The attacker struck, fast and hard.  Captain America fell, slamming into the ground.  He groaned, and rose to his feet.  His assailant struck at him again, but Cap blocked the blow with his shield.  His shield.  Scorched, and amazingly, dented.  The attacker had done to his shield what nobody had ever been able to accomplish.

Expecting another blow, Cap tensed his muscles, and leapt at the man.  The man laughed, a confidant laugh, and blue-white fire lanced from his palm.  It struck the shield, and the shield began to melt.  Melt!  Horrified, Captain America threw his shield at the attacker, and landed on his feet.  Cap watched as a second beam struck his shield, and it melted completely, leaving a pile of slag on the ground.  Hoping to catch the man off guard, Cap dove at the man's knees, hoping to take him down.  He never had the chance.

More of the fire struck Captain America at point-blank range.  He never had a chance to scream as he was vaporized.  The Living Legend of World War II had become just that.  A legend.

"I say thee nay!" cried Thor as the original Avengers rushed at the attacker.  After receiving a distress from Captain America, the Avengers had rushed to the scene.  Seconds too late.  "Thou shalt pay for thy deed, fiend!"  Thor hurled his hammer at Captain America's murderer with all of his strength.  Once more, the figure just laughed his confidant laugh.  Blue-white fire struck Mjolnir, and it fell to the ground.  Only the magic properties of Mjolnir had saved it.

Swooping in behind the assailant, Iron Man struck him from behind with his repulsors.  The man didn't appear to feel them as he struck Giant Man with that same energy blast.  Giant Man fell hard, crushing the Wasp.  "Jan!  What have I done?!" cried the anguished Giant Man.  He rose to his feet, and as fast as his injured leg would let him, he charged at the man, a roar of rage coming from his mouth.  He picked up the man, but the man didn't seem frightened in the least.  Instead, he fired a new weapon, some sort of net.  It caught Giant Man in the face, and then somehow the net spread out, and covered his mouth and nose.  Giant Man dropped the figure while he struggled with the net.  He couldn't get it off in time.

As he fell, the man fired his energy blast at Thor, who was retrieving Mjolnir.  The blast struck Thor, and knocked him away from Mjolnir.  The figure fired at Iron Man, and his armor melted.  Tony Stark screamed as the metal burned him, and he plummeted from the sky.  His head caught the edge of Mjolnir, and his skull caved in.  Thor watched helplessly as the change began.  In seconds, he reverted from his form of a God, to that of a man. 

The man spoke.  "You, God of Thunder, will suffer the worst fate.  You shall live.  As the world is remade, you will watch, powerless to stop it."

Don Blake was horrified.  Desperately, he grabbed for Mjolnir.  If he could just touch it, he could transform into Thor, God of Thunder.  He couldn't.

"Farewell, Thunder God.  I have won."  With that, the man disappeared.  With Mjolnir.

Over the weeks, reports of what were termed "super-homicides" poured in.  Headlines ranged from "Web-Spinner Spins Last Web", "Fantastic Fall Claims Fantastic Four", to "Hulk Smashed" and "Mutants Massacred". 

That was then.  This is now.

Patrol robots marched the streets.  Everyone knew if they stepped out of line, they would be punished.  The Master did not tolerate defiance.  The buildings, a uniform gray, were designed in the same style; dark and depressing.  The rabble, as they were called, trudged through the streets under the watchful optic sensors of the patrol robots.  The sky was a permanent gray, made that way by science or magic, possibly a combination of both.  It was Apocalyptic.  When the people's Master had begun his campaign, there had been little resistance, since most of the heroes had been killed shortly into their careers.  Those many deaths had discouraged others from becoming heroes, and instead worked for the Master.  Hope had nearly died, if not died completely.  It seemed the Apocalyptic reality was there forever.

But a select few didn't think so.