Even though he now had a personal secretary in Pepper Potts today, it was already feeling like she wasn't needed since business was fairly slow for the CEO. Tony didn't mind a bit this time though, as opposed to other days when he'd get restless and start just checking in on employees just for the sake of having something to do. After all of the business at the charity ball Tony Stark was all too happy to let slow and boring be the style of the day. Plus with Pepper's new desk needing a few days to come in, Tony decided to just let her stick around and hang out instead.

It was a simple plan, pop open the big flat screen that was in his office, turn on the new Stark Tech 'Platinum' gaming system, and have a little fun trying it out. Heck even James Rhodes hopped in after a bit and seeing the normally stoic military man chuckling it up made Tony beam a smile. It was amazing to see James let his non-existent hair down every once in a while.

As Tony took a break to get a beverage from his personal mini fridge he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. Expecting just some random company news he didn't expect the private silent alarm going off. Looking into why he pulled up the surveillance camera to the elevator and... oh crap.

Considering this Thor lady was all over the news bringing with her chaos, mayhem, and hammers. Tony Stark didn't want to consider what she was up too coming to him. He glanced over nervously at Pepper and James who were still playing video games before back to the phone. Setting up a private text set up with Jarvis.

'Jarvis, have the Iron Man suit jetted over to Stark HQ for me NOW.'

'Of course Stark, ETA on suit's arrival in five minutes.'

“Shit.” Tony muttered to himself, the elevator wasn't going to buy him enough time and he needed to get his friends out of there. Quickly he strolled up to Pepper and James. “Hey guys... listen. I don't mean to be buzzkill McGee here but it might be smart if you... you know... GTFO the hell out of here like nowish.” Tony Stark tried to hide his panic as best he could but when they looked over Tony's face was fairly pale. “Why what's going on?” Pepper asked concerned.

“Oh nothing just it'd be smart if...” Tony was promptly cut off when the doors opened.

"Tony Stark. I would have words with you."
“Mother fuc... hey!” Tony Stark spun in place greeting the supposedly Goddess lady. Pepper and James immediately got what Tony was talking about. Pepper ducking underneath Tony's desk and James re-actively pulling out his pistol, pointing it at Thor. Tony glanced over and before anyone did something stupid quickly put his hand over the pistol, making James lower it mouthing to him. 'Please don't.'

“Well uh. Good to see you Miss... Thor?” Tony quickly got back to his guest realizing again he needed to buy time. “Listen normally I have an appointment schedule I like going on for these kinds of visits. You could AND SHOULD consider just filling in your details when you want to see me. I mean I do busy things and am a busy man.” Tony was trying to hide his fear and somehow at least in his mind was doing so. “Lots of people 'have words with me' m'lady.”

Thor's gaze shifted from Tony to his assistant when James aimed a pistol at her, she didn't flinch, didn't even flex her hammer-arm because she didn't fear the gun (not that that was a particularly good idea), James failed to intimidate her, plus she didn't want a fight.
"Not a wise move mortal." she said evenly to James, Tony intervened, urging the strange gun-man to lower his weapon and his assistant seemed to comply.

She was rather surprised that Tony addressed her by name, well ... sort of, no one knew who Tarene was, but Thor, Odinson, he was a legend, and now she had assumed his name and title. She was Thor, and Tony was aware she was a threat. This was going surprisingly well so far, given the situation at least.
"You have heard of me." she observed. "Then I need not warn you of the power of Thor."

“Listen normally I have an appointment schedule I like going on for these kinds of visits. You could AND SHOULD consider just filling in your details when you want to see me. I mean I do busy things and am a busy man."

She couldn't quite figure Stark out ... he was smart enough to not draw a weapon, yet he was dancing around the topic with words, and she wasn't very patient, fitting in a meeting according to Tony's schedule certainly wasn't going to happen.
"And I am a busy Goddess, so we shall conduct this with haste." she glanced at James, pistol still lowered, and took an easy stride a little closer to Stark, not enough to be inherently threatening, but certainly enough to show that she did not feel at all intimidated by Stark or his crew. Clearly, she wasn't going to do things on Stark's terms, the schedule was out, dealing with things quickly was in ... Until Stark got the suit, she was in a position of power... for now.

"You have satellites do you not? I seek a man, a dangerous fugitive, Midgard is in grave danger."
She offered Stark a sincere look, pleading him to trust her and just use his damn tech to get her the answers she needed. Tony appeared brave, but she'd thrown herself into the heart of battles and great wars, his resolve was admirable, but she knew he was masking a deep-down fear. That was good, he was aware she could kill him without breaking a sweat, not that she intended to. "I do not wish to fight you, nor your allies." she glanced at James and also at Pepper who was hiding under a desk.
"Let us do this the easy way. Tell me where Loki is hiding and no harm shall befall you, you have my word." Unfortunately for Thor, her "word" didn't carry much weight here in New York, it would take far more than her "word" to earn anyones trust here.

She held out a slightly blurred, but still legible photo of Loki. Luckily Dwight managed to uncover a few candids from the fight earlier that week, not that she needed it, Stark had met Loki face to face the evening prior. It was almost ironic, Stark didn't need a photo to find Loki, he already saw that face in person.

Of course, Tony had a good hand in this game of chance, if he could play his cards right long enough. Although Thor could easily kill him, killing Stark would scupper her plans. She couldn't use a satellite, she couldn't even begin to figure out how one worked much less how to use it to find a single man. She needed Stark alive, he could certainly use that to his advantage, but at the same time, if he took too long, if he upset the vengeful Goddess, she'd kill him easily in an instant and find other means of locating Loki. They were both dancing on a knifes edge.

-and-



Tony Stark took the photograph and examined it for a moment, both to stall for longer knowing he now had roughly two minutes to kill before the suit would arrive, and because the photo was a bit blurry. Pausing though he realized who the image was and remembered the guy with the sword at last night's dinner party. Wait HE was a threat? The guy who helped save everyone from the crazy snake lady? If it was all a ploy it was either the start of a slow burn or this lady had her ideology mixed up.

“Well satellites then. Uh how should I explain this.” Tony strolled away in thought from Thor, “See do I have satellites up in the air? Yessss...” Tony shrugged holding out the answer. “Kind of? I mean none of them are equipped to find people though.” One minute, Tony could hold her off just a little longer. “So I'm not exactly sure what it is I really can do for you. Sorry.” Tony told her giving her a somewhat, actually not at all sincere shrug.

Thor didn't know exactly how things on Midgard worked, but she had her instincts and she was beginning to suspect Stark was trying to play her like a fiddle. He was buying time, but for what? She wasn't prepared to wait much longer and entertain Tony's pointless games.

"I'm no fool Stark, you possess some of the most formidable technology in this realm do you not? If satellites cannot procure the answers I seek, I do not doubt you will have other means. SHIELD would not have been able to track my whereabouts if the technology did not exist, and SHIELD are not the only ones with that technology." she replied.

"You are wasting my time, if you'll not aid me, then you choose to ally thyself with Loki and you both shall meet the same end. So choose, save your realm or allow it to burn as Asgard once did." she threatened.

Now Tony Stark was just getting annoyed, "Okay you know what 'Royal We' using hockey pokey lady? Don't think for a moment me and SHIELD are the same because their tech is used for that stuff. My stuff is for consumer goods so don't start giving me lip about what I can or cannot do."

"Tony?" James cautiously asked trying to keep Pepper calm as she was shaking in fear under the desk.

"No no I got this. I'm not about to stand here and have you tell me who or what is dangerous. Because that guy you're so convinced will destroy everything? He was at a charity ball last night saving everyone from some green suited lady who had giant serpents. I'd know because I was there.... I don't recall seeing you're unwelcoming and frankly rude as Hell attitude there. So I fail to see how he's the problem here compared to say... you."

Almost on cue the Iron Man suit jetted into the room, smashing through one of the large panes of glass and coming into Tony Stark. Snapping in piece by piece as the suit activated quickly. Finally the helmet zoomed into his gloved hand allowing Stark to put it on with a bit of style. The suit's systems already calculating Thor and her power as Tony glanced back of her.

"So since you're being a real pain in the ass, why don't you get the fuck out of my building?" Iron Man stated pointing to the now recently opened window.

Thor could only smirk at Tony's sudden change in persona. She admired the bluntness, well, she usually would, but right now it was actually inconvenient and rather bothersome.
Then, he made a fatal mistake, he revealed the truth that he had met with Loki. Satellite or no, Tony had information on Loki, and she wasn't going to leave without it. She missed the part about the green-snake-lady, because right now that didn't matter (though later when she had time to think she'd likely have to investigate the snake woman later ...)

"For a genius, you are quite foolish." she said with a slanted smile. Tony had shown her that he knew of Loki, so there was only one thing that could happen now. He had to tell her where to go. No more games.

Then his suit suddenly burst into the room and snapped itself onto him, sheathing him in a metal case.
"You don't want to make an enemy of me Metal-Man. It is Loki, not you, whom shall face my wrath. I ask you this once more. Where. Is. He?" she said.

In her mind, Stark had like 3 seconds to make up his mind, and tell her what she needed to hear, or she'd resort to using force, and she dearly hoped he decided to do this the easy way.

I hate flyin’. It’s the worst feelin’ in the world; ‘specially when I’m not the one at the controls. Feels…unnatural. I ain’t supp’se ‘ta fly. Birds fly. Angels fly. Wolverines? Wolverines stay close to the ground. This Wolverine wishes he was close to the ground right ‘bout now.

“Logan.”

Wolverine glanced away from the window towards the young woman piloting the aircraft. Her voice betrayed her stone-cold eyes – she was concerned for her ‘father.’ Logan loosened his grip on the co-pilot’s stick, leaning back in the seat and taking a few short breathes in an attempt to calm himself down. “Logan! Look at me.” James opened his eyes and turned towards Laura, his brow furrowed in frustration. “What, Laura?!” He snapped. The stress of flying was getting to him. “Pull yourself together. You’re Weapon X, and you have a job to do. I don’t have time for your irrational terror.” X-23 chided the veteran assassin and spy for his frankly childish antics. “I don’t like flyin’. That’s all.” The jet slowed to a halt, hovering over the landing strip that made up the top level of SHIELD’s helicarriers. The jet X-23 flew was a specially designed stealth vehicle engineered by the eggheads back at the Program. At the push of a button, the aircraft's armored exterior disappeared by shifting and bending light around the jet. Light particles couldn't bounce off the plane back to the human eye, thus making the jet invisible from visual identification. The jet came equipped with the highest tech jamming equipment ever developed; they were undetectable to radar, infrared and all sorts of military-grade scanners.

In short: the perfect stealth transport.

Laura reached over towards a section of flips and switches, activating the jet's hover engines. Wolverine stood to his feet with a huff and made his way towards the exit. X-23 followed Logan out of the cockpit and into the back of the plane where the Canadian was busy strapping a backpack to his back. Laura grabbed her pack and slung the equipment over her shoulder, hips swaying as she made her way over towards the exit ramp. "We have thirty eight minutes before the next round of inspections." X-23 informed Logan after glancing at her watch. "We'll need to plug in directly to the helicarrier's system before we can download the Hulk files. We won't be able to wirelessly upload the information before we're exactly 2.3 miles away from the 'carrier; at that point, we're outside of their range of detection. If we do this right, SHIELD'll never know we were here."

"That's the plan, darlin'. That's the plan." Wolverine and X-23 stood side by side now. The door slid open and Laura stepped forward, grabbing the safety bar so she didn't fall into the ocean below. She looked down at the helicarrier and calculated her flight trajectory before jumping out of the jet. Laura landed on the tarmac with a subtle thud. Wolverine quickly followed her, shutting the door behind him as he too leaped onto the helicarrier and made his way behind a nearby helicopter. "Server room is on the third floor. Same floor as the main security hub. Only two ways in: the main stairwell, or we jump off the side and grab one of the maintenance walkways." Wolverine informed his teammate, recalling the map of the helicarrier he had committed to memory. "If we go down the stairwell we'll be more likely to run into SHIELD agents. We go maintenance."

The two mutants made their way to the edge of the helicarrier and looked over the side. Clouds floated by under their feet, offering the smallest glimpses of the ocean thousands of feet below them. The two agents stepped over the edge, landing with a thud on the maintenance walkways that peppered the outside of the helicarrier. They made their way inside a nearby airlock, stepping out of the bright morning light and into the dark bowels of the flying fortress. A boiler room of some sort, Logan guessed. There'd be engineers down here. Wolverine motioned for X-23 to be cautious as they made their way through the labyrinth of rooms and hallways towards the stairs. Along the way they spotted dozens of SHIELD engineers busily maintaining the helicarrier. Once on the third floor, Wolverine and X-23 pulled out a device and used it to loop the hall cameras just long enough for them to cross the hallway and enter the server room. Once they were clear, they reactivated the hall's live feed and looped the feed inside the server room. "Twenty three minutes and counting. We're making good time." Laura commented as Wolverine pulled out another electronic and plugged it into a nearby computer. The machines started to interact as Logan downloaded all files related to Doctor Robert Bruce Banner and the Incredible Hulk. While he was at it, Wolverine started grabbing files for other Superhumans SHIELD had on file. A few caught the Canadian's eye.

