Chapter Forty-Eight: Acts of Vengeance

The Scavenger & The Avengers
The End of the World As We Know It: Part III-8

From an unassuming rooftop on the other side of the street, the Scavenger and the rest of the Avengers looked down at Doom’s Latverian Embassy. The crowds outside had mostly dispersed, leaving only a few die-hards to stare at the building. Joe wasn’t sure if it was fear or boredom that had sent the others away.
“He won’t be expecting us to come to him,” the Scavenger said. “So we’ve got the element of surprise. But we can’t just charge in there, guns blazing. None of us are really that experienced as superheroes to begin with, and we’ve got no idea how many supervillains Doom’s got working for him. But, we’ve got to be the ones to do it. We’ve got to shut down Dr. Doom’s plan before things spin too far out of control. What we need is a way to do a little recon before we jump into the battle.”
“I’ve got it!” the Rock said. “One of us could dress up like a pizza delivery boy, and we could deliver a pizza to the embassy. Then, when they tell us we’ve got the wrong address, we could ask to use the phone. They’ll have to let us inside, and we can count how many of them there are.”
“That is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard,” the Scavenger said. “CJ, do you have something in your cape that might help us?”
“I can check,” Goodwill said. She began poking through her Negative Zone pocket for a useful gadget.
“Sarah,” the Scavenger continued. “We might end up having to rely on your illusion powers. Get a good look at the Embassy and all its features, because you may just end up emulating it. “
“Got it,” Dreamboat Annie said.
“I still think my plan could work,” the Rock said.
“No,” said the Scavenger.
“Could we try it?” the Rock asked.
“No!” said the Scavenger.
“What if it’s the last plan we try out?”
“No.”
“Okay, what if it’s the first plan we try out?”
“No.”
“What if we get Deaf Leopard to do it?”
“NO!”

Volcana stayed in her human form as she swung the door to the Embassy open. Outside, a nervous-looking Hispanic kid was holding some kind of box. Volcana didn’t suspect a trap.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“Uh... pizza delivery?” the kid said. Volcana thought for a moment. “Hold on a sec,” she said. “Let me see if the Doc ordered a pizza.” She turned back into the embassy. Carlos sprang forward as soon as her attention shifted, transmuting his body in mid-air to the form of: the Deaf Leopard! Because she looked like she was probably a good tipper, Volcana was spared the brunt of the Deaf Leopard’s rage; instead of his claws, the young antihero pressed the flat of his hand hard into Volcana’s chin. Her combat reflexes dulled by years spent living in quiet suburbia with the infamous Molecule Man, Volcana didn’t have time to shift into her armored fire-form before the Deaf Leopard’s assault knocked her out, cold.
Suddenly, alarms blared from all corners of the Embassy. An emotionless, vaguely feminine mechanical voice reported conflict in the upper foyer, and ordered all superhumans on-site to the area. Within the superhuman form of the Deaf Leopard, Carlos missed the warning entirely. It was only the flash of movement he caught from the corner of his eye that gave him notice. Springing into the air at the last moment, the Deaf Leopard barely avoided being seared by Electro’s bolt of lightning. The bolt continued forward through the space where the Deaf Leopard had been, fortuitously striking a surprised Speed Demon, who had been coming around from behind. As Speed Demon’s muscles buckled, the Deaf Leopard twisted to avoid Oddball’s gas grenade and the spray of machine gun fire from Arsenal’s weapon. Feeling way too exposed in the center of the room, he leapt for the nearest doorway, ducking just in time underneath Whirlwind’s blades. A leg sweep sent the spinning villain flying into Oddball’s gas cloud, where he was instantly joined by one of Bombshell’s explosive blasts. The Deaf Leopard looked back into the roomful of villains- and froze in place.
“Sacre bleu!” came the chant from behind him. “You ‘ave bean- ‘ow do you say?- frozen by ze powair of ze incroyable Grey Gargoyle! Wat would you say for yourself now, if ze stone form I ‘ave convairted you to would let you speak?”
“He would say,” the Scavenger answered from the entryway as the door to the embassy was suddenly blown open by a Wonder-Blast, “That he was our point man, sent in to draw you all together in one place. And he would say it without that outrageous accent. Dreamboat Annie! Rock! Goodwill! Electric Youth! Hit ‘em! Avengers Assemble!”

Oddball pitched three more gas-spheres at the group, hoping to catch them all in the same place. Goodwill was there, and, with a sweep of her cape, drew the bombs into the folds of the Negative Zone. “Oh,” she said. “So that’s where I got those.” Her hand plunged after the balls into her cape, and withdrew a long metal pole, which she immediately used to bat away Bombshell’s attack. The explosive tore open a hole in the floor of the embassy. CJ separated the pole into its two component battle-staves, and hurled one back at Bombshell, catching the assassin in the arm. The other crashed into one of the balls Oddball still wore on his costume, sending the neuralizing shock he’d intended for his foes into the mad juggler himself. Oddball went down for the count.
With the force and gravity of his namesake, the Rock landed feet-first on the Grey Gargoyle’s chest. The stone villain was staggered momentarily, but managed to bring his right hand to bear against the hero’s leg. Dylan was frozen, stone-still, and landed against the body of his teammate.
Sparks flew as Electric Youth and Electro’s powers clashed overhead. Suddenly, Red Ghost and his Super-Apes burst from yet another part of the embassy. The super-strong gorilla charged for Electric Youth, but suddenly, the Scavenger was there, driving the monkey back with a wave of his Sunsword. He fired off a couple of shots in the Grey Gargoyle’s direction, but neither shot broke the villain’s stony hide. Aresenal ducked back into the parlor, grabbed a throw pillow from the couch, and tossed it at the Scavenger; it was a mine before it left the villain’s hand. It was a throw pillow when it crashed into the Scavenger, and he didn’t even notice; he was too busy holding back the boa constrictor that had been a monkey moments before. The Scavenger did notice, however, when a bolt of solidified sound, courtesy of the newly-appeared Klaw, knocked him back into the hole made by Bombshell’s explosion. The Vibranium charm Joe wore shielded him from most of the blast, but the fall had left him winded. Even worse, the Raiders, a trio of has-been armored thieves, came blasting their way from three corners of the room the Scavenger now found himself in. Things didn’t look good for the newest Avengers....
Then, with a crash, the adjoining walls of the Latverian embassy came crashing down. Electro collapsed as the wall behind him fell inward, and Electric Youth collapsed immediately afterward, momentarily drained. Silhouetted atop the rubble was the Warrior Prince of Asgard, Thor, and his stalwart companions, the Warriors Three! “Of course!” someone shouted in the confusion. “They’re from another dimension, too! They wouldn’t be affected!” The Grey Gargoyle, still on the outskirts of the battle, was the first to react. He leapt forward, and pressed his palm against Thor’s chest. “He’s gone crazy!” Fandrall the Dashing said in a surprisingly well-mimicked Brooklyn accent. “He’s attacking us now!” Piledriver’s fist came swining out of Fandrall’s body, knocking the Grey Gargoyle to the other side of the room. The Grey Gargoyle fell unconscious, the Wrecker’s stone body fell over, and Dreamboat Annie let her illusion fade. A pink fist of solid sound swept in behind her then, knocking Annie into the same corner (and same state of well-being) as the Grey Gargoyle.
Electric Youth scrambled to cross the room, doing his best to avoid the ever-widening pit in the middle of the room, as well as Arsenal’s flamethrower that had once been a lamp. Meanwhile, the Scavenger fired a few wide shots from his Wonder-Glove at the nearest Raider, only to suddenly discover that his Wonder-Glove was gone. Speed Demon waved the glove maliciously at Joe from the other side of the room. The Scavenger blinked, and his paste-vest joined the pile next to Speed Demon. The Raiders looked on, amused by the game Speed Demon was playing. Speed Demon raced forward again, and Joe’s hand shot to his pocket, stabbing the button on his CESU just before the villain arrived. The Scavenger’s remaining weapons vanished, but it wasn’t Speed Demon’s doing. Confused, the villain ran a quick lap back to where he’d been. Then, realizing his opponent was now helpless, he charged. Joe knew that Speed Demon was prepared for any one of his weapons- not that he could summon them back again in time anyway. But then, he also knew he had one weapon Speed Demon wasn’t expecting. Using all of his remaining Karma, praying to God, and thinking about how much he FUCKING HATES super-speedsters, Joe threw his CESU directly at the charging villain. The hard metal sphere struck Speed Demon right between the eyes, adding its velocity to his own. At that speed, the force of the collision was enough to break Speed Demon’s nose, not to mention take one more villain out of the fight. Joe was as surprised that maneuver worked as the Raiders were, and it took a split second for everyone to recover. The Raiders fired as Joe leapt for his CESU....

