Disclaimer: I do NOT own Marvel Comics, or anything affiliated with said franchise, merchandise, literature, film, or other media. But, if I did, I would sell a SH*T-TON of comics (I hope)!

Before-You-Read Background: This BOLD, "Pre-Story Pretext," is my important, intrinsic, "Before-You-Read Background," and these "Before-Chapter-Author-Notes," will almost ALWAYS contain UPPER-CASE Letters, of SOME sort. Proper grammar, and other things are used CORRECTLY in these "Pretext Prologues," though. …And while you should know that, you should also know that the ACTUAL STORY WILL contain GREAT spelling, grammar, punctuation, usage-and-mechanics, syntax, and semantics. Reading/RETAINING the NEXT portion of BOLDED text of IMPORTANT INFORMATION is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! By stating the important information below, it will make this FanFic immensely more entertaining/enjoyable. Also, I am NOT insulting ANY reader's intelligence/intellect, OR, any reader's knowledge, or know-how of "The Marvel-MultiVerse," by explaining/elaborating on the following facts. I am simply giving the reader necessary information that he/she NEEDS in-order to properly understand my FanFic. I have read almost ANY/ALL of any-such-mentioned Marvel, AND/OR, DC Comics, and I LOVE superheroes (AND supervillains)! I mean, who doesn't? We love them, because we live though them. We live vicariously through them. They do things that we WISH we could do! It's the truth. The best part about comics, movies, films, books, media, and FANTASY, in-general, is that we can live-out our greatest fantasies, hopes, and dreams, WITHOUT EVER getting hurt or wounded! My FAVORITE superhero of ALL-TIME is a toss-up, between the following (Secret Identity Is In Parenthesis, Beside Name—If There Are Multiple Names In Parenthesis, Then It Means That ALL Of Those Characters Took-Up That Superhero-Name/Alias At One Point): BatMan (Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, Terry McGinnis—Batman Is Just SOOO Great! …I Mean, He Has NO Superpowers, Yet Can Go Toe-To-Toe With Superman—Thus Awesome!); Green Lantern (Alan Scott, Hal Jordan, Guy Gardener, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner); Flash (Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West, Bart Allen, Iris West); SuperGirl (Kara Zor-El); Green-Arrow/Red-Arrow/Speedy (Oliver Queen, Roy Harper, Connor Hawke, Mia Dearden); Black Lightning (Jefferson Pierce); Lightning (Jennifer Pierce); Spider-Man (Peter Parker); The Human Torch (Johnny Storm); Wolverine (James "Logan" Howlett); DareDevil (Matthew "Matt" Murdock); and IronMan (Tony Stark). Supervillains are important as well, though! They give us an interesting, and very relatable foil, both to ourselves, and to our heroes. The Joker is DEFINITELY my MOST-FAVORITE Super villain (His Mind Is Just SOOO Great To Look At! Once Again, He Has NO Superpowers, Yet He Can Bring The Country To Its Knees!—Thus Awesome!). Other memorable supervillains include (for me): DeathStroke (Slade Wilson—A.K.A. JUST "Slade," In The Show, "Teen Titans"); Vandal Savage (Vandar Adg); Darkseid (Prince Uxas of "Planet Apokolips"); Venom (Eddie Brock); Carnage (Cletus Cassidy); and Dr. Doom (Victor Von Doom). One of my MOST-FAVORITE comic book characters of ALL-TIME, though, would HAVE to be Dick Grayson; he is just a legend. Also, don't be surprised of you see some other OCs, as well as some old faces (*Hint-Hint, Nudge-Nudge*) in this FanFic. Also, please note that this Fic takes-place in a new "dark," "days-of-destruction," kind of future world, which takes place, in the FUTURE of the "Marvel Comics-MAIN-Universe."