"Victoria Parrington, the Valkyrie. Confirmed no X-gene, ex-MI6 and current agent of SHIELD. Powers believed to be mystical in origin...Huh." Wolverine muttered as he continued to scroll through the database. "Victory Von Doom. Confirmed no ex-gene, monarch of Latveria. Origin of abilities unknown. Spiderman, real name unknown. Possible mutant with Spider-like abilities; current resident of New York City-" Laura coughed, interrupting Logan's spiel. "We're here for the Hulk. The rest of these guys are either confirmed not mutants or too weak to grab Romulus' attention."

"Fine, fine."

"Doctor Robert Bruce Banner, possible X-gene. Powers first exhibited after accident involving gamma radiation. The Hulk possesses supernatural strength, durability and a powerful healing factor. Currently residing in the Australian outback under the protection of an unknown meta calling himself 'Loki.' Too dangerous to engage. Sounds like a real party 'ta me."

"Eleven minutes. Time to go." X-23 notified Wolverine. Logan stopped the download and removed any evidence that he and Laura had been there. X-23 screwed with the cameras one last time before the two members of Team X followed the path they had taken to get inside right back out, arriving back at the tarmac with ten seconds to spare. X-23 remotely landed the invisible jet, and Wolverine wondered if they were actually going to get away Scott free.

But it's never that easy, is it?

Pow! Pow!

"Freeze!" A SHIELD agent shouted after firing off two shots with his pistol. "This is Agent John Garret to SHIELD command! Helicarrier Hermes is under attack. Two subjects in my sights attempting to access some sort of stealth aircraft. Backup is required!" Wolverine growled under his breath, unleashing his six claws and charging at the agent. John fired off three more shots, all making contact with Logan's chest. Wolverine continued to charge, impaling Garret on the end of his claws with a roar. "Damn it!" John cried, slamming a fist against Wolverine's head. The force of the blow staggered a surprised Wolverine, who tossed the SHIELD agent away in self-defense. The man stood back up, tearing off his torn shirt and revealing a body made of metal. Sparks flew out of Garret's impaled chest as the cyborg reloaded his weapon and continued to open fire. "Wolverine, let's go!" Laura shouted from the top of the aircraft, lowering a rope down to her partner. Wolverine grabbed the line, and began to ascend.

The jet flew away from the Hermes as Wolverine slammed the door shut and the jet disappeared from Garret's view.

---



A hologram of Doctor Bruce Banner stood in the center of the room, staring behind over-sized glasses at his would be attackers. The Boeing C-17 was manned by eight of the world's most deadly mutant assassins, all of them members of Team X. "Somebody get that guy a chimichanga." Deadpool quipped annoyingly, his thumb jutted out towards Banner. Maverick glared at Deadpool behind his black mask, saying nothing. Across from Maverick and Deadpool sat Wolverine, X-23 and Sabertooth. Logan and Victor were busy cutting holes into each other's foreheads with their eyes, with Laura being the only thing keeping the two from tearing each other limb from limb. "Cut it out you two!" She snarled. Sabertooth lashed out at Wolverine, only for Laura to catch his arm. "I swear, if you don't stop acting like a pair of stupid children by the count of three, I'll cut both of your balls off."

"Perhaps it was unwise to allow Victor and Logan to sit next to one another." Mastodon inquired. The huge elephant man towered over the rest of the team, standing at seven foot six inches tall and weighing almost half a ton.

"I can't be the only one enjoying this." Lady Deathstrike commented as Logan and Victor batted at one another in a flurry of angry, harry fists.

"Do not make me come back there!" Kestrel shouted from the plane's cockpit.

Another hologram appeared beside Bruce Banner. Romulus stood with his clawed hands held behind his back, a respectable six feet and three inches tall. The room became deadly silent at the master's appearance. Even Victor and Logan stopped bickering long enough to listen to Romulus' briefing. "Good." The founder of Rome spoke. "Your target is named Doctor Bruce Banner." Romulus took a few steps away from the other hologram, motioning towards the doctor. "You sure this is the guy from New York?" Deadpool asked. "He's a lot less...Green." Romulus nodded in response to the question. "From our observations, the Weapon X Program theorizes that pain or stress cause Doctor Banner here to transform into the other creature. Whether or not he possesses the X-gene, we do not know. What we do know is that the creature called the Hulk is too dangerous to roam free. Worse, if our enemies were to somehow replicate this monster and find some way to control him, our dreams of a world ruled by mutants would become an impossibility."

"What're we gonna do about 'im, chief?" Wolverine prompted.

"It's simple. We take control of the beast." X-23 glanced at Mastodon before speaking. "How?" She asked. "How we control the Hulk is none of your concern. You should be worried more about how we're going to capture him. Step one of our plan is to have seven of you set up a perimeter around Bruce Banner's encampment." The hologram of Bruce Banner disappeared, replaced by a map of the area. Seven red dots surrounded a single green dot sitting next to a tent. "Wolverine will go in alone to gauge the Hulk's power. From there, Logan, you will attempt to kill the Hulk. If you are success we will know that this entire escapade has been a waste of our time. But if the Hulk proves to be as powerful as SHIELD believes, you are to contact the rest of Team X and have them engage as well. When this happens, Mastodon, you are to attempt to fight the Hulk toe-to-toe. At the same time, Maverick will flank behind the creature and use his anti-healing factor corrosive blasts to weaken the Hulk so that the rest of you can use the sedatives I supplied you with to knock the mammoth out."

Romulus disappeared, and a hologram of the Hulk replaced the map. The green giant towered over even Mastodon. "Looks like he took my chimichanga advice." The plane's interior was bathed in a red light as Kestrel began to speak over the intercom. "Alright. Everyone who isn't Wolverine, grab your parachutes and get ready to jump." X-23, Lady Deathstrike, Deadpool, Sabertooth, and Maverick all stood from their seats and slung parachutes onto their backs, walking over to the back of the C-17 and preparing to jump. Mastodon followed them, however he opted out of grabbing a parachute. A fall from this height wouldn't affect him in the slightest. Maverick could have done the same, however he didn't want to waste his shield jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. The back of the Boeing opened and the team jumped out, two at a time. Mastodon was the last to jump, landing in the sand with a massive thud. No doubt Doctor Banner would hear it.

After a few moments, Wolverine stood as well and made his way to the back of the plane. "You ready, Logan?" Wolverine just smiled at John's question. "Hell yeah. Tell me when we're right over 'im. I wanna hit the big guy from the air."

A few seconds later, John spoke. "GO GO GO!" Wolverine leaped out from the open ramp of the plane and fell from the sky. He could see a figure standing outside the tent, looking up at the plane. And the falling runt. Wolverine loosed his claws and stuck his arms out in front of him. Air rushed by the falling mutant as he gained speed. He was moments from colliding with Bruce Banner and impaling him with a set of Adamantium claws.

"LET'S RUMBLE, MATE!" He cried.

Banner had been trying to work on the borehole, at least to the extent he could without any other equipment. He hoped that Loki wouldn’t take that long before the first check up. If he had access to water, some seeds. He could be self sufficient in no time at all! Then all he needed was some science equipment to try and-

He heard a thud, turning around confused. Was that Loki returning? His teleports didn’t sound like that did they? That’s when he saw a figure stand to its full height. Easily almost as tall as he heard the Hulk was. This wasn’t good, then he heard a voice from above him, his heart was already racing.

Out of control. The beast is calling.

The figure was rapidly falling towards him, some kind of claws going straight for him. The only thing he got out, last thing that Banner got to do was a “No, No, no, no, no!”

Wolverine collided with Bruce Banner’s body only moments after the doctor had a chance to cry out his objections. Metal claws flashed in the sunlight as Logan tackled the rogue scientist to the ground, six foot long knife-like claws covered in Bruce’s blood. Wolverine stood to his full height of five feet and three inches over his fallen target. “That was...Easy.” He mumbled, turning away from Banner and walking towards Mastodon. “The runt’s down! Didn’t even put up ‘a fight.”

“Quite disappointing, I must admit.” The elephant commented, stroking his trunk.

Dust moved, stone cracked and before Wolverine had time to react a green fist shot out of the ground, followed shortly after by a second one. The Hulk climbed out of the whole, face on the back of Wolverine, and then his front when he inevitably turned around. He didn’t say a word just pulling himself out of the whole and then standing at his full height. Standing almost four feet taller than the mutant.

People never leave Hulk alone! He let loose a growl. Green man had given him and puny Banner home here, this was Hulks home. Yellow claw man have to leave.

He let loose a bellow arms behind him before hitting the ground with both his fists cracking it slightly. Had they been in a city the tarmac and concrete would have cracked. As it was anything not tied down jumped up and dust was thrown into the air (Some into Wolverines face).

Elsewhere in Australia a scientist perked up as a richter scale indicated some activity, looking perplexed.

“Whoa!” Wolverine shouted as he feet left the ground, flying into the air. Dust sprung up as well, getting into Logan’s eyes as he slammed back onto the sand. “Urrghhh.” He grumbled, rubbing his eyes with the back of his gloves. What the hell just happened?! The Canadian midget wondered.

“Bang bang bang bang!” Deadpool shouted as he whipped out a pair of pistols and unloaded on the green giant. Mastodon charged past the fallen Wolverine, tusks pointed forward as he kicked up even more dust behind him. “Watch it, fatty!” Wolverine moaned as he was blinded once more. “Have at thee, monster!” Mastodon shouted.

Hulk roared as Mastodon ripped through the camp, ignoring the bullets entirely much to Deadpool’s displeasure he put out his hand as hard as he could straight into where Mastodons head was going to be. The impact caused Hulks arm to bend slightly, and he skidded in the dirt however the impact would have been far more worrying for Mastodon than it was for Hulk, and far more painful too.

“Oohhhhh! Denied, sucka!” Deadpool shouted, wavering his pistols around. During the display, Deadpool accidentally pulled the trigger and shot himself in the foot. “OWOWOW! I’m hit! Man down!” Meanwhile, Mastodon was stumbling around after being struck straight in the face. “Hrrgghhh..I- I can’t..What?” He nonsensically said, wandering closer to the Hulk.

Stumbling forward, his hand still to the hairy tusk mans forehead Hulk leant down a little bit, tusk man was tall. Tilting his head to the right underneath his arm Hulk let loose what could either be taken as a snarl or a grin, before grabbing the tusk man’s… tusk and spinning him around. Letting go randomly though hopefully in the direction of the noisy red one. He let loose another roar into the air.

They had destroyed the home the nice Green man gave him! This was Hulks home! They had ruined it! Would they leave now? Had they learned?

“Oohhhhh my!” Mastodon exclaimed as the Hulk sent him flying. “Make way! Look out!” Deadpool, unaware of what was going on around him, was occupied with the hole in his foot. “Ow ow ow! This hurts! W- Wait a second. Where are my thought bubbles? WHY DON’T I HAVE THOUGHT BUBBLES?!” Mastodon slammed into the confused mutant, and the two were sent tumbling down a nearby hill and into a grove of thorn bushes. “Ow.”

“Ugh. Idiot. Deathstrike, you go left! I’ll go right! Sabertooth, you take the middle!” X-23 ordered. The three members of Team X charged towards the Hulk. Lady Deathstrike and X-23 took to the flanks of the green beast as Sabertooth charged down the middle on all fours. The trio attacked the green goliath, while Wolverine pulled himself to his feet. “This is embarassin’.” He mumbled. Where were Maverick and Kestrel?

He turned to face the one who shouted, three of them splitting up. One of them right at him on all fours, he took a step and began running back at him. Almost screaming the whole way, as the smelly one jumped Hulk came to a stop but continued into a spin fist first to meet Sabertooth. Though Hulk didn’t know it it was a good thing Sabertooth possessed a healing factor, though then again Hulk was losing the capacity to care.

Hulk’s massive fist slammed into Sabertooth’s chest, sending Victor Creed flying. The airborne Sabertooth disappeared from sight and crashed in the wilderness a good ways away from the fight. X-23 and Lady Deathstrike took the opportunity to simultaneously attack the Hulk; X-23 stabbing at the giant’s face and Lady Deathstrike circling around to stab into the back of the Hulk’s neck. Wolverine turned towards the fight, his eyes now clear of dust. “Alright, big man. Round 2!” Logan shouted as he charged towards the Hulk, claws facing forward.