CJ reached into her cape for another weapon as she crossed the distance between herself and Bombshell. Deciding that the Ultimate Nullifier wasn’t worth activating, CJ settled for slamming the all-powerful weapon into the side of Bombshell’s head before carefully putting it back into her Negative Pocket. Electric Youth ducked under a bookcase repelled in his direction by the Red Ghost’s mutant orangutan, the rolled over one of Piledriver’s massive fists to land directly on top of Electro’s body. The villain’s electric energy poured through Electric Youth’s body, straight back into those fists of Piledriver’s. Unable to handle such a massive shock to the system, both Piledriver and Electric Youth joined the ranks of the defeated. Goodwill struggled with the buckle on Bombshell’s vest of explosives, when she saw Thunderball’s massive weapon crash through the floor next to her. That blow was the last the floor could handle, and with a shudder, the entire room gave way, dropping everyone into the lower level. Goodwill was caught halfway up by the remaining man in Raider armor, who then tossed her back into the fray. Rolling with the throw, Goodwill landed a solid boot against the side of Arsenal’s head. The force of her momentum knocked the villain unconscious, but Goodwill’s awkward landing left her vulnerable to any number of follow-up attacks. In the wake of their fall, Thunderball drew his weapon back in, only then noticing that Goodwill had twisted Bombshell’s explosive vest around the end of the ball- setting each one to time-delayed explosions. The blast fried Thunderball as the Raider used the hypersonics in his armor to stun the shapeshifted baboon. Then, pressing the button on his CESU once more, the Scavenger returned to his much more familiar costume, landing disco-skate-first on top of the Red Ghost’s orangutan, tossing in one Wonder Blast each to finish off the two smaller Super-Apes. Another high-frequency blast from Klaw sent the Scavenger skidding into a still-worn Goodwill as the two Wonder-Blasts he’d intended for Klaw mangled the ceiling instead. Klaw leveled his sonic projector at the pair, ready to finish the job. Before he could fire, though, Klaw’s projector was suddenly mangled by a fist of solid stone.
“Took... too... long...” the Rock tried to manage. “...drop... density... move.” Even without his sonic powers, though, Klaw was still no pushover. He swatted the rock Rock aside with a mighty backhand, and moved in to finish the job in person. Finally in a clear space, Bulldozer reveled in his ability to charge, taking aim at Goodwill, who was standing, apparently still dazed, in the center of the room. Beyond her, the Red Ghost’s monstrously powerful gorilla roared, ready for its own attack. So, when Bulldozer passed right through Goodwill, he went careening instead into the beast’s enormous flank. The gorilla (the Russian one) fell over as Goodwill, still too weak to stand, hastily retrieved her image inducer. “Dreamboat Annie, eat your heart out,” she managed to say.
“Nice try, dear, but I am not fooled,” the disembodied voice of the Red Ghost taunted as his very solid foot sent CJ into dreamland. Meanwhile, the Scavenger had already tackled Klaw, pushing the villain away from the Rock. As the two grappled, Bulldozer tried again with a charge at the Rock. Knowing that his stone body would never dodge in time, the Rock instead pushed his power to the limits, becoming as dense as he could imagine. Immovable object and unstoppable force collided, and in the aftermath, both Bulldozer and the Rock collapsed. After rolling with a handful of Klaw’s punches, Joe pulled the Vibranium charm from his neck, and jammed it with all his might into Klaw’s solid-sound body. Klaw screamed as his coherency was shaken apart by the charm. Joe, meanwhile, was pounded again and again with waves of solid sound. Across the room, the Red Ghost turned solid and visible as the shrill screams of Klaw’s disintegration proved to be too much for him. Seconds later, Klaw all but vanished, left only as an echo ringing through the walls of the Latverian Embassy. The Scavenger took note, confirmed that every single other combatant had been defeated, and then, himself, passed out.