IMPORTANT INFO: Most people haven't read nearly as many comics, as I have. That is why ANY AND ALL of ANY of my comic-based FanFics are made VERY EASY to understand, so that even a "NON-Comics-Reader," can pick-it-up fairly easily. The ages of ANY/ALL characters described in this story and/or work of FanFiction is, COMPLETELY IN-LINE and/or IN-ACCORDANCE with Marvel Comics' MAINSTREAM CONTINUITY/UNIVERSE (This "Continuity/Universe" Is The Timeline, That Encompasses Most, And/or ANY/ALL, Of The Events, That Occur, In The Marvel-Comics'-MAIN-Universe, Which Is ONLY ONE Of MANY, Universes, In The Multi-World "Marvel-MultiVerse," And The "MultiVerse," Is The Term Which Is Used To Describe The COLLECTIVE COMBINATION Of Marvel Comics' MANY DIFFERENT, PARALLEL Worlds/Universes). This FanFiction, is-based-on/takes-place-in, the FUTURE, of The "MAIN-Marvel-Universe," (ONE, Of MANY Universes, In "The Marvel-MultiVerse"). ALL of the "Cannon Characters" (Characters, Villains, Heroes, Or Other Supporting Characters That Marvel Comics Has Created, And Own The Rights To) are JUST as Marvel Comics' depicted them, and I have done my very best to keep them VERY IN-CHARACTER in this story! Those characters that are NOT in Marvel Comics' MAIN-STREAM-Universe, BUT who ARE in Marvel Comics' MultiVerse, HAVE BEEN ADDED INTO THIS STORY, AND I HAVE USED THEIR BACK-STORY FROM the world/universe that THEY ORIGINATED FROM in THIS STORY! I have simplified this story as much as I could, so as to NOT CONFUSE ANYBODY (Even People Who Have NEVER READ A SINGLE COMIC Should Be Able To Understand, Comprehend, And Follow This Story VERY EASILY). There will NOT be many characters that are not well-known here, and those are not well-known will be PROPERLY, and/or adequately described, introduced, and characterized. I have also CREATED, and introduced, MY OWN PERSONAL characters, that I have thought-up myself (Called OCs, Or "Original Characters") into this story. As for the ages, the ages are done, presented, and/or, calculated with a SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF RESEARCH, WORK, AND CALCULATIONS! They are all (For The Most-Part), COMPLETELY and UTTERLY CORRECT! So, this story, which takes place in a "Deep-And-Dark," Future World of Marvel comics, is, and should be, fairly accurate in its writing and portrayal.

NOTABLE NOTES/NOTICE: Peter Parker, A.K.A.: "SpiderMan," has ORGANIC webbing, in this story, INSTEAD of his usual "Web-Synthesizing-Gadgets." He has gained this ability, here in MY STORY/FanFic, in a situation—a situation CREATED/CONSTRUCTED, by ME—called the "Symbiote Sickness," and that will be elaborated/explained later on.

Author's Amendment: …ANYWAYS… …I hope that any and all of you read and enjoy this work of FanFiction, and I also hope that I get some REVIEWS! I would greatly appreciate your opinion and/or review of this story (or any other story of mine you happen to find yourself interested in), as I take every last review and comment into account, in order to make it a more enjoyable experience for everyone reading it. ENJOY!

A Story of Soldiers and Saviors

A FanFic By: D. Raj David

I. Doomsday

Death drifted densely throughout the air. The heroes in the room were alive, but they felt dead.

Logan paced around the large steel table, and Peter's heartfelt hazel eyes followed him endlessly. All the years of watching him in action—of fighting side-by-side with him, of getting under his skin, of seeing his strategy, strength, and skill—made Peter consider that this was all a dream, because the confident, cool, collected—albeit sometimes angry—Logan that always showed up for a fight was not this Logan that was pacing around this table.