The blades cut him, sharp nasty ladies cut Hulk! Searing blades across his face and neck. He reared up roaring as thick green blood oozed dropping onto the ground. The wounds did heal, but the pain was still there. He swatted his arms, one on front to hit the lady and before he had a chance to see if he hit his mark he went to grab the woman off his back to try and throw her away, though he had to grab her first.

X-23 was sent flying by the unexpected blow from the beast. She landed a few yards away, her vision blurry. Lady Deathstrike was subsequently grabbed by the Hulk. She attempted to struggle, but the Hulk easily broke both her of mechanical arms with a simple squeeze of his fist before throwing her away like an American football.

Then there were two.

Wolverine took a gulp of air into his lungs. He had to admit, he was kinda nervous. The Hulk had taken down the rest of his team in no time flat. But Logan wouldn’t let his fears control him. Wolverine let loose a savage roar of his own as he charged at Hulk and attempted to slice the monster’s eyes out of their sockets.

Strange people not leave Hulk alone?! Why would they not leave Hulk alone? What did they want?!

Hulk snarled as Yellow Claws started charging at him again. He thumped his hands on the ground, one and then the other before stepping forward right hand open in an attempt to grab him as Yellow Claws went for the attack.

Wolverine noticed that Hulk was going for the ground and pound again, and in and effort to prevent the beast from incapacitating him again jumped into the air and kept his eyes closed. Dust flew upwards as Hulk caused another minor earthquake. Logan appeared from the cloud, his eyes still closed, and managed to dodge past the Hulk’s attempt at grabbing him. Wolverine followed up the maneuver by leaping over the green giant and slashing at his face once more before landing on the ground behind him.

Hulk roared as the blades pierced his skin. Turning around to face Yellow Claws. Picking up dirt, and some rather thorny bushes in his right hand he dragged the debris and threw it in Yellow Claws direction, following it with his left fist.

Yellow Claws should leave Hulk alone! Hulk… hate… YELLOW CLAWS

He roared as he was following through with the punch putting all of his strength into it. The thunder of his footsteps and shaking of the ground seemed greater that it previously had! Almost as if the Hulk was somehow getting stronger.

Wolverine quickly side stepped the incoming projectiles thrown by the Hulk, moving forward to attack him once more. Logan barely noticed the follow-up punch in time to bob out of the way; he managed to avoid a direct hit, but Hulk landed a glancing blow on Wolverine which caused his inner ear to go haywire. Logan lost all sense of balance and direction, nearly collapsing as he forced his eyes opened in an effort to keep the Hulk in his sights. He wouldn’t go down that easily.

While that was happening, a nearby Deadpool managed to crawl up the side of the hill covered in thorns. “That..Was really uncalled for!” He yelled. Deadpool drew a sword and a single pistol, cracking his neck. “Yippee-kay-yay!” The mutant assassin called, firing at the Hulk with his tiny gun as he approached the colossus from behind.

Meanwhile Kestrel and Maverick appeared over a nearby sand dune, carrying with them a number of syringes filled with a strange yellow liquid. John Wraith teleported to X-23’s side, who was still struggling to stay conscious. “It’s alright little missy.” The man helped Laura to her feet. “We’ve gotta take this guy down, Logan! Romulus says that there’s a SHIELD helicarrier approaching! T-minus five minutes!” Maverick shouted, firing energy blasts from his fingertips at Hulk. The blasts were meant to keep the Hulk from healing his wounds effectively; hopefully they were powerful enough to work on this monster.

The shots hit, all of them at the same time. Hulk fell to a knee, more so from the energy blasts than from anything else. He screamed as he was forced down onto his knees.

They wouldn’t… leave… Hulk…

He was forced down, his body betraying him as he curled knees on the ground and back in the air. Screaming the whole time.

“We-We’re winning?” Kestrel asked as the beast cried out in what seemed to be pure agony as Maverick laid on the firepower. Deadpool and Wolverine approached Hulk, stabbing at the fallen Hulk with their claws and sword in an attempt to put the big guy down. “John!” Maverick called. “Sedatives!” Kestrel nodded, pulling a pair of syringes from his belt and teleporting next to the Hulk. He jammed the needles into the green goliath’s back, pumping the liquid into Banner’s bloodstream.

As Deadpool stuck his sword in a mighty swing of defiance, he was appalled when the blade struck the behemoths skin, and bent. He watched as those with Adamantium claws managed to pierce the skin and if they could see under his mask, he looked heart broken. “Oh come on guys, that’s totally not fair. In fact, that’s cheating.”

That’s when the plan went to pot. Muscles all over Hulks body began to bulge as the goliath stood up screaming, arms in the air in an act of defiance. He turned to face Yellow Claws. This wasn’t just a passing glass he looked at him right in the eyes.

“Hulk.” His arms raised high in the air, everyone probably already knew what was coming next. “SMASH!” He brought down his arms with more force than he had previously been able to muster, creating a tremor that could be felt for miles and a substantial dust cloud and shockwave pushing back the team of Weapon-X. Though despite this surge of strength, that was all Hulk had in him.

His own increase in strength worked against him, due to his healing factor being decreased meaning that his system couldn’t fight the sedatives and his heart rate increasing spreading the sedative faster once he had hit the ground he fell to the ground flat on his face. His bones grinding and cracking, as his skin tone began to change and his entire body began to revert to it’s regular size.

The few mutants still on their feet were knocked away from the Hulk by the shockwave. Nearly an entire minute went by as the team waited to see if the Hulk still stood. X-23 let out a sigh of release when the dust cleared and it was revealed to them that Hulk had reverted back to his human form.

Wolverine’s claws sunk back into his forearms. The fight was over, it seemed. “We gotta move. SHIELD will be on top of us any minute now. I parked the plane nearby, in the desert. We should be able to get there in time if we move now.” John told the others as they all got to their feet and dusted themselves off. Deadpool ran off with his bent sword to find Mastodon, as X-23 went off to find Lady Deathstrike. “What about Victor?” Maverick asked. “Leave ‘im. We can come back later for Sabertooth.” Wolverine growled, picking up Banner’s unconscious and half naked body. “Let’s move, people!” Kestrel shouted, teleporting out of sight. The rest of Team X started northward, following Maverick to the Boeing C-17 they had flown to Australia in.

“Oi, elephant man.” Deadpool called as he slid down the hill, carefully avoiding the thorn bushes. Mastodon groaned in pain. “This was an unpleasant experience, my friend.” Mastodon pulled his massive body out of the thorn bushes and followed Deadpool back up the hill. “He bent my favorite sword.” Deadpool complained. “Her name was Alisha.”

She hovered above them all, watching with a ravenous intent as her pawns made a decisive move against the enemy. She had pondered about the rather erratic strike she had ordered, though only briefly. The secret war had been going on for years now, and its conflicts were pitiful and sparse. Then the enemy had suddenly introduced a third party.

"Latveria." She hissed, to none but herself. A cacophony of cultivated fields were split roughly by the border - a large and imposing stretch of stone and steel, manned and defended by the Latverian monarch's soldiers. She had never seen the monarch himself, though the name 'Doom' had been a topic of conversation throughout her entire life, and the rumours were often unbelievable and terrifying. She was greatly interested by the man - if he was even mortal - and the drastic move by the enemy to target his state had made her chuckle with excitement. She knew it would not be long until this 'Doom' was before her.
The strange defenders of the border were unlike anything she'd expected. They were all identical, large and stationary - like gargoyles defending a medieval keep. Penetrating colours of green and silver shone with the moon's glare as her pawns approached.
If they had the audacity to steal under the guise of me, then what else is there for me to do but raise the stakes?
She sneered as her gift held her high in the air. It was a picture of twisted beauty if one were to see her up close.
She focused on the menial response of the Latverian soldiers as her Shadows let loose with silenced gunfire. They appeared remarkably stalwart, barely even fazed by the bullets that should have proven fatal. They began to mechanically move towards her pawns. She wasn't particularly unnerved by the strange soldier's formability - if dead bodies were produced in Government uniforms then she didn't care, even if they were disguises. She had worked with one of her Conquerors, a drunkard but efficient strategist named Ivan Jankovic. They had agreed on this course of action shortly before she had sent the man to dispose of the potentially threatening Zebediah Killgrave.
She giggled to the clouds amongst her. She was manoeuvring the pieces of the war chessboard with a meticulous pragmatism. No matter how far her pawns made it into Latveria, the first signs of conflict would still have sufficed. Doom would be alert soon enough, and the monarch's weaponry would let her crush the enemy once and for all after she had twisted his strings into a trade agreement. And if not... well, she had her gift.
For was she not Wanda Maximoff, master of Chaos? Was she not the Scarlet Witch?

Her pawns fell. They had delivered some significant damage to the queer sentinels of the border, admittedly, though it didn't matter to Wanda what happened to either of the groups. As long as they had recognised the Government insignia inscribed into the deceitful uniforms, then nothing else mattered. Her Shadows deployed during the battle were all fresh meat, new recruits to the syndicate. If they survived the encounter with Doom's forces, then she would allow them to continue their training as fully fledged Shadows. If they perished, however, then they were clearly unfit to be counted among her ranks.
She was beginning to leave when a blurted outburst of cries echoed out from below. Having her curiosity piqued, Wanda dispelled the obfuscating barrier around her and flew down towards the sound. A long abandoned shack sheltered the pained resident, she observed, and it's close proximity to the area of diminishing battle could mean only one thing. Cowards.


Carl 'Crusher' Creel lay panting on the floor of the shack. Blood poured out of a wound from his chest, the consequence of a brutal conflict with the strange metal men. The worst part was that the wound was due to a gunshot, and from one of his accomplices, no less. One of the first barrages upon the border guards had seen a bullet repel off of one of the sentinel's armour, only to embed itself deep within Creel's stomach. The man who had fired the shot hadn't noticed, and the people around him who had did not heed his cries for help. This was for all of them their greatest opportunity - the chance to be elected into the esteemed ranks of the Shadow Conquerors, the just and efficient caste pitting itself against the despicable Government. Creel had only lived in Sokovia for a short while, he and his daughter had had to leave the States due to a precipitous situation between Creel and his drug dealers, but the instant the retired boxer had received full citizenship - he had been thrown quite literally into a coal mine. His daughter, only just maturing at thirteen years of age, had been carted off for hours each day to parts unknown. When the father and daughter were reunited after a day or even more, the man was caked with dirt and bloody cuts, and the girl was bedraggled with cheap lipstick staining her face. Needless to say, Creel's patience had soon run out. If he could be drafted into the Conqueror's forces, then maybe he could change things in the isolated country. With his strange power... No, that barely ever happens. I ain't a mutant, not one o' those freaks.

Creel twisted his head to see the decrepit wood start to creep up his fingers, like he was a sponge - absorbing the properties of things that he touched. This phenomena had only ever happened twice before, in very dire situations. Creel hated to think about it - as if one of the old great boxers could be classed as a mutant. It would tarnish his reputation. It would -
The withering wood on the far side of the ceiling began to crumble, and then spasm and vanish into thin air. The illuminating moonlight shone through the ever expanding hole in the roof, and as it did a silhouette began to be visible to the wounded man.
A mutant? Like me?
She drifted through the gaping hole in the ceiling, dragging her long and elegant auburn hair behind her as the compelling shine of scarlet drew his eyes. She was impossibly beautiful, yet in her eyes he could see clearly that something wasn't right.

"Coward." She spat.

"Please, you don't understand."

"Do you think I am mad? Do you think I don't see you quivering here before me!?" She shrieked, anger rippling off her in waves.

"I - I... I can help - against the Government. Please! I'm a mutant!" He threw his hand up before her, showing the dirty brown wood extending up to his elbow. She raised her eyebrows at that, but as soon as the contact between Creel and the wood was gone, his arm began to return to it's usual skin. She giggled maniacally.

"You're weak. You would be nothing but detrimental to my forces." She began to raise her arms.

"I - I'm stronger than the others! Please!" He dug a phrase out of the back of his mind, a phrase that had flurried around in the coming of mutants, "Homo superior!" Her arms snapped up in a sort of demonic dance, with much more rage than before.

"Do not even attempt to relate yourself to those of my calibre! The Shadow Conquerors were created by true mutants! We were the original Brotherhood, we were powerful enough to accomplish anything! You - you are but a runt of what we are!" Her voice was rising by octaves, taking on unnatural qualities. She gestured brutally at Creel.