Chapter Forty-Seven: From Here to Infinity

Mr. Negativity & The X-Men
The End of the World As We Know It: Part III-7

“You have got to be kidding me,” Rina said as she stared in disbelief at Mr. Negativity.
“I wouldn’t kid about something like this,” Charles replied. “You’ve discovered the Time Gem on this world, and that’s phenomenal news. But it also means we need to work quickly, because there are five more Infinity gems, and if one of them is here on this world, the rest of them must be, as well. If we have all six, we might be able to reset things to how they‘re supposed to be.”
“Five more?” Cain asked.
“Yes,” Spiral replied. “Representing Space, Power, Mind, Soul, and Reality.” She brushed away her companions’ odd looks with one of her six hands. “I’ve known of the Infinity gems for some time now. Don’t forget- I remember reality before the switch, too.”
“That’s just great,” Howard said while lighting a cigar, “But how are we supposed to figure out where these other things are?”
“Actually,” said Spiral, “With Rina’s assistance, we should be able to at least get started. The gems, while unique, still have similar energy signatures. With one on hand, I should be able to dance a teleportation spell to the nearest one.”
“Great!” Charles exclaimed. “With the way they work, after we get the second one, it should get easier and easier to find the others. Are you up for it?”
With a nod, Spiral began to work her arms in her mystical patterns. “It’s still rather taxing, but I should be rested up for one more.” She had just finished her sentence when a flash of light overtook the new X-Men. As eyes cleared up, the group looked around, finding themselves in a dense forest. Spiral slumped against one of the trees, exhausted.
“Beautiful,” Cain muttered. “It can’t be on display or anything, can it? Any idea on how close we are?”
Spiral took a deep breath. “I only know this is the near vicinity. It could be anywhere within a quarter mile or so.”
“Quarter mile?!” Howard squawked. “Obviously, that narrows it down.”
“Well, considering we had an entire planet’s worth of area to cover, that’s not too bad,” Harry tried to remain optimistic. “Rina, are you getting anything?”
“Let me try something.” Rina focused on the gem’s power, slowing down time to a crawl like it was second nature. To everyone else’s view, she blurred out of vision for a few seconds then was there again. “No good, if it’s here, it’s definitely not out in the open.”
“So what? We’re just going to search randomly for it? The chances of us finding it are astronomical,” Cain pointed out.
Charles couldn’t help but remember the movie Cube. “Two. Astronomical.” He chuckled to himself despite the situation. Suddenly, an idea came to mind. “Two.....” he said to himself. “I’d almost forgot about them.” Without another word, he took off into the air, flying above the treetops.
“What does he think he’s doing?” Howard voiced the thoughts of everyone else.
The luck dice from the Whizzer of Odds, Charles thought to himself. They’re indestructible. Which should mean... He focused his thoughts internally, calling upon the probability altering dice that were within his body. Suddenly, he spun around and fired a concentrated blast downward followed a few seconds later by another. Natural luck amplified by mystical dice combined in a way that would make Longshot jealous.
The first blast tore through the leaves and branches of a few trees until it hit the dead center of an old maple tree. Wood and foliage exploded in a blast that sent a small gem flying into the air. The gem arced upward uncertainly until the second Negative Zone blast changed its trajectory, bouncing it off two trees and directly into the lap of Spiral.
Looking down, Spiral lifted up the Space Gem and found all her energies refueled and charged more than ever before. She stood up as Charles was landing. The five members just stared at him as he shrugged. “It’s good to be the king,” he quipped.

The six X-Men appeared in front of a large lake in Georgia. With the Space Gem, Spiral could now both easily teleport as well as know their location with precise ease. “It’s in the lake?” Harry asked.
“Definitely. I can sense it laying on the bed,” Spiral said.
“Well, who’s going to go get it?” Cain didn’t so much as ask but direct the statement at Howard.
“Wah? Hey, now listen, just because I’m a duck doesn’t mean anything. I can’t swim. Why doesn’t the ‘no need to breathe’ guy go after it?”
Charles point over the group’s shoulders to the small group of Doomsmen who appeared on the horizon. “Because I’m probably more suited to fighting these guys than just taking a swim.”
“By Doom’s decree, what lies in that lake will belong to him!” Eight sets of battle armor boots flared launching them into the midst of the sextet.
With a snap of her fingers, Spiral teleported Howard over the spot in the lake where he needed to be. As he squawked and began to sink into the water, Spiral had already begun to turn her attention to those approaching.
Before the eight Doomsmen had landed, two of them had crashed into each other violently as each had one boot jet clogged by a massive tangle of wires. Two more had large holes punctured in their suits from twin blasts of ebony energy. The remaining four began opening fire. Unfortunately, one of them found himself teleported in front of his own blast. As he struggled to his feet, he faced the smiling face of a six-armed white haired women wielding swords.
Cain swung a powerful hand at the nearest trooper who just grinned as the body armor easily withstood the even Cain’s excellent punch. Cain gritted his teeth as the trooper began to fire a direct shot. Suddenly, the shot appeared to be halted in mid air. Quickly understanding the situation, Cain casually went to the opposite side of the Doomsman, undid the helmet, walked around, and threw a punch that knocked out his adversary.
However, while Rina and Spiral were preoccupied, the remaining two goons took their shots from behind, knocking them both down. Mr. Negativity and Haywire, with their attentions turned toward the lake which was beginning to glow a bright orange, didn’t notice two guns being turned upon Cain.
Suddenly, a bright flame shot out of the lake which seemed to take on the shape of... a duck? Howard’s newfound mental abilities quickly knocked out the Doomsmen as his voice resounded over the lake, “I am Psy-Duck!” Quickly drained from his first use, Howard began to fall back toward the lake, caught in mid-air by Mr. Negativity.
As everyone began to recover, Charles pointed out the scary obvious fact. “Doom obviously knows the Infinity Gems are around as well. That means we’re now on a big timetable. It should be easier for us, since we have the Space Gem, but Doom has the advantage of numbers. They can be several places at once.”
Spiral nodded. “Then let’s be off.”

“Oh damn,” Cain muttered as they appeared in a murky swampland, facing another dozen of Doom’s troops.
“I knew someone was bound to say it before this jaunt was over,” Charles shook his head. “Well, let’s do it.”
In a blur of motion, Rina sped forward into combat. However, faster than her time dilated speed was the speed of thought as Howard began launching mental attacks upon the troops. Unfortunately, these Doomsmen seemed to have slightly better blocks in their suits for just such protection. In actuality, the armor itself seemed to be adapting more and more from attacks somehow. Hyperpunches were being ignored, wires were being torn asunder quicker, and Negablasted holes were even repairing themselves.
Everyone was focused on pushing their powers more that once more, Cain was forgotten. Well, he wasn’t forgotten by everyone. A single Doomsman managed to sneak around and tackle Cain from behind. With a lurch forward, Cain felt hundreds of pounds of battle armor and human pushing his upper body into a sickeningly putrid area of swamp water.
His breath knocked out of him, Cain managed to keep his wits enough to not inhale the liquid into his lungs. He struggled futilely attempting to get air as his tormentor simply laughed a laugh that echoed through the waters in which Cain was drowning. Suddenly, Cain noticed something shimmer just slightly as the light above hit it just right.. Cain reached down into the swamp, grasping desperately, his fingertips just out of reach. Finally, with his last surge of adrenaline, Cain threw his body into the dive and got grasp of the Body Gem.
With ease, Cain threw a massive arm back and knocked the Doomsman away and unconscious. Pulling himself out of the water, Cain grinned as he approached the main fray and lasers began hitting and bouncing off of him. A few punches this way and that and the remaining villains lay prone on the ground.
“Cain!” Rina cried. “You’ve become some sort of unstoppable juggernaut!”
“That’s right,” Cain said. “That’s why I’m going to call myself the Unstoppable Mitch.”
“Oh Jesus,” Charles almost wept.
“What? You want I should reveal my real name?” Cain explained.
“Never mind, let’s just get the hell out of here.”

