"Elseworld"

Tragedy

"How do I look?" A voice comes from behind a woman standing in front of two large doors leading to the senate of the United States. She turns to face the man; he walks strong but with a limp, showing a bit of weakness. As he approaches the woman he smooths his hair out with his hand.

"You look fine dad," she says. "It's Dr. Pym, but thank you Hope," he responds trailing off. "Let's pray that we can come to a solution fast." He points at the door and Hope nods; he nods in agreement and walks into the next room with her.

Hank Pym straightens his tie as he begins talking. "They say that the time of heroes has come to an end; that the last of the greats has finally perished." He looks around at all the faces fixed on him in the exact middle of the circle. He looks to his right to see a familiar face among the crowd, a man wearing scarlet colored glasses, listening intently to his speech, his walking stick in his left hand as he sits.

"Today I stand before you all to tell you that this is true; but of course, you know that, we set that in motion. Unfortunately, a new threat has emerged: due to our methods of detection only being effective ninety percent of the time, a small group of enhanced persons has arisen. They have commandeered and use our own weapons against us, any forces sent to deal with this problem have been neutralized. Captain Carol Danverse's troops have done little to nothing, seeing as their genetic code is known. There is no more superhuman opposition for those out there who disregard the law, at least not known, that is why I come to you today. I have come with a solution: a test which must be administered to find those with special gifts. I come to you, those who will set the future of mankind with a message. Find them, because without them, we stand no chance, we can no longer discriminate against this inevitable change because judgement day is almost upon us..."

A congressman then speaks up "Dr. Pym, what of Earth's allies? The Guardians of the Galaxy? The Nova corps?"

Pym answers in a serious tone "Well senator, I'll excuse you from this because you were recently elected. When superhumans were outlawed, that same law prohibited any alien entrance into Earth, enforced by S.W.O.R.D. Also, we lost communications with the Guardians after the battle in New York. We no longer have any allies."

The man with the red glasses, moves his head mimicking the motion of looking around. "I agree with Dr. Pym; I would like to highly encourage those here to consider his proposition closely."

Angrily a senator lashes out screaming "Who do you think you are? How dare you interrupt something this important?!"

"I would like to apologize for my intrusion and for not introducing myself. My name is Matthew Murdock and-"

Something is wrong he hears the chime of metal clanking together and he stands up. The worry becomes apparent on his face; he hears another click and the loading of a gun. "What's wrong, Murdock?" Hank asks. There is no more time to wait, Matt runs top speed toward Pym screaming "Get down!" He tackles Hank as a gunshot is heard throughout the entire complex. Everyone shocked start to panic, leaving through the front doors. Matthew turns over blood pouring out of his arm, there is a hole straight through. Hank Pym was not so lucky; he's not moving and he's not breathing; he lays with blood spouting from his chest. "Dad..." Hope barely whispers as she runs over to her father's side. Taking off his tie, Matthew wraps it around the bullet wound in his arm. Matthew' head raised slightly listens to the heartbeat of Hank Pym it is quickly diminishing. He tries to hold his hand to stop the blood from exiting the wound, but he is losing too much blood too quickly. "Get an ambulance in here!" He tries to help with the situation but he knows there's no helping him. Matthew gets up.

"I'm sorry for your loss Ms. Pym..." Hope is strong, but she was not prepared for this moment. She tries her best to keep in her feelings, but with this pain her tears flow with only slight hesitation. She looks to Matthew, her vision blurry. With his head down he assures her, "I promise I'll get the person who did this." He walks out the room picking up a scarf of someone who left it and wraps it around his head covering the top half of his face to hide his identity. Hope stays cradling her father as paramedics start to come in and help. He runs out the back door and starts to climb the side of the building. He swings from a rail into a window which he located as the source of the metal sounds. There is barely anything in the room, no person, no weapon. There is one lead however, a smell in the room which is familiar to him, but Murdock cannot place where it's from. He spots a bullet casing on the floor and a note on the wall. "He must've taken the weapon with him," he says placing the shell in his pocket. Then holding up the note "I need to find someone to read this."