The power erupted within him. The blood from his wound spurted all around, as his mutant ability - fuelled by the aura of the witch, changed his skin to blood wherever the substance appeared. He eroded from the inside and from the out, as his organs were touched by the blood flowing through his veins. It covered his mouth as he spat the sanguine fluid out, rolled into his eye sockets and up his nostrils. He did not even have a second to scream.


She gazed upon the puddle of gore with utter contempt. The power of her hex field still moved throughout the shack - warping the old wood as it went and causing unnatural cracks to appear in the stained windows. Her breath ran ragged and hard, as she still stood enraged due to the recruit's words. Homo superior. As I am the superior to this man. She wasted not another moment upon the liquefied corpse, instead turning and flying out through the hole she had created. The scarlet of the man's blood trickled down her face and outfit from where it had splattered, joining the weaves of red that completed the Witch. She felt invigorated by the blood as she travelled back towards the city, where her doomed enemy awaited.

Doom sighed as his wrist alert started beeping. He indicated to Valkyrie. "One second please." Turning around and reading the data on it he merely sighed, hitting another key combination so that his jet would be prepared. He then activated the automated defenses along the Latverian border, that would attack anything that wasn't a doom bot encroaching upon his soil. They were fools for trying to breach the wall with force, and they would learn. Or at least, the country would learn. He had doubts that anyone would survive the onslaught. He turned back around to face Valkyrie. "I am afraid an urgent matter has come up that requires my presence in Latvaria. I am sure you are aware off the... instability in some of our neighboring countries. One such country has decided, for whatever reason, to try and breach my borders with force. I will be required to speak to their leaders in person, see the damage and comfort my people. It saddens me that I won't ge tto announce to the world what the next step for Latveria is however these are trying times."

He turned around and started to walk towards the door when he had an idea. "In fact, you are in the spotlight right now. Your presence may be a re-assurance to mine and the Sokovian people. Do you think S.H.I.E.L.D could spare you? I would rather avoid an all out war. Nobody wants that." Though what was left unsaid, was that it was always harder to take and hold a country by force as it left the people stale and unruly. Though Sokovia was a growing threat to Latveria, one that he may need to deal with himself.

Though that plan ended sooner than he thought. There was a chime throughout the hall as Agent Coulson was brought through the door and the atrium. "Agent Coulson is it? You must have important news to be allowed past my security systems. Tell me, what is it? Have giant snakes appeared again?" There was a forced laughed. "Good one sir, no actually I'm here for Valkyrie. She's needed elsewhere, I will be your new escort."

Doom looked between Coulson and Valkyrie. "No matter, I must return home to attend to my borders anyway." He waved his hand in the most uncaring way possible as he began to walk out. "Do not forget to turn the lights off when you leave."

With Doom walking away Coulson spoke again. "I know this place is bugged but right now I don't care, someones kidnapped the Hulk."

"Shadows fall, And hope has fled. Steel your heart, The dawn will come." - Dragon Age.

Victoria lit up at the thought of being invited to help the Latverian and Sovokian people. She wanted to help avert any and all war. But a more pressing matter was at hand right now. The HULK. She couldn't turn down another cry for help by SHIELD but she also could not be in two places at once. As Doom left she called after him.

“I would very much like to help your people. After SHIELD no longer needs me and should you require my aid once again, do not hesitate to seek me out. Victor.” He may have shown disinterest by his leave but Valkyrie did take it to heart. She let her voice linger as an echoed whisper in the aether. And then she was gone all but for a single feather which floated down from the sky. Coulson could only watch the winged messenger's silhouette against the moon.

----

A radar bleeps on the control panel of a small SHIELD plane en route to rendezvous with The Valkyrie. “It's her, open the hatch.” Maria Hill orders and the back door of the vehicle drops down just in time for Victoria to fly into and land with a thud in her armoured boots. With all on her mind, left reeling from the charity ball, she had trouble concentrating on her armour transmutation, it kept shifting between her modernisation to the Asgardian classic.

“Your-” Maria started but before she could point it out, Valkyrie cut her off. “I know.”

“You need to calm down.” Agent Hill retorts as Victoria joined her at the cockpit just standing behind her. “What's the situation?” She asked, getting down to business.

“The Hulk was apparently transported to Australia by that Loki guy to stop him ransacking New York. But the helicarrier there has called in for backup when they tried to intervene an attack on Hulk.” Maria explained as they jetted straight for the other side of the world.

“The Hulk...” Victoria looks down, holding a closed gloved fist to her chest. “What would they want with him if not to use him somehow? They couldn't possibly kill him.”

“Yeah. Poor thing.” One of the agents said behind them. Victoria turns around and snaps. “He isnt a thing! He's a human being! Have some respect.” Her emotional outburst left Maria wondering for her mental state.

“Yes Ma'am.” The agent mumbles as the Valkyrie walks past her to get some well earned rest.

A few hours later, in a small bunk bed on top another in casual dress. Her legs dangled over the edge. “Sigyn. She called me...Sigyn.” Baffled by the name. “I'm a Valkyrie. A norse angel.” As her mind fixated on the idea, a book materialises in her hand. “Norse Mythology...?” She opened the book and flicked through the pages. “Sigyn is oft referred to as Loki's wife....a goddess of Asgard. The goddess of Fidelity. The woman called me that too.” As she continued on to read. “Loki, the God of Mischief, brother to Thor...caused the end of the world. Ragnarok.” She shut the book tight. “It must be a coincidence.” She throws the book across the small quarters and lays back in bed staring at the ceiling. “And I'm certainly no Goddess.” She frowned as she read the latest report concerning Valkyrie.

“People are calling this Valkyrie a false prophet. She has shook the very foundations of our religious history. People are asking – is she really an angel or a demon disguised as one?”

Her heart sank deeper than the ocean at reading these claims. “A demon.” She looks over her dainty feminine hands, a small golden hue resonating from her skin. She began to questioning herself, her very existence. “People fear what they do not understand.” Her mind thought back to the Hulk smashing up New York. He was angry then. But not a peep out of him until he was provoked in the middle of nowhere. “Misunderstood. It's time to understand him.” She closes her fist tight in determination. “Whoever took him will be sorry.”

----

The Outback, Australia. Local time.

Dust particles are forced up from underneath a heeled white boot stepping onto the terrain, belonging to the Valkyrie. She wore a grey cloak over her long dress to cover herself from the sun. Although she didnt realise yet, that it wouldnt much affect her toughened Asgardian skin. So much still to learn of her true self and her kin. She scanned the area, a small tent lay on its side, next to some broken scientific equipment, and dotted around were some craters. A large scuffle took place here. She came here with only 2 other agents, Maria Hill and Clay Quartermain.

The same Loki who had helped fend off serpents at her charity ball had taken the Hulk here. He must have trusted him. Someone who had caused the Ragnarok would not help people in this way, surely? But she remembered not what drove him to it, maybe she would understand why he did it, being that she had an empathetic nature.

She could sense pain and suffering, she heard a faint Hulk roar of the past that echoed in time. She held her arms. “He's in pain.” She felt it as if it were her pain, wandering the campsite, feeling his soul energy. “He only wanted...to be left alone!” She clutched her elbows tightly. Suddenly a cat like roar came from behind her, she turns in time to dodge a flying Sabertooth coming her way.

She side steps too fast for the mutant and watches as he zips past her and lands less gracefully than usual, having just being flung a long way by Hulk. “What is that?!” Clay points his gun at it. Victoria stands to face him. “Some...kind of crazy cat man?” She shrugs, not feeling very threatened by him at this point.

As the Saber-toothed man went for another lunge, Victoria makes her shield appear and he pelts into it head first. His wounds had healed over but he was still suffering the earlier fight. “What did you do with the Hulk? You wouldnt be here if you didnt have anything to do with it otherwise...” Her eyes narrow at the growling mutant as she demanded answers, showing some of that Asgardian fiery spirit within.

The calm hum of the engines helped fill the silence that had swept over the bridge of the Shockwave Rider, as it swiftly rocketed through the darkness of space. Its pilot, X-51, sat towards the front, his robotic arm connected to the controls mechanically. The Machine Man had no need for a steering wheel when he was in control. Towards the left of the bridge, located on the cold metal floor, sat a young animalistic girl, whose general attitude and appearance made her truly stand up to her namesake; Troll. While munching on what remained of her ration pack, the Asgardian was spending her time productively by gazing upon the group’s fearless leader, who had seated himself slightly behind X-51. Cosmo was a native of the primitive planet of Earth, although he was the exact opposite of primitive. His psychic abilities are grand in power, as well as rumoured to be even stronger than his thick Russian accent. Oh, and he’s a dog.

They are the Guardians of Knowhere, and they are heading to Xandar. Or what’s left of it anyway.

X-51 didn’t quite know what to make of their situation. A dog, an Asgardian girl in a fur suit, and a Machine Man didn’t seem like the makings of an adventure. At least on the same level as what X-51 had recently been used to; meeting a Watcher, the Celestials, and fighting several members of the Fraternity of Raptors. Still, this psychic dog was interesting to the Machine Man. As was the little wild girl gnawing on some rations across the ship staring at him.

If anyone could see through the red eyes of the purple clad Machine Man they would see what appeared to be several computer screens with various info and statistics. A new screen tab was in the eye of the man who had the brain of a sentient machine, entering new data. His personal thoughts rather, as X-51 had always been known as the ‘machine with a soul’ back on Earth.

“File Log. Guardians of Knowhere. Entry One:
I don’t know how this animal could’ve possibly connected to a machine like myself psychically. Color me out of theories. Helping one of the only other sentients out of Knowhere, the three of us are venturing to the next devastated space sector. This dog is a real Lassy, though his name tag suggests his name is Cosmo. ‘Cosmo’ is urging me to fly the my ship to Xandar, home of the Nova Corps. Maybe he wants to file a report, or maybe he wants a place to urinate. Or kibble. He can connect with my mechanical mind, but can he read my words?” Machine Man noted in his left eye’s screens.

I can... but I’m far too tired to keep up with a machine. Wake me when we reach Xandar… the resting dog said in a way the Machine Man couldn’t explain.

X-51 wouldn’t like his awkward face. He’s maybe only used it a dozen times in his life until now. They approached their destination in record time. The Shockwave Rider was fast for it’s size. Though it could’ve just been any upgrades X-51 had installed in the last thirty-six hours with his morphing technological body.

Cosmo, however didn’t need waking. The dog perked up his head sharply as the ship descended upon what had once been the mighty Xandar. It wasn’t the Machine Man she had read. No, it was the former screams and cries of the people of Xandar. Cosmo bolted from his seat and jump up at the bridge’s window, paws against the glass.

This not good. Cosmo can… Cosmo can still hear them screamink…

A hand on his back caused Cosmo to turn from the glass, looking up. He was surprised to find Troll, otherwise known as Gunna looking down to him reassuringly. The girl was unusually quiet, although that was probably due to the fact that she had realized how drastic the situation was.

The young Asgardian looked up from her furry friend and out into the darkness of space once more. It was evident that great destruction had happened here, with small pieces of rubble floating past them as the ship came to a gradual stop above the now barren planet. She watched each piece in fascination, yet also with some kind of respect. Cosmo had been hurt by what had happened here. Troll was Cosmo’s friend.

Gunna was confused though. Looking down at the planet surface, she found it empty. No rolling hills like back in Asgard. Now tall, towering mountains. Just ash and smoke. It just looked...dead. But that wasn’t why Gunna was confused. What she was wondering was where were the attackers? Where were her new prey?

“No fight?” She asked intently, turning back to Cosmo. Despite her incredibly broken english, the dog still understood her.

No Gunna. Just death…

---

Mexxa held her head low, she lying on her back looking into the sky she ignored her ship. As she thought there were no other Novas left, she was the only one. Once a great organisation, and a great system of planets. Reduced to nothing, for what? Boasting rights for some Kree scumbag? A little growing room for a power hungry Empire? Or did they feel that Xandar posed some kind of threat from some age old conflict that had long been resolved?

No, the only one who’d be punished now would be the one who did this and she’d make sure it was painful and that he’d regret killing all the people he had. He’d feel their pain as he wiped them out of existence and more importantly, he’d feel her pain. She stood up and watched the ship approached. If this was some bastard coming to make sure everyone was dead they’d be sorely disappointed...

---

Alarms began to sound throughout the room as the Shockwave Rider's scanner detected something heading their direction. In response, the dog reared his head around and peered intently through the glass. Something was heading towards them. Something which hadcaught the attention of young Gunna.

Her eyes widened at the sight of the incoming object. She didn’t have to be a genius to know that the blue light rocketing towards them was a threat. An enemy. Troll knew just how to deal with enemies.