The X-Men appeared on a level playing field. Okay, it was a corn field, and honestly, it wasn’t very level either. In fact, the twelve foot tall robot making its way surely towards them carried itself with a manner that showed it was not playing.
“This is going to suck, isn’t it?” asked Harry.
“Yeah, probably,” Charles agreed.
“Come on, you sissies,” Cain bellowed, “You wait here, I’ll take care of it.” Massive leg muscles pumped as Cain charged straight toward the robot, an arm drawn back for a punch, until the ground in front of him suddenly shifted into a thick tar. Cain immediately began clawing around, finding himself sinking deeper the more he struggled.
Everyone suspected something was up, but instinct took the reigns as Rina and Spiral launched into combat. Howard was using the Mind Gem to both calm Cain down and give him the concentration to free himself. Charles turned toward Harry. “Go get the gem.”
“Are you nuts? What about the robot? I need to stay and help.”
“Listen, you don’t have a gem. You need one. Go find this one.”
“You don’t have one, either,” Haywire pointed out.
“Yes, but I have unlimited access to powerful destructive forces from an entire dimension. No offense, but which of us stands a better shot at this robot.”
“Hey, cheap shot!” Harry protested.
Howard gave enough attention to call out, “He’s right you know.”
Harry dug his toe into the ground, dejected. “Yeah, but still, cheap shot.”
“Listen, the robot was headed this direction before we appeared, so it’s probably behind us. Good luck.” With that, Charles turned back toward the robot and Harry took off the other direction.
Cain was just making his way out of the tar, but the others were fairing poorly. Rina was trapped inside a giant earth maze that shifted around every time she took a step. Meanwhile, Spiral was fighting her bout of vertigo. Every direction seemed to be up. Normally, the Space Gem would easily throw off any such feelings, but as it was soon very apparent to her, every direction really was up.
The Reality Gem, Charles began to realize. Doom must have found the Reality Gem and used it to power one of his toys. That’s the only thing that could do what this thing is doing. But how do we fight something with the power to alter reality? Damn, I wish I’d read up on Moira’s son more.
Any other thoughts he might have had were shut down as his perceptions fractured, and he experienced a hundred different realities which his life could have been. He saw himself in his home world working twenty different jobs, being in thirteen different colleges, losing friends and family, being killed three different ways, aligning himself with Sinister, and more. Even as fast as his normal thoughts were, it proved to be far beyond what the human mind was meant to experience, and Charles collapsed to the ground in his human form, unconscious.
Cain busted a hole open in the maze long enough for Rina to make an escape out. Meanwhile, Howard blocked off all of Spiral’s perceptions except for one view long enough for her to teleport away. They gathered around Charles, doing what they could to distract the robot until someone could come up with a plan. And where the hell was Haywire?

Harry’s sprint had slowed to a jog and led quickly to a walk. He began kicking clods of dirt as he went, hearing the battle far behind him. “You know,” he said to nobody particular, “If it weren’t for my powers, Chuck wouldn’t have learned how to fly....wait...no, I saved Rina, and Joe got him to fly. Well, we would have crashed in the...hold on, Kyle saved us during the crash. I kept him from getting shrunk by China Doll! You know, assuming her powers would have worked on his energy form...” Unbeknownst to him, he was in a great position. Charles wishing someone good luck was like the Pope blessing someone after they sneezed, or Mephisto cursing someone to hell. You know, it’s just that much more powerful. All Harry knew was that he stubbed his toe on a really hard clump of rock he was kicking. He looked down, picked it up, brushed off the dirt, an pocketed the Soul Gem.

Rina and Spiral did their best to keep the robot at bay, but it kept moving along shifting through worlds where time and space had no meaning. A quick psi-jolt from Howard brought Charles barely back to the world of the thinking. “Quick, Chuck,” Cain pressed, “How do we beat this guy?”
“It’s pretty simple,” Charles worked up a weak smile. “We can’t.”
“What?!?” the other four voiced.
“Yeah, we’re pretty much screwed over,” Charles just shrugged as the robot sprouted an array of weapons and artillery that the Punisher would envy.
“Geez, I know how you got the codename, now,” Howard lit what he figured would be his last cigar.
“I am programmed to destroy.” The robot ‘spoke’ its first words since entering into the battle.
“Great,” a voice chimed from behind. “All you need now is one programmed to make a mess and one to fart, and you’ve got a whole team.” Everyone turned around to see Harry standing there, beaming in a beautiful light.
The next sound to emanate from the robot was a small chuckle which slowly grew into a loud guffaw as the robot began to double over in laughter. Imbued with a soul, it was subject to its first bout of humor since its creation, and it drank it in. In fact, it was so enraptured with Harry’s quip that it didn’t even notice Chuck sneaking around behind it and quickly yanking the Reality Gem out from the mess of wires and circuitry.
As the robot powered down, Mr. Negativity shifted back to his human form and affixed the Reality Gem to his forehead. He turned back toward his teammates, a new power and authority in his voice. “Okay, team, let’s fix this world.”

Chapter Forty-Six: Manifesting Destinies

The Scavenger
and
Goodwill
The End of the World As We Know It: Part II-6

“Oh Dear God in Heaven, what have we fucked up now?” Joe asked. He turned to CJ. “Are you somehow responsible for this, anomaly girl?” CJ held up her hands in protest.
“No, it wasn’t me- I swear! I mean, I think it wasn’t me.”
“Um, did you guys want to order?” the kid behind the counter asked.
“Butt out,” Joe insisted.
“This must be the Event I was sent back in time to stop!” CJ said. “This must be the warning I was meant to give you!”
“Okay, this whole thing has gone on long enough,” Joe said. “We need to talk, and we need to do it now.” He pulled the young girl by the arm into a nearby booth. “Now then,” he said as soon as they were both seated. “What’s this you keep babbling about the End of the World as We Know It or whatever?”
“Not the end of the whole world, Joe! Just your death! Maybe.”
“And you can explain this how?”
“Look, I know you don’t believe me, but I really am your daughter, and I really am from the future. And I’ve been sent back in time to keep one of you from dying. I don’t know for sure that it’s you, but I’m not going to take that chance.”
“Okay, for right now, let’s back it up. I’ll go ahead and believe that you’re from the future. But that you’re my daughter? How exactly does that work? I never really thought of myself as the daddy type, you know?”
“Yeah, I know. We’ve got ‘your type’ in the future, too, you know. No, actually I’ve been told that I’m the daughter of the impregnated clone of Kyle, inseminated by a clone of you, all courtesy of Mr. Sinister.” Joe shot Diet Coke out of his nose. Which was a good trick, considering he wasn’t even drinking Diet Coke.
“Say what?” Joe asked.
“You heard me,” CJ replied. “I’m biologically the daughter of you and Kyle, but I was raised by Chuck. And let me just say...” her voice softened for a second. “I’m glad I’ve gotten to meet my natural parents.” Then, she brought out the tough-girl act again. “That’s why I want you to be okay. And I want you to believe that your life is in danger.”
“Fine,” Joe replied. “But why don’t you think about it from my side? This isn’t even my home world, you know? And if Chuck makes it to the future, that tells me that we’re never going to leave! I’ve been a superhero since I landed in this fucking world, and my life is ALWAYS IN DANGER! So don’t tell me about the future, alright? I mean, what’s your big advice- ‘Try not to die’? Yeah, I’ll work on that!”
“Um, well... when you put it that way, it just sounds silly.”
“You think? And don’t even get me started on the whole time paradox/it’s going to happen anyway thing. It’s...” Joe’s voice trailed off as he looked at the gathering crowds. A whole mob, in fact, of angry-looking civilians was standing next to Joe and CJ’s booth.
“We heard about you on the radio,” the counterman said. “Don’t think we’re going to take too kindly to your evil alien plot to take over our world.” A few of the men beat their fists into their palms to illustrate the point.
“Look over there!” Joe shouted. The whole mob followed his finger. When they, as a unit, looked back, Joe and CJ were gone, escaped through the giant hole in the wall.

