then a little later I will be embarking on some of my own original ideas. I hope you enjoy what I have planned, and I know I'll be glad to have you along for the ride.

Travis George