Unfortunately for Troll’s sake, this incoming projectile wasn’t an enemy. After quickly performing a psychic scan, Cosmo realized that he had met this incoming target before. She was called Mexxa; a member of the infamous Nova Corp. She had visited the Collector’s museum before long ago when Cosmo had been in captivity. She had been friendly and polite. It would seem however that Mexxa had somehow assumed that they were responsible for this mess. Maybe if Cosmo could psychically contact her first there wouldn’t be much of an issue? However it seemed that wasn’t going to be how things would play out.

Screaming a mighty war cry, the Asgardian sweeped her battleaxe, Jarnbjorn, from off the floor where it had been perched, and charged forward. Cosmo watched in horror as she moved swiftly through the bridge, building speed, before pouncing forward through the bridge’s front windscreen. Cosmo had a brief glance of Troll hurtling towards the incoming Nova before the blast doors shut over the gaping hole in the windscreen, in which he could only groan in annoyance as he watched her raise her axe over her head menacingly. This couldn’t end well. For anyone.

Had she been from Earth like X-51 and Cosmo she would have been impressed at the speed she had acquired. Both a blue trail of energy followed her and a streak of flame as she was building up speeds, had there been life on this planet this would have been dangerous. She began slowing however as she got closer to the ship, it was no Kree vessel.

However she didn’t have a chance to find out who it really was when some… thing? one? Came crashing through its windscreen brandishing some kind of weapon. She sped herself back up, arms extended. Going straight for the chest shot, if she could get a good grip off… whoever this was then she could find out what was going on.

Find out why they were here especially now that everything had happened, this wasn’t a coincidence. Something greater was at play here and she was going to find out what. She aimed straight for the midriff of the strange warrior, hitting dead on target aiming her towards the top of the spacecraft and then stopping. Allowing her adversary to career towards and land on top of the craft. She was going to get to the bottom of this, she wasn’t going to take out her frustration on innocent people. Though if they knew something...

Gunna recovered from the attack well, tumbling slightly before perching herself on all fours in a very feral position. If there was one thing that the Magzi Tribe taught her well, it was to survive. Well that, or kill. Growling angrily at the strangely armoured woman who was now hovering above the top of the Shockwave Rider, Troll burst forward once more, swinging Jarnbjorn wildly as she moved. The blade narrowly missed the mystical woman with her first strike, although her second swing was somewhat successful, with Gunna hitting her with the flat side of the axe as he brought it back.

Mexxa was about to speak, when the woman? She couldn’t be sure as there was something not quite right about her, came back with a swing. The first one missing however the second shot hit the mark, and it hurt more than it should have. It was an axe for World Minds sake, how strong was this woman? Though of course not a lot of that was going through her mind until she had corrected her fall.

She huffed, pointing both of her arms on front of her connected them palm to palm and then firing a bolt of energy directly at her opponent. She didn’t wait for it to strike. “Alright, you’re not Kree. Who are you and what are you doing here?”

A smile spread across Gunna’s face as Mexxa fell backwards after being hit, although that quickly faded when the warrior quickly rose to her feet. Her eyes widened as the woman outstretched her hands, before slamming them together. What happened next appeared to be the work of the mighty Thor. A blast of what appeared to be bright blue lightning shot forward out of the warriors hands, shooting towards her.

Jarnbjorn luckily took the full blunt of the attack, although the mass of energy caused Troll to fly backwards. Drifting up into the air, Gunna realized what was happening. Panicking, she made a mad series of grabs towards the roof of the ship with her spare hand, all the while drifting away from the Shockwave Rider.

She simply hissed at the woman’s question before shouting the words “Kill you!” loudly towards her.

Gunna that is no way to be talkink to the Nova corp…

As soon as Gunna heard Cosmo’s voice in her head, she found herself stopping in place. The savage Asgardian turned her head madly, smiling eagerly as she spotted Cosmo appeared from below. The leader of the Guardians was currently wearing the remainder of his old Russian cosmonaut uniform, his eyes glowing brightly as he used his telepathic and telekinetic abilities. He floated gently, landing on the ship’s roof with ease, before bring Gunna back towards the craft.

Hello Mexxa. It is Cosmo. We met back on Knowhere.

The dog wagged his tail eagerly as he sat down before the Nova Corpsman.

There is no need to be worryink, Mexxa. We are here to help!

Midday - Local Time - Sokovia

Doom walked down the ramp of the aircraft flanked by four Doom dogs and two Doom bots. He walked down onto the runway, he didn't flinch as weapons were aimed at him and continued to walk. The troops who had attacked his borders were Sokovian in origin, the same Sokovians who were trying to establish a trade deal for some of his more... up to date technology rather than the older outdated technology he tended to sell. The whole matter did not make sense, his borders were secure. Such had never been a topic of doubt and yet they still felt their weapons could break through. He eyed their weapons, older models. Not even Stark made. Hammer Industries. The most tragic of jokes in existence.

An official of the airport came out to greet him. "Lord Doom, you can't jus-" Doom raised his hand. "Silence. You will not dictate to Doom what he can and cannot do. Now if you value your existence you will have the leader of your government brought here now and set me up in the most comfortable suite available. Also contact these freedom fighters and have them too send a representative under my protection. An act of war has been declared against me and my people."

He continued to walk towards the airport, with the mention of war the few police... security whatever they were raised their weapons. The Doom bots raised their arms revealing their weapon arrays as a hum began to build as the powered up. Doom didn't bother to tell them to stand down. If these Sokovians found it wise to shoot at him they would feel his Wrath. "I will get to the bottom of this, and then take the appropriate action. If your government was indeed responsible they will be punished severely, without risking civilian lives. If these rebels are responsible I shall aide the stabilization of this country. Now bring them to me, now." He tapped a button on his wrist as twenty more Doom bots descended the ramp of his aircraft.

"Remove all civilians from this airport during negotiations, if any fighting occurs nearby or anyone other than the representatives attempt to enter this airport you will feel my wrath." As the official stopped, dumbstruck. As Doom continued to walk towards the airport. He strolled straight in, people already knew who he was so didn't challenge him. Passing through the airport he made his way to the aircraft control tower, where some people still worked to divert air traffic to an alternate airport.

Even they began to file out, as Doom stood facing South West towards Latveria hands clasped behind his back. Now the cards were in the hands of the Sokovians. However they were becoming a nuisance. He had a chance to spend time with a real Asgardian and perhaps even sway him to his cause, not to mention many important experiments to undertake. Yet as it neared time he returned to the airfield, deciding to conduct the negotiations in the open.

8 Months Later - Current time

Nevada, Outside of Reno

As the afternoon, quickly going to evening sun lowered over the hot desert.  The culmination of the past year was all coming into place for the first and biggest testing of them all.  The large teletransporter was going to attempt to transfer an apple from Nevada to an area out in Albany, NY.  With all the precaution of handling things as far away from any concentration of people as possible.  The group had been putting in all the effort they could muster, even with the scorching Nevada heat glaring down on them.  

Reed overlooked a large clipboard stuffed with paperwork as he glanced back at this thing they were making, and over to Harvey.  "Look I can understand the feeling that boosting the secondary power source's output might be a good cautious thing to do I think it might be overkill and I don't want to risk this thing overheating on us."  Reed noted before his other hand brought up a bottle of cold water for him to take a drink of.  Reed wasn't ever used to summer heat in New York, so the horrifying heat out here was killing him.

"I know where you're coming from Reed but we also need to ensure this thing will have enough juice in it to get it out to the reviving area.  I don't want to consider what would happen if the apple only made it to some area short of it.  Could possibly reform itself into someone's cranium or something."  Harvey noted, the thought made the both of them picture the what if in their heads and collectively shutter a bit.

A jeep pulls up just outside their work area with Johnny and Sue hopping out, having just made another supply run. Johnny was the confident driver, Sue was still only learning. The jeep skidded to an awkward stop, Johnny looked mortified. "I think we'll leave it there for today Sis." He then runs to the side and throws up. Sue frowns and looks down at the sandy floor. Ben laughs at the sight. Sue then proceeds to pick up a large crate of water, she wore just a pair of denim shorts and a white crop top. "Little help here fellas huh?" The tiny woman asked with a sigh of frustration. 

Reed and Harvey both stopped talking and quickly got to helping get supplies out of the back of the jeep at Susan's almost motherly like command.  Though Reed had to stop and look over at what Susan was wearing because it wasn't like her usual clothes and also just... wow.  Still Reed and Harvey got some of the bigger boxes out of the Jeep as Reed glanced over at Johnny.  "Whats wrong with him?"  Reed asked watching Johnny groaning and looking down at his own vomit.

Harvey shrugs. "Maybe Sue's driving upset his tummy."  Harvey casually replied, as Ben was all the while still holding back laughter from the scene before him. "Aww wike a wittle baby!" Ben chuckles and smacks Johnny's back then goes to grab a crate of food. "Awww yeah, we're having spaghetti tonight man! I am gonna cook up a storm! A Johnny Storm special eh bud?" johnny groans. "Don't talk about food, think I ate a bad burrito or somethin'." Johnny whined. "Oh I thought Sue made you throw up with her bad driving again." Ben said holding back his laughter as Sue huffed defensively. "My driving is not bad thank you very much!" Sue pointed out believing it herself. "Yeah...it's kinda boring and sequential. Narrates everything. Turn right, keep it controlled, turn left, keep it smooth. AGH!" Johnny flings his arms up in the air. Sue narrows her eyes at him. "Come on Ben, I'll help you cook. Johnny, just help Reed store the supplies, you muppet." Her sisterly love showing for her little brother. 

As Reed and Susan were both on their way to handle whatever matters agreed upon, Ben, Johnny, and Harvey watched them both leave before they quickly huddled together.  "Alright we need to begin 'operation: get those two to just hook up already because this is embarrassing.'"  Johnny noted in a weirdly serious tone.  

"Not that I'm going to disagree, but I still wish you'd stop calling this that... whatever name you're using."  Harvey noted scratching the back of his head.

"Could be worse..."  Ben interjected with before Johnny could go back to defending 'Operation get those two to just hook up already because this is embarrassing'.  "Seriously Johnny talk to Reed and I'll handle Susan."  Ben noted gesturing to the directions Reed and Susan went.  

The three guys nodded in agreement before Johnny and Ben made their ways to Reed and Susan respectfully.  Johnny had to take some deep breaths to get rid of the aching sickness that had crawled up his stomach.  It was the last time he would seriously ever consider a microwaved burrito from some small convenience store that was for damn sure.  At least when he caught up with Reed he felt better for the most part, if it wasn't for the excruciating heat at least.

"Oh Johnny I was wondering when you'd get over here."  Reed spotted Johnny coming up as he had his arms struggling to wrap around a small sealed up crate.  "If you want I can handle the load myself.  I'd rather you didn't throw up again since in this weather you need to stay hydrated, and throwing up would make that impossible."  Reed noted, causing Johnny to have another moment of wondering how Reed was able to remember all these things from school when anyone rational, at least in Johnny's mind, would've had it all go in one ear and out the other.

Still Johnny actually had taken a liking to Reed over the last few months.  A complete nerd sure, but Reed's caring nature made it impossible to hate him no matter how hard Johnny tried.  Plus Reed never spoke down to him at all, and after all these years having someone talk to him like a human being was something Johnny still wasn't quite able to wrap his mind around.

"No man I'm alright thanks."  Johnny gave Reed an assured smile before he helped started getting the supplies off of the truck.  Watching on with Reed as they got to the tent where everything was being held for the moment.  "Hey Reed..."  Johnny started, pausing for a moment in the tent where he leaned against some of the supplies.  "You like Susan right?"  

Reed carefully placed everything away, mentally taking note of inventory and double checking things when Johnny asked him what felt like a question completely out of left field.  Reed paused before glancing back at Johnny.  "I uh what?  Yeah I like your sister... she's a good friend, why?"  Reed asked.

Johnny chuckled a bit, sighing as he gave a thought about Reed's blissful ignorance.   "No no, I don't think you're understanding the question here."  Johnny pointed out, finally he looked Reed in the eyes, gesturing at the key point of the question.  "Do you like like Susan?"

Johnny's question hit Reed in a way he wasn't ready for, Reed squirmed a bit in place trying to hide his reaction to realizing what Johnny was talking about.  "I uh... I mean she's... wait why do you care?"  Reed quickly had to deflect the question.  Not necessarily in an angry tone but almost a panicked sense.  Reed had thought about it for a long time in the back of his mind but 'no' always kept him from saying something.  Now that Johnny, her brother no less, was practically giving him a green light.. he wasn't sure how to approach it anymore.

"Dude we've all seen the way you two look at one another..."  Johnny pointed out, which Reed quickly had to mentally figure out if he had looked at her like that in the past.  "I'm just saying sometime today when you get a chance just maybe... give her a hint.  I know her better than anyone else dude.  I'm just saying..."