Out on the street, the situation wasn’t much better. Angry crowds were beginning to gather, though none were too anxious to attack once they saw Joe punch through the wall. Suddenly, from the sky dropped four armored figures- the Doomsquad.
“Oh, great!” the Scavenger said. “These guys again! Well, they won’t find the all-new, all-different Scavenger so easy to beat!”
“Especially with Goodwill at his side!” CJ and Joe jumped away from the Doomsquad’s strafing energy blasts.
“Goodwill?” Joe asked.
“Yeah- heroic ideals, lots of crap. It’s kind of like a pun.” Joe sniffled.
“You are my daughter!”
“Let’s waste these guys.”
As the Doomsquad swept back down for a second pass, Goodwill reached into the folds of her cape, and pulled loose a small baton. She waited until the lead attacker had swooped past again, then, with a flick of her wrist, shot a line of retractable cable from the end of the baton, which coiled around the Doomsman’s legs. CJ planted her feet, the cable snapped taut, and the Doomsman went zooming into the pavement. Goodwill’s wrist flicked again, and the cable went sliding back into its housing.
The moment the first of the Doomsquad dipped out of sight, the Scavenger went to work on the other three. Once, twice, three times, a beam of blue energy shot from his left hand. The boot jets of all three Doomsmen were clogged with ice, and the three dropped like stones to the ground. Somehow, the crowds seemed to back their would-be rulers, and booed at the sight of the Doomsquad falling. As the three remaining members of the Doomsquad struggled to their feet, the crowds surged forward. Suddenly, the sound of squealing tires drew everyone’s attention to an attractive young blonde in a cherry red sports car. The woman’s car roared into the center of the street, screeching to a halt next to the Scavenger and Goodwill.
“Get in,” she said. The heroes didn’t waste time arguing. Before the mob could react, the car was peeling away down the street. With their flight capabilities still hindered, the Doomsmen were unable to follow.
“That won’t keep them off our tails for long,” Joe said once the villains had vanished in the distance behind them. “But I sure do appreciate the save, Miss-“ He turned to see who had rescued him. His jaw dropped when he recognized her.
“Actually, it’s ‘Doctor,’” she said. “Dr. Stacy. I teach English at ESU. But you can call me Gwen.”
“That was incredible!” CJ said. “And very brave of you. Thank you.”
“Thank Doug,” Gwen replied, and for the first time, the Scavenger and Goodwill noticed the car’s fourth occupant, an unassuming young man in the back seat. “Meet Doug Ramsey, a very gifted student of mine with a knack for Linguistics. We were discussing his research project when we saw the trouble you were in. And Doug....”
“You were in trouble. Unfairly. Just because you’re different, those people assumed that you were evil. But we saw those guys shoot at you first- you’re good guys!”
“This is too weird,” said the Scavenger. “I mean, on our world...” He let the thought trail off without putting words to it. There was an awkward silence for a moment.
“We’re here,” said Gwen. The car was stopped in front of a beautiful townhouse in the middle of the city. “My apartment should hide you guys for a little while- at least long enough to get your bearings.”
“And we owe you our thanks again,” said the Scavenger. “I was beginning to think we didn’t have a friend in this world.” The group piled out of the car, and made their way in to Professor Stacy’s apartment. Gwen offered her guests a place to sit, and Joe took the opportunity to CESU back into street clothes. Gwen disappeared for a second to bring everyone drinks, and when she returned, she brought more news.
“It seems there are folks like you two cropping up all over the city,” she reported. “And they’re turning the place upside down. It’s a full-scale invasion from another world.”
“I don’t think so,” Joe said. “Not exactly. I’m getting some... feeling... about this mess from the bond Chuck and I have. If I’m putting it all together right, I think that this is still our world, or you know, the world we were in yesterday. But, Dr. Doom- a nasty villain- has gone back in time to prevent the Celestials from coming to Earth. No Celestials means no Seed, and that means no superpowers for anyone.”
“Except you?” Gwen asked.
“Well, I’m from another dimension all together.”
“I’m from another dimension,” said Doug and CJ.
“Cute,” said Joe. “ANYway, it stands to reason that I wouldn’t be affected. And, then, it follows that CJ would be spared, too.”
“So what are we going to do?” CJ asked.
“Well, we can’t go out on the streets, that’s for sure,” Joe answered. “In our costumes, the crowds naturally assume that we’re part of the ‘invasion force.’ So we’ll just have to discreetly round up any other superpowered folks we can find, and then make a run at the Latverian embassy. I’m sure that’s where Doom’s plan is headquartered.”
“How can we help?” Gwen asked.
“No offense,” Joe said, “But I’m not sure that you can. I mean, you kicked a lot of ass in the Age of Apocalypse, but that was a different kind of world all together.”
“That was a different kind of world,” said Gwen, Doug, and CJ.
“What if we had really powerful weapons?” Doug asked. “CJ, can you pull more things Gwen and I could use out of that cape of yours?”
“I’m not really sure,” CJ said. “Sometimes these things can be unstable. It’s worth a try, though.” She reached into her Negative Zone cape, and pulled out four glowing syringes.
“What are those?” Joe asked.
“I’m not sure,” CJ said. “I’ve never seen them before. But look- they’re marked with names. ‘Ben Brixton,’ ‘Sarah Bentley,’ ‘Dylan Bauman,’ and ‘Carlos Martinez.’”
“Those are the names of the four people Spiral kidnapped a while back!” Joe said with a start. “She took their Celestial Seeds. With those vials, we could give four people the ability to get superpowers!”
“So we just have to find those four people,” Doug said.
“No,” said Joe. “They’d just lose their powers as soon as they got them, what with Doom manipulating the world back at the dawn of time and all.”
“We need anomalies,” CJ said. “People who shouldn’t exist in this world at all, but do somehow anyway. People like...”
“Too freakin’ weird,” said Joe. “Of all the coincidences....”
“It’s us, isn’t it?” Gwen asked. “In your world, you were going to say earlier- we’re dead, aren’t we?”
“Yes,” said Joe. It sounded harsh, but it was beginning to look like the only way. Gwen pushed up her sleeve.
“Then stick me,” she said.
“We can’t be sure,” Joe said. “We don’t have any idea what’s going to happen. The conflicting DNA- it could kill you. Painfully.” Gwen swallowed hard.
“I didn’t get really serious about studying back in high school,” she said. “Not until this kid, this guy I sort of knew, named Peter Parker, died. He was shot. His uncle surprised a burglar. The man shot. Peter jumped in front of the bullet to save his uncle’s life. Peter taught me that even with no power at all must come great responsibility. Let’s do this.” CJ handed the vial to Gwen. Gwen inserted the needle into her forearm, and pressed the plunger.
She dropped to the floor, screaming in pain. Her body twisted and writhed, seemingly moving beneath her skin to its own accord. Then, there was silence from Gwen. A moment later, she stood up. She wasn’t Gwen anymore.
She was shorter now, certainly, and her hair wasn’t blonde anymore- now it was dark brown. Her build was a little plumper, her face more rounded. Joe was the only one who could possibly figure it out. After a few minutes of staring, he did.
“You’re not Gwen!” He said. Before anyone could stare at him, puzzled, Joe continued. “But you’re not Sarah Bentley, either. You’re sort of a mixture of the two. Both bodies, jammed together. Hello?” The new Gwen/Sarah spoke, as though unsure her voice would work.
“It’s me. Call me Sarah, call me Gwen. Either way, I remember... the injection. And I can feel it- the power’s here inside of me. I am... Dreamboat Annie!” Joe and CJ just looked at one another. Slowly, they turned to face Doug.
“Your turn.”
Doug’s transformation was a little less painful... to watch... since the heroes knew it would end successfully. When Doug stood up, a little taller and a little thicker thanks to Ben’s build, he flashed his sparking eyes and pronounced himself Electric Youth. Moments later, the walls of Gwen’s apartment came crashing down.
“Give yourselves up, freaks!” blared the synthesized voice of one of the three remaining Doomsquad agents. His hand-mounted photon cannon shot white-hot light at CJ, but a quick leap to one side spared her from frying. Doug/Ben and Gwen/Sarah didn’t waste any time putting their powers to work. Electricity sparked from Electric Youth’s eyes and hands, catching one of the Doomsmen in an arc of powerful energy, which blew every fuse in the villain’s super-powered armor. The other Doomsquad member simply howled in terror, and stripped the costume off of himself when Dreamboat Annie’s powers left him thinking that he was trapped inside the armored shell with small ants, rats, and other vermin. The last member of the Doomsquad, the one who’d initially fired on Goodwill, fell through Gwen’s floor when the Scavenger applied his fist to the top of the man’s head.
“Well, that was eventful,” said CJ.
“Looks like we’re going to have to move again,” said Electric Youth.
“Right. We’ve still got two vials to use up,” said Dreamboat Annie.
“And I think I know just the place to go,” said the Scavenger. His eyes were fixed on a copy of this world’s Daily Bugle. On the front page, a massive pavilion was being constructed for a special visit from the President of the United States. Joe thought once more about Doom’s plan, and realized that they were needed in Central Park just as soon as possible.