James "Logan" Howlett, for the first time in many years, was in the same position as his allies, as his friends, as the "useless bug," that he had tried, on so many occasions before, to squash from existence. But Peter was a resilient bug, and he wasn't so easy to squash. He only hoped that his daughter was just as strong, just as resilient. And, deep down, he hoped the same was true for Logan's son, for all of the children of the heroes that were gathered around this ominous and terrible table before him.

Professor Charles Xavier, Doctor Anthony Stark, Doctor Reed Richards, and Doctor Peter Parker stood, all hopelessly huddled around a spherical holographic map of the earth that was projected upward from the sturdy steel table in the center of the drab, dull, and sickeningly silver, steel-feeling room in the center of the "Baxter Building."

The map was painted with numerous scarlet red dots—dots that marked locations where the heroes that where gathered around the table had already torn apart, piece by piece, looking for their children that had been missing for years. The children of the world's greatest heroes had been taken directly from the sanctity of Professor Xavier's "X-Mansion," and the invasion of their privacy, the intrusion upon their own territory, the cynically sick and sadistic way that captors of the children had sliced through the security of the X-Mansion was incredible—and insulting.

The silent, sad, and still statures of the heroes that were gathered around the table silently spoke, and it spoke of a sad story, indeed.

For years and years these great heroes, these great leaders, these well-respected men and women—some of them pure, cold-blooded killers—had been searching, scouring, and scavenging around the globe for any sign of their children. Although they had found much information and intelligence that was very useful and helpful, they were no closer to finding their children than they had been years ago. Logan's "Scent Searches," while extremely efficient in the past, had yielded nothing now. Someone was hiding the scent of the children, and only a fatal few could accomplish this. Those fatal few called themselves "Lethal Lupines."

Johnny Blaze looked around the table, and he wanted disparately to sigh, but he had long since given up the action of sighing. Johnny Blaze was the one known as Ghost Rider, and while his own offspring wasn't stolen, the fact that he had been called in to aid and assist the heroes who had in fact had their children taken was simply a testament to how dark and depressingly doubtful the situation was. He would have happily offered his help sooner—had he not been imprisoned in "Hell's Heat"—literally.

Blaze's reddish-blond hair was a chaotic carefree mess—as was the rest of the heroes' hair. They had more important tasks to worry with, rather than styling their hair. Tony's black hair, Peter's brown hair, the blond hair of Steve Rogers, the bold black hair of James Howlett, Reed's brown hair, Johnny Storm's blond hair, the austere auburn hair of Natalia Romanova, Felicia's frayed frost-white hair, Sue Storm's bright blonde hair, and the bright black hair of Logan's mate—Heather Howlett— were all monstrous messes.

Blaze's brutal blue eyes swiftly scanned the group around him, and he met each and every eye of the men and women around him. Noticing the familiar sight of strewn scarlet hair, Blaze realized that he had failed to make eye contact with everyone. Mary Jane Watson-Parker was the only person with whom he did not experience eye contact with. Her emerald eyes were locked solely on the object of her heated hatred—Felicia Hardy. The two teenagers in the room—the daughters of Reed Richards and Tony Stark—were the only two beings who were not graced with the guilty glare of Blaze's brutal eyes.

Heather Howlett looked across the table towards Felicia Hardy, and her own emotionless expression was mirrored in the face across the table. Felicia noticed the woman's stare, and she hesitantly and half-heartedly smiled in return. Heather acknowledged the gesture with a subtle silent nod. Heather didn't smile. It was part of the reason that Logan enjoyed—or rather tolerated—her company so much.

Felicia Hardy and Heather Howlett shared an odd relationship, to say the least. To say that they were friends would either have been an understatement or an overstatement; no one was sure which one was truly the case, and no one questioned it. Black Cat, and Fatal Feral, as their hero aliases were known by the general public, were certainly a terrifying two-person team that no one ever wanted to clash with. The wolf would rip someone in half—only after the cat had made said someone wish for the end. Both of their children were two of the many that were missing.