"The two of you need to just say something to one another."  Ben was busy dicing up vegatables as he occasionally glanced back at Susan.  Hoping she'd get the point of what his saying.

Sue was chopping a carrot when Ben said that out of the blue. She almost chopped her finger off and slams the knife down. "Wh-what? How could you tell I liked Reed? Was it that obvious? Oh no! It's getting awkward isnt it? I need to back off the project don't I?" She fretted as she'd never been in this situation before. Ben puts down his knife and puts his big strong hands on her shoulders to calm her. "Woah woah calm down. It's NOT awkward. Me and Johnny WANT you to just be happy. I cant stand see Reed moping about and whining about not being around you. And you do a fair bit of moping about yourself after you part with him. It's really obvious to us that..you two belong together." Susan was panicking and her breathing erratic. "But I'm scared that if me and Reed become more than just friends, I might lose him as my best friend...what if it doesn't work out? He's so sweet and I don't wanna hurt him.." "I dont think you will." Ben reassured her with a smile. Sue manages a smile back at the big lovable lug. "Thanks Ben. Alright. I'll go talk to him after dinner." 

'Later'

"We got two hours of day light left we need to get this test underway immediately."  Reed commanded into the walkie talkie in his hand.  The dinner didn't leave Reed or Susan a chance to respond to Johnny and Ben's advice as neither of them could get a moment alone with one another.  Finally though the teleporter was all set up, and the apple being used as the tester to be sent to the retrieval site in Albany, New York.  "Would just be easier to use UPS or something."  Ben joked to himself as Reed mentioned it to him.

Reed, Susan, Johnny, Ben, and Harvey all stood in front of the machine as Reed held the controls for it on an ipad in his hands.  He punched in coordinates and could heard the machine hum to life as the large blue beam started to change from the top of the machine.  "Begin countdown."  Reed called back as the speakers that relayed from the safe zone started up.  "Countdown starting at 30..."

"Time to make history..."  Harvey proudly muttered to himself as he watched on, Johnny and Ben doing likewise.  Reed though was next to Susan and kept having to stop glancing over to her.  "Um Sue I uh..."  Reed stuttered as the countdown on the machine's activation drowned out into the background of life.  "You know Johnny said something that uh... I was thinking about and uh..."

Sue smiles at Reed. "Yeah? What were you thinking?" She edges closer to the genius who had stolen her heart. Her eyes sparkle as they peer into his big blue pearls. Her eyes tracing his very facial features from the strands of brown hair to the corner of his lips. She saw more than just a smart nerdy guy. She saw everything. A wonderful human being. Kind, funny, sweet and caring. She could feel her heart racing as she drew closer to him. 

"Well..."  Reed started, feeling his hand start to gently wrap around her's.

3

"I was thinking that... I mean if you're cool with it..."  Reed started to lower his head down, peering into her amazing eyes, beautiful face.  His lips getting closer to her's.  

2

Reed and Susan came closer and closer together, Reed's heart thumped a million miles an hour as he had deep down dreamed of this moment and now it was all happening.

1

The machine came to life, but a sudden loud noise that wasn't suppose to be there caused Reed to snap back into reality, peering into the sudden large void in front of him.  "Wait..."  Was the only thing he could say before everything went blank around all five of them.

~Franklin Storm: “I can ground you until you're thirty and keep you in the basement away from boys. It's the law.” Susan Storm: “No, it's not.”~

Negative Zone.

Susan found herself floating from one point of time-space to another through the negative zone during the teleportation process. As if the teleport had slowed down, in this realm maybe time flowed more slowly than hers? She noticed the red sky and purple lightning streaking across it. And then a small rift opens and her body floats back through to the real world.

Las Vegas, 8pm local time.

Outside the Bellagio Hotel, the hustle and bustle of the Las Vegas main strip hosts many tourists, beeping taxis and the bright colours of city night life. As the audience of the Grand Bellagio Fountain performance enjoys its spectacle, they did not expect a flash of light in mid air above and a human canon balling into the water below. They thought it all part of the show. However, it was Harvey teleporting back into the real world. After show producers realised it wasn't, they sought medical help for the drowning man.

Meanwhile, across town at a smaller fountain outside a hotel at one of the entertainment kiosks, an announcer was declaring the participants stakes. “Roll up, roll up! Fantastic prizes to be won! Including the top prize where you could win-”

Suddenly a flash of light and Sue Storm appears in the fountain nearby to where he was pointing to some pearls that can be fished out of underwater. “..A woman?” He says with a shocked face. His potential clients or scapegoats scampered away from shock. Sue sits in the fountain getting wet, with a rather confused expression and a few wet strands covering her eyes like a drowned rat.

“Where...am I?” She asked as she climbs out of it, her clothes drenched through. The kiosk attendant blinks at her. “You aint one of them weirdo mutants are ya?”

She shakes her head. “N-no I'm an experimental scientist. I think our experiment just went....very wrong.” She states as she looked at the bright lights. It hurt to look at them, her head pounded like she had a migraine, and then she fell faint. The man manages to catch her as she fell unconscious. “SOMEONE HELP!”

A passing by doctor rushed over to help.

Johnny pops up at one of Las Vegas's notorious nearby Brothels, between two scantily clad women on a red silk sofa. The two women jump and look at the blonde young male. “Oh!” They start to stroke his muscled arms. Johnny looks confused at them but then grins. “Hello Ladies.” But then remembers. “Susie! Ben! Reed!” He hops to his feet, feeling quite warm. “Sorry Ladies, gotta go!” The women pout as Johnny bolts out of the building.

He runs out into the city streets where he heard someone yell for help. He looks toward the voice and spots a blonde haired woman collapsed.

“SUUUUEEEE!” He screams across the street and races over, fearing the worst had happened to his beloved sister. He runs over and shoes the doctor away, he didn't want them touching her. As he held her unconscious body, he was relieved to find her breathing. “Oh my god, Sis you're alive!” He frets when he received a phone call from his cell in his back pocket. “Dad! We're okay, I've got Susie. She's unconscious but alive.....okay.....we'll go there right away.” He puts the phone down and picks up his sister and carries her to the nearest taxi.

As he put her in the back seat he told the driver to go to the MGM Grand Hotel. He was burning up. He had to take his shirt off and fan himself. “Why is it so warm?!” He protests when his sister stirs. “Mnnhh....Johnny?” She asks as she opens her eyes but couldn't look up for the lights in her eyes. She covers her eyes with her hand. “I cant focus.”

“Here.” He wraps his t-shirt around her eyes. “We'll be with Reed and Ben soon, okay?”

“Any sign of Harvey?” She asks with concern. Johnny just looked down with sadness.

"Bruce!" Bruce turned to look at Betty running towards him from the top of the steps. He ran towards her, breaking into a run and then saw the look of horror on her face as she stopped. Shaking her head, before turning around. "No, Betty no!" A deep fog came crawling in, he tried to chase her into it but he couldn't keep up with her. Then he ran into something solid, bouncing back and falling on his arse. Sorting out his glasses the fog went green. "No.." he heard a low growl as the Hulk leaned closer to him.

"Puny Banner." Bruce just pushed himself along the ground with his hands, scrambling to get up and run away. Hulk just took one step forward and slammed it down forcing Bruce to fall back down. "You can't be here, how are you in here?" Hulk flicked Banner with one of his fingers, sending him flying landing front first on the ground."Hulk wants out, doesn't like puny Banner." Bruce raised himself from the ground groaning as he did so. If this was a dream, some kind of trance or whatever this was. It certainly felt real. "You can't, you're a monster. You break everything! You get people hurt!" Bruce shouted while pointing directly at Hulk, as if scolding a child.

Hulk slammed the ground with his fists before walking up to Banner quickly and picking him up in one of his oversized hands, pulling Banner close to his face. "Hulk just wants to be left ALONE. No-one leave Hulk alone! Not Banner, not army men, not Yellow-Claws! Hulk isn't monster!" Bruce grunted and squirmed as he was held in the Hulks hand, unable to get loose. Held not enough to cause damage or any real pain but it was the threat of pain that was the worst thing. "Then prove it." All he got was a low growl from Hulk then the dream faded away into mist as his eyes opened in the back of some kind of plane.

His heart rate would have shot up, if he had not had some form of drip constantly introducing some form of sedative into his blood stream. "W-where am I?" He turned his head. Seeing the costumes sitting throughout the plane. Looking at the nearest one, the one in the strange yellow suit. "D-Don't do this. You c-can't c-control the Hulk... It's t-too much p-power..." With that he let loose a sigh as his eyes closed and his head feel to the side.

The cold muzzle of a pistol was buried deep into his black, bedraggled hair. Zebediah lay still, unmoving, knowing that the slightest reaction would probably earn him a bullet through his skull. Yet, it wasn't like he hadn't received a couple of them already.
How am I not dead? Killgrave wondered, for once not in control of the situation around him. Why have I not bled out?
He inclined his eyes as far as he could to his body, but he was lying on his chest and so could not discern the situation regarding the gunshot wounds. There was indeed a gruesome puddle of blood that was undoubtedly staining his black operative clothing, though that was the least of his worries. He could not feel any pain from the wounds in his leg and elbow. Perhaps they had gone numb, or the bullets had damaged various nerves leaving them paralysed and without response. However, he knew he would be able to twitch or move either body part if he tried, so only the former possibility was likely.
Several voices were originating from different points of the warehouse, each one displaying the telltale signs of concern, stress and even fear. Killgrave wondered what had happened to prompt these emotions - these were Government officials who had apprehended or driven off all the rebel opposition in the area. Then again... That queer purple hue spreading across my arm. Zebediah cursed silently. He had so many questions, yet the barrel of the pistol prevented him from answering them. He instead thought and planned to himself for what seemed like an eternity, but was likely only a couple dozen of minutes. He daydreamed of the murders of each of the Shadow Conqueror officials, the Government, frankly anyone he thought of in the godforsaken country. I have no allies now. I am a dead man walking.

A new set of footsteps then approached Killgrave's vicinity. The frantic hubbub of the warehouse was extinguished instantly, was replaced by a dutiful silence. A clear conclusion reached the betrayed Sokovian. He could almost see them all saluting despite his restricted view of the hard ground.

"I cannot believe your incompetence!" Shrieked an assertive and deep voice. Killgrave instantly picked out that something was... wrong. There was something strange about the man. He had adopted a vast array of accents, performed them with unrivalled talent, yet for every man - the accent from their homeland never quite faded away. Only another vocal master would have known, but the President of Sokovia was not Sokovian.



She had already sent her bishops on their way to the airport. Doom had, admittedly, surprised her by acting so suddenly, and his effective seizing of Sokovia's central airport was ostentatious to say the least. Wanda now knew she was dealing with a strong character, a self-righteous king bordering on utter narcissism. The mere fact that his mechanical minions were modelled after he himself, with their billowing green capes and glinting armour, proved the monarch's ostensible self-obsession. Then again, with Doom's identical design to his underlings, he would almost always be able to lead astray enemies and accosters and allow himself to survive. He was, obviously, a genius mechanical engineer - or had one working for him.
Wanda had employed a similar sort of strategy in this situation - one of her 'bishops' was a young female named Arissa, and she was a low level mutant from northern Africa. She held no credit apart from her ability to allow one to see through her eyes and speak through her mouth. Arissa never talked about where her own consciousness and spirit went when Wanda was inhabiting her, and the Witch was not about to ask. Arissa herself was meek and reserved, having no value aside from her ability. As long as she could stay alive, Wanda was content to utilise her as a duplicitous envoy.

It was better that she did not appear in person - for she might at any moment have lost control and ruthlessly set herself upon the President or whomever he sent to represent him, or worse - Doom himself. Wanda did not like to be on equal terms with anyone she did not choose to be, so the forcing of her hand had brought her to look on Doom in a somewhat negative light even before the two's first meeting. Inhabiting Arissa was ideal, as she could draw herself back if aggressive urges started to take control, and if she failed to retreat then there was not much harm that Arissa could inflict.
It is time.
She cast a sort of spiritual form of herself out from where she sat on a plush and opulent chair in a secure building, travelling some distance in the space of nanoseconds. Suddenly, she found herself amongst a small crowd of people - the Conqueror's envoys and their heavily armed guard. She was walking through a side entrance to the airport, under a dirty stretch of cheap glass with it's moderate but unattractive infrastructure. Her 'possession' had caused Arissa to stop for a moment, and the other 'bishop' - a laconic and heavy-set man with the nickname 'Baron' - was looking upon her with a severe impatience. Only he from the group knew of Arissa's ability, so he knew that Wanda's emergence into Arissa's body had just occurred. The guards around them waited, obviously puzzled, but they knew better to speak out against two important members of the syndicate.
Wanda caught Baron's eye and nodded indistinctly, and the two resumed their movements towards the open airfield where Doom awaited.
It was part of the Witch's plan now to throw the blame for the border attack and the stolen equipment onto the Government, setting her up with a chance at further negotiations with the Latverian monarch later. Doom's equipment - at least what they had seen from it - was powerful and impressive, and Wanda knew that arming her forces with such weaponry would render the Government helpless against the Conquerors. Finally, after years of hers and her father's life, they would take revenge upon the Government's decades of subjugation.
Arissa's eyes flashed with a scarlet fury as she and Baron pushed through throngs of Sokovian airport security and the first signs of the Sokovian army, ever so surely striding towards Doom.