It hadn’t taken Goodwill long at all to realize that since one of the Doomsmen took his armor off willingly, the heroes would be able to scavenge his boot-jets for their own purposes. With those jets strapped over top of his disco skates, then one hero in each hand and Goodwill on his back, the Scavenger was able to slowly but surely fly the party over the angry mobs and crowds, toward the pavilion in Central Park where the President was preparing to speak. It wasn’t very sleek, and it looked awfully shaky, but it was manageable, and would get the four heroes to the park faster than any other means at their disposal. The crowds shouted in panic and rage as they set down in the park, but the makeshift heroes wouldn’t be daunted. No one approached them. Several Secret Service agents pushed the President to safety behind his podium, and opened fire on the team. The Scavenger made no move to block the Secret Service agents, and laughed as their guns wilted as very large, ineffectual condoms. When the shock began to wear off, the Scavenger raised his voice over the din, and shouted.
“We are on your side! Mr. President, members of the invasion force are on their way here now, and we want only to help keep you safe. Will you please meet with us?” The crowd silenced itself, and after a long pause, the President picked himself up from behind the podium, and, with a wave of his hand, summoned the group to the front.
“I was a hero once myself, you know,” said the President. “I served in W-W-I-I. Lied about my age. President James Buchannan Barnes.” He held out a hand, which the Scavenger happily took. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“And an honor to meet you, sir,” the Scavenger replied. “My nom de guerre is the Scavenger, and this is Goodwill, Dreamboat Annie, and Electric Youth. We...” Any other introductions were lost, as the crowd once more began screaming in panic. From the skies dropped a brand new Doomsquad, a battalion of twenty troops in jetpacks and rifles, a massive eight-foot-tall robot with glowing red eyes, and not one, but five personages of the royal Dr. Doom. Fire and light scorched the earth all around, scattering people this way and that. Secret Service men, now weaponless, dropped left and right, shot through the head or chest by the weapons of Doom’s Guard. And then suddenly, the shooting stopped.
“Now, Mr. President,” said all five Dooms at once. “Surrender your country to the will of Dr. Doom, or your own life will be forfeit as well.”
“I’ll never turn the country over to a tyrant like you!” President Barnes roared.
“Electric Youth, you take the troops,” said the Scavenger. “Annie, the new Doomsquad’s yours. CJ, see what you can do about that big robot. I’m going after Doom. Watch each other’s backs, help out when you can, and remember that we don’t have to win right away, as long as we can keep from losing. Above all, keep an eye on the President. Let’s go!” He lead the way for his team, charging into battle.
His legs pumped with the strength of all Asgard as the Scavenger leapt into the air. He hurled his Wonder Glove with all the force he could muster, jamming it first into and then through the face plate of the nearest Doctor Doom. The Doombot’s interior circuits fell apart at once, and the robot dropped lifeless to the ground. The four remaining Doombots hummed as their on-board forcefields popped into life, and the Scavenger knew he wouldn’t be able to repeat that trick again.
Electric Youth raised both hands, and summoned two powerful bolts of thick lightning to tear through the front line of flying soldiers. Jetpacks malfunctioned left and right, and at least eight soldiers fell unconscious to the ground. The second wave of soldiers aimed their guns at this new threat, and fired as a unit. Electric Youth, taking a tip from the nearby Doombots, pushed the electricity out of his body into a wide arc, and beamed when the oncoming lasers splashed harmlessly off the electric field. Meanwhile, Dreamboat Annie sought cover, then tried to use her vermin trick on the nearest of the Doomsman. This guard was just a little bit braver, and tried swatting away the rats with a thick metal fist. When that same fist passed harmlessly through the rats, the guard began to get suspicious. Annie quickly faded the illusion away before she wasted all of her tricks on a man who wouldn’t buy them anyway.
“An illusionist!” the Doomsman said. “Though not a very good one!” That was all the inspiration Annie needed. She placed an image of herself over another of the Guardsman, but let it seem faded and dull. As the Doomsman she hadn’t yet tricked watched, Annie darkened the image and faded out the Doomsman, making it seem as though she herself were just popping into view. Convinced he couldn’t be fooled, the Doosman fired on his own teammate, dropping his partner with a point-blank plasma blast.
“That’s one,” Annie told herself.
Several shots from Goodwill’s laser pistol didn’t do much to improve their robot attacker’s mood. Unfortunately, they did no damage at all. The robot swatted at Goodwill again with his enlarged fist. Goodwill backpedaled far enough away from the robot that his fist struck only a glancing blow. Still, a glancing blow was enough to send her spinning back into Dreamboat Annie, just before the young illusionist could prepare another trick. The two women fell together in a heap.
“Annie and CJ are down!” the Scavenger shouted, skating away from his battle long enough to defend the two behind a Wonder-Glove forcefield.
“And I’m running out of juice!” Electric Youth replied, zapping a few more troops with his dwindling energies. “I think I need to recharge before I’m good for more zaps; that forcefield bit took a lot out of me!” As he spoke, Electric Youth inched closer to where the Scavenger protected the bodies of his fallen allies. Suddenly, to the horror of both men, a bolt of searing energy burst from the eyes of Doom’s enormous robot, engulfing the President in a blaze of fire. Jim Wilson screamed, and ran to his president’s side. The robot nonchalantly swatted the young man aside, knocking him next to Electric Youth, Dreamboat Annie, Goodwill, and the Scavenger. From all sides, Doom’s troops closed in for the kill.
“Jim!” the Scavenger yelled, picking up the two syringes from where they’d fallen, “We can save him! The President isn’t dead yet! I’m sorry, Jim, but we’re going to need your help!” Before the young aide could react, the Scavenger plunged the needle into Jim Wilson’s arm. Jim howled in pain, and kept howling even as the sound stretched into something inhuman... something animal. The Scavenger pressed the needle into the Deaf Leopard’s hand. “We need your agility to reach him, Jim.”
“What?” Carlos asked.
“Nevermind.” As shots rebounded on all sides of him, the Deaf Leopard wove his way in and out of Doom’s troopers, minions, and simulacra, stopping only when he arrived at the side of the dying President. He stabbed the needle into the President’s chest, pressed the plunger, and prayed. Moments later, the Rock stood shakily by the Deaf Leopard’s side. They were quickly joined by their remaining four allies, blocking incoming attacks and returning fire as best they could manage.
“Well, I suppose the President’s as saved as he going to get,” the Scavenger remarked. “And we’re getting our asses kicked. If anyone’s got any ideas, now’s the time for them.”
“I’ve just got the one idea,” Goodwill offered, showing the Scavenger the red and yellow matched pair of lightning bolts she’d pulled from her cape.
“Use ‘em,” the Scavenger ordered. Goodwill threw the lightning bolts onto the ground in front of the party, and- in a flash!- they vanished.

