Origin

When Varnae took over the vampire cult, The Structure, and blocked out the sun, the current roster of Avengers were busy fighting Varnae's super-soldiers, The Bloodcoven. To defend everyday citizens from the vampires run amok, Captain America put a call to assemble any allies that were available. Hercules, Quicksilver, Hazmat, and Kate Bishop answered the call. Together, they defended the streets the best they could until the Avengers and the sorcerers could stop Varnae and clear the sky. After the day was saved, Cap saw a need for an expanded on-call Avengers team that would take shifts at the recently recovered Avengers Mansion to answer any emergency that might come up, while the main Avengers deal with the world ending threats.

Creation

The official Avengers Emergency Response Squad would make their first appearance in Avengers Assemble (2024) #1 by Steve Orlando and Cory Smith. They were inspired by a spontaneous Avengers squad from the Blood Hunt event.

Major Story Arcs

Serpent Cult of Mephisto

At the beginning of the team's formation, they resolved a number of minor emergencies

• Sin had stolen the powerful Mask of Erida
• Ghosts of Super-Apes haunted a New England town looking for their master, Red Ghost
• An attack on a peaceful vampire community post-Blood Hunt

Unbeknownst to the team, these emergencies were being tracked and used as cover by the Serpent Society to steal occult artifacts to sacrifice to Mephisto. Shang-Chi started putting the pieces together after the reports of the robberies came in. His suspicions were confirmed when he was challenged by one of the Society's newest members, Tiger Snake. After he brought the information to Cap, the entire Emergency Response roster was activated, so they could answer to alerts all at once.

While half the team tried to deescalate Dr. Doom's Herald, Victorious, from breaking through the magic barrier Doom put around Latveria, the other half arrived at a break-in to find the Serpents. Unfortunately, these Serpents were expecting the Avengers and also split up. The Avengers confronted the distraction team, while their leader, Pit Viper, arrived with a completed occult serum to transform the world into serpents.

He threw some of it at the Avengers, knowing Cap would shield them, making him the first snake-human hybrid. Now controlled by his primal instincts, Cap attacked his team, siding with the Serpents. Luckily, his team did not lose a step. They defeated the Serpents and brought Cap home. Using a stasis pod built by Night Thrasher and powered by Wonder Man's ionic energy and Spectrum's vita rays, they were able to reverse the process.

The Staten Island Monolith

During a casual meeting with The Avengers, Jarvis informed the Emergency Squad of a crimson monolith that appeared on Staten Island, hundreds of feet tall. Both teams respond to the mysterious monolith only to find Tyrannus leading an army of brainwashed moloids in an attempt to take the monolith for himself. After he touched the monolith, Tyrannus yelled out in pain while he phased into the structure. While the two teams fought off the moloids, Wonder Man phased into the monolith to rescue Tyrannus. Thankful for his rescue, Tyrannus called off his moloids, and the monolith was left behind. Cap assigned Night Thrasher to continue researching it.

Thrash required help from outside of the Emergency Response Squad's ranks. Mr. Immortal was brought in to enter the pocket dimension at the heart of the monolith along with Hercules to investigate further. After Immortal died multiple times, he and Herc came to the conclusion that the monolith had its own consciousness. This was later confirmed by Somnus, who sensed youthfulness but also a language that is thousands of years old. Moondragon was called in to try communicating psychically with it. She stitched together its scattered brain patterns and downloaded them to Thrash's computer for analysis. Phone Ranger was recruited to analyze the communication methods, eventually determining the language as the same as The Builders.

Translating the word as "Beware" finally stirred the being at the center of the monolith. It was Ahmet Abdol, known as the Living Monolith. He claimed the monolith was a chrysalis. It was made to suck the cosmic radiation out of the sky to further evolve Abdol for his next quest. He claimed he would consume the energy of the Earth next to satiate his hunger, goading Thrash into attacking. Thrash's strike cracked the monolith; thus, he was forced to call in the rest of the Emergency Response Squad. They did their best to contain or disperse the energy leaking from the monolith, but it was too late. Abdol emerged in his new form calling himself The Living Testament.

Abdol continued to absorb lifeforce from the entire planet, which roused a nearby comatose patient, Elijah Jackson, a previous Captain Universe who became Captain Beyond to fight The Living Testament off. Elijah was able to disconnect the Avengers from the energy drain, but the rest of the Earth was still at risk. Night Thrasher believed they should help Abdol get what he wants, to get to "The Light," a eternal resting place of all knowledge. Thrash knows Abdol can't earn his way into the Light and hoped that would knock some sense into him, which it did. Abdol released the energy, devolving to his human form, and gives himself up to the Avengers in attempt to become worthy the hard way.