Iron Man realized that Thor was very very VERY narrow sighted considering as soon as he so much as sort of mentioned Loki she immediately went interrogator on him. He was getting more frustrated by her by the second and finally he just crossed his arms glaring right at her even through the helmet.

"I don't know, I don't care, go fuck yourself, leave.”

"If it is a fight you want, so be it." Thor said, her voice eerily even. She couldn't exactly help it though could she, she was an Asgardian, a warrior, she'd tried to use her words, but they'd proved fruitless, she'd do things the old fashioned way.

Mjolnir had lain dormant by her side thus far, dangling harmlessly from her wrist, but with a quick flick of her hand it was drawn up, her fingers coiled around the handle and ready to strike. She tossed the hammer with ease in Iron Man's direction, positive that the enchanted hammer would meet its mark, she had great aim after-all, and the hammer was magic, and Iron Man was a relatively close target to hit.

Iron Man reactively reached out for the hammer as she threw it. Wondering how throwing a tool at him was suppose to work. When it came in contact with his gloved hand though the force was nothing at all his physics brain was prepared for. As the hammer practically kept going, it cracked and smashed through his glove shooting pain through his hand as Iron Man howled in surprised pain. Being launched back over his desk in a tumble as he had to get himself back upright using his good hand.

Thor smirked to herself. Mjolir:1, Metal-Man:0, SCORE ONE FOR TEAM THOR!!! Her hand raised out, the physics-defying hammer soared back into her grasp and she took a step towards the desk where Iron Man had been mercilessly flung by her hammer. She watched him get back up on his feet and stood her ground. Even though he wore a high tech suit, he was still a mortal man, and outside of his suit, he was a relatively puny looking man in Thor's opinion, then again most Asgardian's were rather large and sturdily built, the vast majority of Midgard's populace were puny to her.

As Iron Man got back to his feet he began to quickly realize not only was the suit maybe not what he figured statically or she was much stronger than first impressions gave him. Not that the first impression gave him a lot to go on really. Still his right arm from the hand to the elbow was in a kind of pain he had never felt before. Just a small movement in it caused Tony to grit his teeth and fight through what was an intense searing pain. Strangely there was a certain sense of memory creeping into the back of Iron Man's mind about how he had never been in a fight before. Usually the prep schools he attended had a pretty healthy security system. The few times he ever got close to ending up in a fight, usually because his mouth or taking someone else's girl, someone would end up breaking things up before anything could go anywhere. Barring occasionally the few wildly swung hay makers.

As James ducked under Tony's desk with Pepper Iron Man boasted himself up into the air over the desk. Extending out his left hand and having the suit unload a full laser blast into Thor to either stop her now or slow her down enough to start trying to form a plan B, as the suit in its presence form wasn't going to cut it. "JARVIS, send a distress signal to SHIELD. Need back up on top floor of Stark Tech HQ immediately." Stark told his AI system. 'Noted, SHIELD already has people on the way, including one unidentifiable individual.' The last part gave Iron Man a quick idea as he landed in front of his desk and stopped the laser strike. He quickly glanced over to a window, "Hey isn't that the guy you're looking for?" He asked curiously.

Reflexively Thor threw her arm up to protect her face from the blast, her wrist brace absorbing the brunt of the blast, a wave of heat from the blast hit her and slightly burned her knuckles as they were unprotected by the bracer that only covered her wrist to her elbow.The laser blast hadn't done much aside from annoying her and force her to take one step backwards. The damage was superficial.
"Loki!?" Thor exclaimed glancing at the totally empty window. She growled at the lack of Loki in the window.

Iron Man quickly took advantage of the foolish, albeit effective distraction. The jet thrusts in his boots kicked in and launched him into Thor. Yanking her off her feet and slamming her hard into the solid oak doors leading into his office. Leading into the receptionist room where Iron Man quickly started grabbing everything in the room and smashing it onto the downed Thor. Wood chairs and metal desk, small ivory pillars and the plants on top of them, and a solid wood coffee table. Iron Man was beyond thinking about property damage, plus at least he was planning on remodeling the receptionist room so at least everything went to a good purpose of trying to slow down this crazy lady.

Thor had to admit, he'd caught her off guard. If he hadn't been suited up, he probably wouldn't have been able to move her an inch, but with the thrusters in his boots, he gained enough speed and momentum to knock her off her feet.

The doors exploded in splinters and shards as Iron Man tossed her through. Unable to recover herself quick enough after being totally blindsided, Iron Man managed to throw a few bits of furniture at her before she began to pull herself up, the onslaught of furniture was a hinderance, but once she managed to get her feet under her she was able to pull herself up, shoving the desk and coffee table aside. An ivory pillar flew toward her but she was ready for it, after taking a pummelling from the other pieces of furniture. THe pillar met its end at Mjolnir, exploding into a firework of chunks that skittered across the floor.

Iron Man had succeeded in his plan to slow her down a bit, but now she was back up again. He'd need to either escape, negotiate, or somehow defeat her but brute force wasn't in his favour. She knew even with his metal suit, he wouldn't be strong enough. She'd shattered his hand-armour with one easy blow, and he'd chucked her through a solid door and thrown an entire office-load of furniture on top of her, and she'd managed to pull herself up with little more than some superficial scrapes. If he had any doubts about her being a Goddess before, surely he'd think otherwise by now.

"Doth thou have a death wish? You dare challenge the Mighty Thor, The Goddess of Thunder?" she laughed a little, "Thou art most foolish, your suit is weak and without it, what art thou?"

Attempting to trick her into believing Loki was there was something that particularly angered Thor. For that, Stark would pay, it was a gross action of disrespect to her, she who would protect this realm from a wicked God.

She leapt forward towards Iron Man and swung the hammer out to the side to knock him aside.

The negative zone, what only seemed like the ramblings of scientific theory in a notebook was now all too real. It swarmed him, caressed him, let him horrified and fascinated at the same time. He was afraid deeply he was gone now. The world he knew and existed on was no longer where he was going to be ever again. This strange world of deep red skies and rocky landscapes was going to be his home now. Though suddenly Reed felt a rift open up on him and begin sucking him in, though in the murky haze he saw a man in the distance. Ragged and unshaven beyond relief, but Reed realized immediately who it was.

“Dad?”

He never got an answer, as suddenly he was surrounded by water. Sure he knew how to swim, a result of a summer spent on the Jersey shore with mom and dad. Still the shock of everything caused him to flail mindlessly and choke on what tasted like very chlorinated water. Finally though he felt human contact as a pair of hands reached down and hoisted him up out of the water.

“DdDdddduudddeee...” The two guys in question were in swim trunks, shirtless, and completely hammered by the sound of things. “You okay man, you fell out of the sky....” The other guy asked, again the stench of cheap booze reeking from his mouth. Coughing violently and finally catching his breath Reed paused, “Yeah no... I'm uh... I'm fine.”

He had to steal a towel from the two drunks as he was still in his clothes but soaked. After sneaking away from the pool he quickly realized where he was, Las Vegas. How did he end up here though? If the teleporter was suppose to work he should be in Albany right? After talking someone into loaning him a cell phone he was able to call Dr. Storm and let them know he was there. They told him the others were there too interestingly, and that he had gotten them a room at the MGM Grand to stay at for the night. The five of them had been missing for an hour before all reemerging in Vegas. By the sound of things though Dr. Storm sounded both relieved and furious at the same time. Wither at him or the experiment failing itself Reed wasn't sure. Though part of him hoped the man didn't see Reed and Susan get close the way they did.

It was ironic that Reed wound up at the MGM Grand's pool the way he did. He didn't have to worry about going far in wet clothes to get to his room. Though as he passed by the pool area one of the two drunks that he met ran up to him. “Hey man you dropped this thingy at the pool.” The guy handed Reed something he wasn't expecting at all. It was the apple that was meant for Albany, it made sense it didn't make it there given what happened to them. However it was what had happened to the apple that really confused him. The apple had been completely encased in ice.

As Reed got his room key from the front desk, having to tell him “Don't ask” when they asked him why he was in clothes and soaking wet. Reed took the elevator up and got to his room. Though he wasn't sure what it was but as he got closer and closer Reed felt more and more sick. Eventually when he got to his room he couldn't help himself. Having making a straight line to the bath room. Where he felt his stomach unload, his body hunched down and Reed experienced a sickness he had never felt before. He couldn't even give his brain a chance to consider if it was all some side effect of the experiment that was causing him to violently vomit.

Strangely though the more he puked the better Reed was feeling. By the time Reed had finally finished after what felt like an hour. He came out of the bathroom feeling completely better, heck weirdly better than he had ever felt. He changed out of the clothes he had on, taking the hotel room's courtesy robe and throwing it on before laying down at the bed. After a little while Reed heard a knock on the door and after a moment of hoping it was Susan, Ben came in lurched over and covered in sand and dirt.

“Well... that fucking sucked.” Ben joked, though he clearly wasn't feeling all that great as he had to groan out the last few parts of it. Reed couldn't even help but nod his head in agreement.

He then realized how Ben looked miserable and sickly like he had before. “Are you okay? I mean I just got gone puking in the bathroom. Why don't you go in and try too?” Reed suggested getting off of the bed to help Ben.

His friend though rejected the help, instead taking a lay down on the other bed in the room. “No I could smell it from down the hall. I don't feel puke-y just like everything inside me hurts. I'll be fine man don't worry about it.”

Reed frowned, worried about what was happening to them as he waited for any sign Harvey, Johnny, and most importantly Susan made it.

Agent Milton sat on top of a skyscraper in the middle of New York City. The locals called the structure the "Daily Bugle." Apparently it was a facility built for the express purpose of delivering biased journalism to the drooling masses of New York. Mark brought one such piece of propaganda up to where he could look at it: a newspaper, the humans called it. Covered in pictures and writing. Why did this "Bugle" continue to use such an outdated form of communication to deliver its message to the people of New York City. Even here, on the primitive planet called earth, they had more efficient means of transferring information from one location to multiple locations. A network of computers devised many years ago that allowed the public access to the 'information superhighway.' Despite the existence of this system, the Daily Bugle and a number of other outlets insisted on having their opinions transported by hand. It baffled Zhib-Ran, who's own world used a sort of 'internet' to spread news. Everyone carried a device that could be wirelessly accessed at any time by those allowed to present information to the entire planet.

That was another thing this planet, and more specifically the western portion of it, lacked: censorship. Why allow men like this J. Jonah Jameson to spew lies about important public figures like the Spider-Man? The Spider-Man is a hero. He serves as an icon to the people of New York City; the denizens look up to him as their savior. Well, they should, anyway. From what Zhib-Ran had seen, not everyone appreciated the wall-crawler's presence in the big apple. That fact can be attributed to the mud slinging of Jameson more than likely.

"Hmph." Hyperion puffed as he observed the front page. A picture of Spider-Man slinging through New York's skyline. Odd, Zhib-Ran thought. How did they manage to get a shot from this angle? The photographer must have been standing on the ledge of a massive structure to get a shot from that high up. How could he have known the Spider was swinging by at that exact moment, to take a picture without blur? How very odd. Zhib-Ran began to read the article on the front page. It was an opinion piece written by multiple authors. The article raised an interesting question: Should superheroes be allowed to work within the city without regulation by the government? Of course not. Hyperion answered within his own mind. You can't trust an ordinary citizen to do the work of the police. But law enforcement on earth was not equipped to deal with the threats that required the attention of superheroes. Hyperion went on to read the rest of the article on page eleven. The Daily Bugle offered a simple solution: SHIELD. They wanted people to look at SHIELD and see how well their system worked, and how it could be applied to law enforcement at large within the United States of America. Vigilantes are brought in, trained, and given badges before they're sent off to work for the city. They would get a paycheck, benefits, the whole package. What's not to love?

The article failed to mention, and Hyperion failed to realize, the shortcomings of such a plan. For Zhib-Ran hadn't the time to mull over the positives and negatives, because Captain America needed his assistance.