“Well, that was embarassing,” Joe noted a few minutes later in the safety of a nearby home, deserted by its owners at least for the time being.
“We’re all new at this,” Dreamboat Annie offered.
“And we were completely unprepared,” Goodwill suggested.
“Plus- hello!- it was Dr. Doom!” Electric Youth excalimed, exasperated. “We’re not exactly designed to be superheroes, let alone heroes who fight Dr. Doom.”
“No,” Joe said, shaking his head. “No, you’re wrong there. I watched eight brave souls sacrifice a part of themselves today to try to keep a bad man from doing a terrible thing. Everyone in this room is a hero. And you know what else? We’re not done yet. Doom took a wonderful, beautiful world- a world where people can fly- and he twisted it. He turned into a world where people only dream about that kind of magic. I love my home world, but to do that to the Marvel Universe- it’s not right. Doom turned this world all wrong, and we’re going to have our revenge. They’re gone now, but we’ll replace them. From now on- we’re the Avengers!”

Chapter Forty-Five: All-New, All-Different

Mr. Negativity
and
Haywire
featuring Timeslip
The End of the World As We Know It: Part II-5

Charles had hoped the flight back to New York would clear his head. It wasn’t working. Immediately after his battle with Deadpool and the Dark Riders concluded, Charles had felt the whole world blink out of and back into being. It had taken Deadpool and the Dark Riders with it, and Charles knew that he was back in his own home dimension- or one very much like it. Worse still, the psychic bond he ordinarily shared with Joe had- well, not so much vanished as gone on vacation. The phone line to Joe’s brain was nothing but static. Charles chalked that up to cosmic interference. Still, he’d really wanted to find someone to compare notes with. The plan had been to meet back at Liberty Island once everything was settled. Charles hoped that Joe and Kyle had the presence of mind and presence of reality to stick with that plan.
As Charles flew in to New York, however, he saw something that made him toss that plan out the window. The long spire atop the Empire State Building was coated in gooey webbing very much like Spider-Man’s. Chuck knew that Spider-Man wasn’t the culprit in this case, however, and even as he turned his course toward the Empire State Building, he counted among his blessings the reunion he knew was about to occur. Sure enough, as he landed on the Empire State Building’s roof, he waved at the two familiar friends he saw standing there.
“Hey Rina, hey Milo. I got your page. What’s up?”
“Charles, is that you?” Harry asked. “Oh my God I’m glad you’re here. Things... aren’t good.”
“This- thing- is a friend of yours?” Rina asked. She stared at Charles with a look that perfectly blended horror and disgust. At that reaction, Charles began to notice a few other differences in this new Rina. Her posture, body language, hair style, and clothing- all were just a little bit off-center for the Rina he remembered. It was like he was looking at a very clever impostor, though something fundamental about this Rina rang true. For the sake of his friends, Charles shifted back into his human form.
“Huh. Didn’t know you could do that, either,” Harry said.
“Yeah, neither did I,” said Charles. “Until we went to Asia. Kind of a long story.”
“I’m sure. It seems like we’ve got a lot of catching up to do, but I’m not sure now’s the best time. Something’s really wrong with Rina, and I don’t think she’s the only one.”
“No, I don’t think so, either. But I just got back into the city right now. I was in a battle with some superpowered bad guys, and just as soon as I beat them, they vanished. Now the whole world feels a little... funny. Does that make any sense?”
“None of this makes any sense,” Rina interjected. “I thought Crazy One here was just some whacked-out pervert when he said we were living together, then he did that thing with the wire. Then you come in, flying out of nowhere, glowing or whatever! If this is a practical joke, it’s way too twisted to imagine.”
“It’s not a joke,” Harry said. “And Chuck, she’s not messing with you, either. Rina had another one of her visions not long ago, and said that we’d better high-tail it back to New York, because some major cosmic mess was about to come down on us. Then all of a sudden, her wardrobe changed, and she started insisting we’d never met, that she wasn’t a mutant or a superhero, and that furthermore, the only people with powers of any kind were in movies and comic books.”
“It’s like the Marvel Universe has become an analogue of my home dimension,” Charles said. “I made it through okay, though, and so did you, though I’m not entirely sure why. I can only guess that Joe and Kyle did, too, but with our psychic bond on the fritz, I don’t think we should waste a lot of time trying to track them down. The Dark Riders said that the X-Men are under siege, and I know that the Twelve are destined to change the world, so I’d suggest heading over to the X-Mansion to see if anyone there still has powers. If Xavier does, he should be able to pull Rina’s memories from out of her mind, I think. That’s where our best chance lies, anyway. And hey- what’s the use of belonging to a major superhero team if you can’t call on your allies for back-up every now and then?”
“Let’s not forget, I sort of have an ‘in’ with the Avengers,” Harry noted. “They’re pretty good at this cosmic menace stuff, too. But we can always try them next. If you think this Xavier guy is the one who can best help Rina, I’m all for that.”
“And let’s not keep talking about Rina like she’s not here, if you don’t mind,” Rina herself pouted. “I’ll follow you guys out to these ‘X-Men’ for now, but only because I’m as confused as you seem to think you should be.” She crossed her arms in front of her. “But the second you try anything crazy...” Neither man seemed to mind that Rina couldn’t finish her threat. Charles shifted back to his Mr. Negativity form and, as soon as Rina was comfortable with the idea, he picked up his two erstwhile teammates, and lifted off into the sky.