The missing, and potentially powerful, children, that were taken, were abducted by a group who were workers, associated and allied with the "Power Progeny Program." This was a program designed to do exactly what the "Weapon-X Program" had done: turn its young, uncontrollable, untamed mutants and superhumans into killers, into warriors, into weapons.

Logan gritted his teeth every time he thought of it. He had gone through the exact same thing, just as his wife had. His wife was one, who like himself, had been taught and trained since birth to perform only one action: to kill.

Logan still had no true idea of the inner-workings of the Weapon-X Program, which had since been subsequently shutdown. He had no idea, no information, no intelligence that even suggested, let alone stated clearly, why the cruel, clandestine, shadow sectors of the Canadian Government needed such weapons, such warriors as the ones created by the Weapon-X Program.

They had claimed that they were turning mutants into weapons, to be used against other mutants, to help eliminate and exterminate a species of beings that they felt threatened humanity. However, after seeing the good that mutants could accomplish, the "S.H.I.E.L.D Agency" had deactivated and decommissioned the Weapon-X Program, and as such, the remaining weapons and warriors were turned into heroes, or otherwise sent to rehabilitation.

The fact that the actual ultimately unified "Global Government" of planet Earth not only knew about the Weapon-X Program, but also sheltered and supported it, gave rise to the idea that some of these countries also had something to gain from the program. Logan couldn't help but wonder what the Global Government—the name for the unanimous and universal collaboration of any and all countries around the planet—could possibly gain from guarding a program that constantly engaged in cold and cruel training, teaching, and torturing of innocent children.

There was only one thing that these governments could have gained: more power. Power was the one true target of any government, and if that program could have given them more power, then Logan couldn't help but wonder what was so powerful about menacing mutant children—and then it dawned on him.

They weren't the power that the governments sought. These children were the preventers, the protectors that would preserve the world as it was, that would prevent these governments from gaining power—or at least they would soon grow up to be. There was no better way to eliminate and exterminate their enemies, than to turn some into weapons and warriors, and unleash them upon the others—the others that had been bred and born to be heroes.

These murderous mutants, these children, were the future heroes of the world, and training, teaching, and tempering them to eliminate each other was the perfect process to ensure that these future heroes did not interfere with the workings of these governments, these ruthless regimes.

This time was different though. Since those dark and dangerous days for the heroes and superhuman of the Earth, the Global Government had condemned and canceled the support of any program that operated in any vaguely similar ways, or that had any vaguely similar interests as the Weapon-X Program.

Thus, the Power Progeny Program was different. Everyone wanted it shutdown. The Global Government had agreed that all beings of earth needed to work together to preserve, protect, and progress the world—the world they saw as the world that gave them all the same existential existence—the world called Earth.

Thus, the fact that this new program, this Power Progeny Program, had defied the will of the general populace of the entire planet of Earth meant one thing: the payoff of this program must have been just as great—if not, greater—as the probable cost for failure. And the cost for failure was a great one. The cost of failure was dealing with the dark, dangerous, and destructive heroes that were gathered around the table in the Baxter Building.

The four geniuses that were gathered around the holographic map were getting tired, and the exhausting and extraneous weeks that they had just been through were doing nothing, but adding to their already unbearably high misery.

Logan couldn't take it anymore.

"Look, bug, I don't have time for all of this garbage! Tell me where the next site is, and I'll hit it myself!" he screeched, and Peter instantly whipped his head up to look Logan straight in the eye.

He clenched and unclenched his fists constantly, and he gritted his teeth as hard as he could, trying his best to avoid an angry tone. But he failed.

"Look, wolf, we are working as fast as humanly possible! If you and your maniac mutant friends want to try to do something that might actually be, oh I don't know, productive, then, by all means, go right ahead!" Peter swiftly snapped back. His lack of sleep was getting to him—that and the fact that his daughter was probably being beaten and tortured at this very moment.

Logan precisely popped his killer claws—the ones laced with the immutable, indestructible metal, "Adamantium." Everyone around the table saw this action, and they prepared for what came next.