"Agent Milton." A voice suddenly spoke from Zhib's watch.

Hyperion raised the device closer to his face and pressed a button on the side. "This is Milton. Go ahead." Zhib-Ran was still getting used to calling himself "Agent Mark Milton" instead of Zhib-Ran or Hyperion. Why the humans wished for his identity to remain a mystery, Zhib did not know. But he had chosen to work with SHIELD until the day when he no longer needed them. For Hyperion's plans to come into fruition, he needed SHIELD's full trust. So, for now, Hyperion would do as they told. No questions asked.

"Captain America has activated his distress beacon and requested your assistance. He's currently in the Savage Lands, Antarctica- you should be able to find him without too much trouble."

"Of course. I'll be right there."

Hyperion switched the device off and set his newspaper down. He quickly removed his grey suit jacket and carefully folded it up, setting that down as well. Zhib removed a pair of sunglasses from his pocket and put them on before straightening his tie and jumping to his feet. A quick rolling up of his sleeves, and Hyperion was ready for work.

Then he jumped.

Zhib-Ran fell from the roof of the Daily Bugle towards the busy streets below. People looked up and pointed; he could hear screams and calls for help as he rapidly descended towards the asphalt. Time itself seemed to distort as Hyperion activated his powers. Everything slowed down to a crawl. Zhib glanced around with his enhanced vision at the faces of the people below. A moment later, after he had finished enjoying the fresh air, Hyperion began to fly. He suddenly shot forward at speeds approaching light, flying above the New York skyline. He was careful not to get too close to any buildings; his powers allowed him to keep air disruption to a minimum, however there was still the chance that Zhib-Ran could shatter the windows with the amount of air he was kicking behind him at the speed he was going. If Hyperion wasn't able to regulate air flow around him, he imagined flying at light speed would be equivalent to setting off a nuclear bomb in the middle of the city.

Good thing that wasn't a probably for him, isn't it?

It took less than a second for Hyperion to reach the research facility. However, for the extra-dimensional alien, it felt like quite a bit longer. He had to fly up into space and use his telescopic vision combined with his X-ray vision to locate Sam Wilson. Then he had to fly down to Antarctica and traverse the Savage Land without crashing. It felt like an eternity. If Zhib wasn't so experienced with his powers he would have wondered if he reached Sam in time to save him. But he was experienced, so that wasn't an issue either.

Hyperion smashed through the metal and concrete that made up the facilities walls. Debris froze in mid air as Zhib took the time to examine in the situation. The room was filled with what appeared to be dinosaurs in strange glass cases. Cap was looking at one such dinosaur. The good captain appeared to have locked eyes with the creature. Hyperion turned to see a group of AIM agents approaching from another door, all of them armed with state of the art laser weaponry. They wouldn't affect Hyperion; he'd feel them, but it'd probably just tickle. Time sped back up to normal as Hyperion slowed to a stop. The AIM agents entered the room and pointed their weapons at the intruders. However, Cap didn't move. His eyes were stuck on the dinosaur. That was when Hyperion realized that the strange earth creature in the tube must have had the captain under some sort of mind control.

He had to act fast. Hyperion flew forward, right at the pterodactyl. He tackled the beast out of its tube and dragged the flying monster through a nearby wall. And then another wall. And another. Once they were outside, Hyperion let go of Sauron and allowed the monster to get up. The naive "hero" believed it was just some misunderstood lizard, and believed it would fly away after that. "Go on." Hyperion urged. "Get outta here."

Hopefully Cap could deal with the AIM guys on his own, because the dinosaur didn't seem very willing to leave.

Something was off about the female that approached. Some... strange energy. He would have to watch her closely. Not everything was as it seemed. He chuckled about that to himself, of course not everything was as it seemed. Was that not why he was here? Or at least that was why he was saying he was here. The only thing true was that he was fiercely loyal to Latveria and intended to protect it from these thugs who encroached upon sovereign ground. The Doom dogs were patrolling around the area, while the Doombots simply stood behind him. He was currently using the decoy models rather than the more average drone design.

Always keep them guessing after all. Though one Doom would talk they had no idea if it was the real Doom or not.

That is when one of them spoke. "You have no need of your guards here. No weapons will be fired in my presence." He turned to the Sokovian governments representative who was approaching with even more guards and the military was moving in. He raised his hand. "Your army shall come no further, this is to discover who the aggressor towards Latveria was so I can then take a course of action. There shall be no combat here, if you wish to fight my forces will intervene and I cannot guarantee a bloodless conflict." The army stopped advancing, but did not retreat. At least they saw some sense of reason.

As both the representatives closed he tipped his head slightly, not enough to show subservience but enough to show some iota of respect. "I have come today to discover the truth. Someone sought to take Latverian weapons by force, wearing the uniforms of the government. I will no longer allow your country to fight in a petty civil war that threatens your own and my own people-" Part of this was for the cameras that were already gathering in the distance. He wasn't sure how many of them could get audio on what he was saying but he had to be sure. "-You now have time to alleviate yourselves of any guilt so that I can come to a decision that will benefit your country." The Sokovian Governments representative went to speak and he just raised his hand.

"I think you will find, that it is polite to let the Lady speak first."



Wilson wasn't entirely sure what was going on, it felt like is brain was being re-wired and then there was a crash as something came through the roof. Whatever it was it hit it hard and then went after the beast on front of him. As soon as it's concentration was broken he felt the control of his limbs return, obviously whatever attempt at mind control he had started hadn't been completed. That was always good. Then he heard the panic of the A.I.M agents behind him, stamping his foot down onto his shield it bounced up onto his awaiting arm.

He had to hand it to Steve Rogers, while he was a bit apprehensive about the shield to start with it was pretty damn useful. With his right hand he pulled some explosives off his belt and threw them around the hole in the wall before using his pack to follow the two combatants who went tumbling through the wall. Once clear he hit the trigger, the anti-air defenses, wall. Everything came tumbling down. Though comms were quiet. He activated his comm as he followed the devastation left behind by Milton. "Fury, this is Wilson. We've got some kind of super here, and A.I.M are involved. Cordon of the Savage land and send no-one in. This is serious."

"Copy that Wilson, did you get our gift." Wilson switched to hover as he neared the two, the pterodactyl thing nearing Milton in an effort to grab him, moving with suprising speed. "I did Fury, how kind. Wilson, out."

“Well, look who it is!” The Blob said as he basically ignored the baseball bat that had been swung at his skull, “It’s Benedict Arnold! I wonder if the British are coming!”

“So, if the four of you are down here, whose piloting your plane?” Lorelei pondered aloud. “Boys?” She said as she quickly turned her head towards both Avalanche and Pyro.

“Don’t have to tell us twice!” Avalanche responded. The two mutants aimed their arms up towards the Blackbird and unleashed their mutant powers against the jet. After a few seconds of being barraged by both blasts of fire and seismic waves, the Blackbird began to lose altitude, precariously falling towards the innocent hostages below.

However, Ms. Marvel darted up towards the falling X-Jet, pressing her back against the aerial vehicle in order to steady it. Using her energy-based powers to help slow the plane’s descend, Ms. Marvel guided the plane over the heads of the hundreds of people below and safely landed the plane in the unoccupied baseball field that was located in the Boston Common park.

Once the Blackbird was safely earthbound, Ms. Marvel turned her attention back to the Brotherhood and bolted in their direction. She snatched Pyro from the midst of the other evil mutants and flew towards the nearby Frog Pond. Her initial intent was to drench the pyromaniac in water. However, she discovered that the Frog Pond was too shallow to be of much use and that if she would have dropped him into it at the speed at which she was flying, she could have killed him.

Therefore, Ms. Marvel performed an aerial U-turn and headed in the opposite direction. By this time, Pyro had already in vain begun to try to wrestle himself from Ms. Marvel’s grasp. Across Charles Street, past where she had safely landed the Blackbird, Ms. Marvel saw a second pond that this time could be used to quench the fire-powered mutant. Once she was close to the pond, Ms. Marvel decelerated so that Pyro’s impact with the water would not be identical to him slamming into a brick wall.

After she ‘discarded’ Pyro, Ms. Marvel flew back towards where the rest of the Brotherhood (and the people who call themselves the ‘X-Men’) were standing a few seconds ago. While Ms. Marvel had been dealing with Pyro, the Brotherhood and the X-Men began to engage one another. Lorelei was the first to make a move, using her hypnotic voice to try to get the Beast and Quicksilver to become her little pawns.

“Men!” She began, “You are slaves to your hormones and your bodies. Listen to my voice and do my bidding. Destroy your fellow X-Men.”

“‘Roll some sweet wax in your hand and stuff it in your companions’ ears, lest any of them can listen’, Homer’s Odyssey, Book 12. While not the best metaphor in the world, nevertheless it shall suffice.” The Beast quoted as he revealed that Lorelei’s powers were not be effective against either the Beast or Quicksilver.

Jean could sense the hesitation in Quicksilver's mind but she hoped he would pull through and choose the right side eventually. She knew he struggled against his conflicting emotions toward the Brotherhood and she was there for him as a companion and emotional guide just as much as the Professor was.

As Lorelei's powers were rendered useless against the male X-men members. Avalanche decided to have a go next. He points his arms at the ground and the floor beneath Jean, Storm and Beast's feat was in the direct path of an earthquake that would tear the concrete apart from under their feet. Luckily Storm could fly and easily evade the attack. Jean used her levitation to lift her and Beast of the ground. Storm then conjures an electric bolt to strike at Avalanche, not so much that it would kill him, merely shock him into submission.

As Jean puts Beast down, he roars and leaps at Blob. Jean stood in front of Lorelei and pointed one arm at her. "Make your move, Harlet." Her emerald eyes narrow at the she witch, daring her to try something against the mistress of telekinesis and telepathy. She would either read her moves before she made them or use anything towards her as a weapon. Either way Jean Grey was a formidable enemy that Lorelei made this day. She could not stand seeing a woman try to use men the way she did. This rubbed her up the wrong way and anger boiled up within her. She was more and more angry with each passing day. Was this due to her heartbreak over Scott and Lee finally reaching the surface?



Sabertooth snarls at the Asgardian Princess Sigyn reincarnate who did not yet fully realise her own legacy. “Clever girl.” He paces around her.

Clay instinctively shoots at the cat like man, who was too quick to take a bullet. He leaps upward and toward Maria. Victoria's eyes grew wide, he was about to hurt a weaker agent. Her wings sprout forth and helps her glide over the sand, which picks up in a comet-like tail in her wake. Victoria's sword reaches Sabertooth before his claws impacted Maria. She brings it across his arm and slashes it through his flesh. He reels in agony on the floor but she watched his skin heal over.

“Regeneration.”

“Yes....like you. Valkyrie. We know all about you too.” Victor Creed stands fully upright. “We have interest in you as well. But we chose Hulk first. Now just imagine if we had Hulk AND Valkyrie DNA fused together, what madness we could create in this already mad world?” He jeers.

“You're a monster.” Valkyrie shakes her head in disbelief at how someone could think of such evil things.

“No. Hulk is the monster. I am merely an instigator!” He yells as he lunges toward her and claws into her shield. She turns her body to bring her shield down as she brings her sword hilt up and smacks him under the chin so hard it rendered him unconscious.

Victor lay on the scorching ground lifeless. “The only monsters here are people like YOU.” She growls back. “Tag him and bring him aboard the Helicarrier. He'll lead us to his friends. Scan for some kind of tracking device within his body. It's likely they would put something under his skin and it would heal over.” She sheaths her blade and turns her gaze behind them as if something made her.

She saw a figure in the distance, a wavy black silhouette on the edge of the horizon line. It carried a large hammer. It was walking away from them and disappeared. Victoria wasnt sure if this was real or a mirage. “That...way....” She points in the direction of where the figure appeared. She felt as if she'd seen a ghost from her past. A flash of a red cape enters her mind. Being embraced by someone warm and large in comfort. Was it just a memory or a taste of things to come? She did not know.

“Why that way?” Maria asks as Clay drags a tied up Sabertooth across the floor toward the small jet.

“I feel as though...someone or some..thing out there is helping us. Guiding us.” Victoria drifts off in her own world and looks toward the sky. “A power we cannot yet understand.” A vulture passes by overhead and squawks.

----

On the helipad, Sabertooth was in one of their cells. Victoria headed the navigation and stood where usually the director would, guiding the pilots. “How long do we go this way, Ma'am?”

“Until I say so.” She was sure she would receive another sign in due time. The first sign of the silhouetted figure indeed showed her the way the Team X's plane flew. They were following its fume trail as a scientist confirmed from the lab. Valkryie nodded her head in acknowledgement at the message and folds her arms. “Hold on Bruce Banner. We're coming.”