Peter quickly and quietly ejected a solid stream of webbing and wrapped it around his hands. The webbing may have looked weak, but it could have easily contended with Logan's Adamantium claws. The protein that the webbing was made of was five times as strong as steel and stronger and more elastic than the bulletproof material Kevlar.

Peter shot streams of the webs out of his wrists, made of the protein known as "Paragon Protein," and surrounded his fists with the webbing, creating sharp, strong, solid gloves of the protein around his already-clenched fists.

The two heroes—the wolf and the spider—squared off around the table, as they began to circle the other, both preparing to pounce.

They never got the chance, though, as Steve Rogers put his own body between the two adamantly angry adults, and prevented the bloodshed, as Captain America had always done.

"Enough!" he commanded, and at the utterance of this statement, he grabbed everyone's attention. "We have much larger problems, than your petty differences! We must—" Steve started, but both Logan and Peter cut off their former leader at the same time.

"STAY OUT OF IT!" they both boomed in unison, and for the first time in a very long time, the brave and bold Captain America seemed to shrink back at their commands. Logan and Peter turned back to each other, and before they could act, a cat and wolf were on them.

As Felicia swiftly and silently swept both the firm feet of both, Peter and Logan, from under them—sending them crashing to the floor—Heather ejected two parallel adamantium blades from her forearms and stabbed it right through the center of the sturdy steel table—which immediately got everyone's attention.

Everyone swiftly shifted their view to the two females—everyone including Mary Jane Watson-Parker. She was holding her young son up on her lap, and his affectionate amber eyes and boyish bronze hair was giving the young toddler the perfect air of innocence. Mary Jane was giving Felicia a fatal death stare. The ring on Mary Jane's left ring finger stated obviously enough that she was the wife of Peter Parker, but that did not change the fact that Felicia was the mother of Peter's first child. It also did not change the fact that Mary Jane hated Felicia.

As the feet of Logan and Peter went perpendicular to the ground and they fell flat on their faces, Felicia smirked and nodded at Heather, who nodded in return, and addressed the rest of the heroes around her.

"Enough of this. The Captain is right." she stated, and then turned to the three remaining geniuses at the holographic map. "…Well… …What have you found…?" she questioned them cautiously.

Stark nodded, and he answered. "We believe that the children are being held in an underground facility somewhere in northeastern Russia. However, to be completely certain—" Stark stopped, and was simultaneously cut-off by Reed, as he finished his counterpart's statement.

"—But, to be completely certain of their location, we will need the Ghost Rider to give a positive analysis that the area is the source of Jacob's pyrokinetic signature." Reed finished, and across the table, he nodded towards Johnny Blaze, who nodded in return. This was why Blaze was here, to track the trail of Jacob Storm.

Johnny Blaze turned to his right and without saying a word, gestured as gently as he could to Johnny Storm, the man in a seat to his direct right. Storm nodded grimly in response, and he said two simple words, but he had no heart when he said them. He sounded defeated, as all of the heroes had sounded recently.

"Flame on." Storm said indifferently, and almost immediately, his body was engulfed in ferocious flames, and he became The Human Torch once again.

Blaze nodded and closed his eyes, deeply focusing on some distant memory or mindset, before his own body was engulfed in flames as well, and his skin turned to skeleton. The Ghost Rider took a deep sniff of The Human Torch, before turning and giving a nod to Professor Xavier. He had the boy's sear-scent now.

Professor Xavier nodded in response, and he began typing frantically into the computer that had originally sputtered out the image of the holographic Earth. He was getting the coordinates. The professor nodded to the rest of the team, and they nodded in response, all filing out of the oval-shaped and sickeningly silver steel room, only to enter a similarly striking steel hallway. All of the heroes made their way down to the armored armory—to the preparation rooms. They were preparing for their mission.

Kellina and Sarah remained behind. Kellina Stark and Sarah Richards were the only two children of the heroes that were previously in the meeting room, that had not been captured or condemned by the Power Progeny Program. They wanted to help, and they were determined to do just that.

Only five people remained in the meeting room after the other heroes had left, and they were all focused on the two young teens as they got ready for the mission that they were sure they were going on.

Two of the people in the room were the girls themselves—Sarah Richards and Kellina Stark. Two of the others were their fathers, Tony Stark and Reed Richards. Sue Richards had gone off with the other heroes to prepare for their mission. The fifth person in the room was Natalia Romanova, better known as the agent-assassin, Black Widow. She was Kellina's master-mentor, during her training, teachings, and tempering, in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agency.

Black Widow was watching Kellina load, unload, check, weigh, and holster her bullets, blades, and bombs securely on her steely silver uniform. Sarah and Kellina then both tied their hair up in a ponytail and then their combat costumes were complete. They were ready for a fight. Sarah's blonde hair differed amazingly in contrast to Kellina's dark brown hair, but somehow, the two girls seemed to look like they belonged together—perhaps on a team.

Natalia caught Tony's searing stare, as he was scanning between his daughter and Natalia. He didn't like Natalia—especially since Kellina hadn't known her father and mother for a very long time, and had been taught and trained since birth to be the perfect soldier, taught and trained by Natalia herself.

As the two teenage females donned their extremely elastic and amazingly armored costumes—which they carried on them most of the time—their fathers watched them carefully. Finally, Kellina finished loading her pistols, and she holstered all of her weapons, and sheathed all of her blades. Sarah quickly checked her abilities, by teleporting to the far side of the room, and then back again, in a black flash; her dark blue costume with crisscrossing "Ms" engraved in the front always seemed to look black when she teleported. The girls caught their father's stares, and they both raised an eyebrow at their sustained silences.

Kellina's bright brown eyes and Sarah's dark deep ocean blue eyes seemed to stare not to, but rather through, their fathers as they asked their question.

"…What?" they asked in unison.

Reed and Tony both looked at each other and then back at their daughters. Reed went first.

"If you're going, then you stay ten feet behind me—at all times. Understood?" he asked her, and Sarah sighed in exasperated defeat, but she still nodded. At least he was letting her go. She couldn't fault him for being so overprotective, though. It was how he showed he cared, that he loved her. Tony, on the other hand, was another story.

"Kelly, you're not going." he stated plainly.

Kellina scoffed. "Like hell I'm not." she answered back vehemently. She and her father had rocky relationship, to say the least. Her mother, on the other hand, Kellina loved. She also loved her brother, and those two were two of the very few people that she could talk to, without vileness or viciousness in her voice.

However, as her mother had gone along with the rest of the heroes to prepare for the mission or wish them luck, and her brother was currently being tortured, tormented, and trained by members of the organization that they were about to battle with, talking nicely to anyone in this room seemed to be out of the question.

Now it was Tony who scoffed. "Your brother has been trained and taught to kill. They will likely try to use that against you, use him against you. I do not want—" he started, but here Tony was cut off by his daughter.

"Now you care? Well, it is a tad too late for that, father! I did not have a father, until I was old enough to do without one! I do not need your permission, to take on any task! I have never needed it, and I most-certainly do not need it now!" Kellina yelled in her viciously vehement voice, and then stormed out of the room, wanting desperately to shoot something. Black Widow went after her. She knew her protégé, and she didn't want her to do anything too destructive or damaging.

Sarah just looked up at her father, and sighed. "I guess that this is a bad time to tell you that Kelly hasn't been doing so well in anger management." Sarah voiced, and her father chuckled, while Tony just sighed very deeply.

This was going to be a long day, and it was just getting started. One thing was certain, though. Those whom these heroes had their sights set on, were about to meet their doom. It was their doomsday.

A/N: Please R&R and let me know what you thought! Stay tuned for the next update!