The moment Charles, Harry, and Rina landed on the grounds of the Xavier estate, two men came jogging out to meet them. As the two men got closer, Charles realized that one of them was Xavier himself. That’s when he knew for sure that something was wrong with the world.
“Isn’t that guy supposed to be in a wheelchair?” Harry asked.
“Yes,” Charles said. He quickly transformed back into his human state, but he wasn’t quite fast enough. Xavier saw him. Moments later, the bald man and his companion had stopped in front of the three friends. Both were sweating from their morning jog. Xavier was also breathing heavily, but the other man, a strongly-built red-haired jock, seemed unaffected by the exercise.
“It’s true!” Xavier shouted. Then, he doubled over gasping for breath. After a moment, he sputtered out, “I always knew I was right.” He panted and wheezed a few more times. The man with him put his hands on Xavier’s shoulders.
“Easy, Charles. You know you’re not entirely recovered yet.” Xavier brushed the big man away. The man turned to greet their guests. He put out a hand, which Harry quickly took.
“Harry Danforth,” Haywire said. He shook their host’s hand.
“Cain Marko,” the man said. “This is my brother, Charles Xavier. And if we both saw what we think we saw, he’s very happy to have you here. But his health isn’t what it used to be, so I suggest we all continue this discussion in the mansion.” Harry looked at Rina looked at Charles looked at Harry. The three of them nodded, and the party made its way into the mansion.

When the mansion, its two primary occupants, and its three guests were all happily ensconced in one of the sitting rooms, and Charles Xavier was comfortably in place in a large easy chair, it was Cain Marko who first spoke.
“It’s clear from the looks on your faces that at least one of you seems to recognize me. That’s fine, but I’m going to tell you right now that I don’t want to hear a word about it. You seem to pretty well back up my step-brother’s theories, and as I see it, whichever guy you think you know is me probably isn’t me. Is that clear?”
“No!” said Rina. “What are you, crazy? Not one thing has made sense since... since...”
“You don’t exactly remember, do you, Rina?” Harry asked. “You can’t quite be sure, can you?”
“Not exactly,” she admitted. “But that doesn’t mean anything. That could be you, messing with me.”
“Or it could be reality,” Harry insisted, “Making you take a look around you and get a clue!”
“Whatever it may be,” Xavier interrupted, “Arguing about it now is pointless. Young lady, if these men insist that they know you, I think you should trust their word... at least to a certain degree. You see, I’ve devoted my life to the study of paranormal beings, and I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that there exist parallel worlds to our own, where the smallest decision could bring about massive change. I believe that these young men are travelers from one such world.”
“Actually,” Charles said. “We’re each travelers from different parallel worlds. But that’s got nothing to do with anything right now. Because we haven’t traveled between worlds. I mean not recently. This is our world, or at least the one we were all in an hour ago, and we’re still in it, only now everything’s different. Which means time travel, I guess. Yes. Definitely time travel. And if you’re around in this world, but not telepathic, then someone’s managed to time travel to eliminate all mutants from the world.”
“Which would explain why Rina doesn’t remember me,” Harry said. “She’s been altered, too.”
“And we haven’t,” Charles said.
“Because we’re from alternate dimensions!” Harry realized. “Something’s happened to get rid of all the superpowered people on this world, but even a rewrite of that size can’t eliminate the fact that we came here, and we’ve got superpowers!”
“Which means there could be more of you, right?” Cain asked.
“I guess,” Charles said. “But if there were, why have you never heard of superpowered folks until just now?”
“Assuming that our world is just an altered version of your own,” Xavier replied, “I’d say that whatever changed it happened only recently. You were entirely unaffected, so you’ve just arrived here, retroactively. More of you should be turning up even now, all over the world.”
“This time travel stuff gives me a headache,” Rina said.
“Just wait,” said Harry.
“I’ve been working on something I think will help,” Xavier said. “Come with me.” He lead Cain, Charles, Harry, and Rina into the next room, where a familiar looking chair-and-helmet apparatus was poised in mid-assembly.
“Oh my God!” said Charles. “It’s Cerebro.” He turned to explain to Rina and Harry as Xavier strapped himself into the mechanism.
“Cerebro is a device which amplifies the Professor’s telepathic abilities to ‘tune in’ to the mental frequencies of other mutants.” Harry looked intrigued. Rina looked confused. Xavier and Cain look entertained.
“No, silly,” said Xavier. “This is just a ham radio. I modified it to get great reception, and the sound quality inside this helmet is unbelievable. I’ve tuned it to the local news... Got something! It seems another odd personality has turned up downtown. Cain, you’d better go with Charles and Harry- this isn’t their world. I’ll stay here with Miss Patel, and perhaps we can make her a little more comfortable with this strange new world she’s been pulled into.”
“Right,” said Cain. “We’ll take the limo. Boys, come with me- we’ve got more mutants to round up.”

Cain drove, and Charles and Harry rode in the back of the Xavier estate’s private limousine. They were at the attack site in fifteen minutes. As Charles and Harry watched from behind the limo’s tinted glass, a gathering mob pressed against the walls of a rickety shack. It seemed the building itself would collapse any moment. Charles and Harry moved into action. Haywire stepped out of the car, spraying his psychic cables left and right. At the same time, Mr. Negativity flew from the sun roof, drawing gasps and screams from members of the crowd.
“It’s them!” someone shouted. “More of the aliens!”
“Look out, fellas!” Cain yelled from inside the car. “They’ve gone crazy!” A crowd of people rushed toward the limousine. Haywire’s powers worked overtime, filling in spaces everywhere with his thick, coarse wire, building a fence from his own mind. Mr. Negativity lifted himself over the fence, and flew toward the ramshackle building. He burst through a dusty window, and there, curled into a fetal position on the floor, was the cause of all this fuss.
“Please help me,” choked Spiral. Mr. Negativity frowned. He thought for a moment, then made up his mind. He scooped Spiral up into his arms, and carried her back toward the limousine. As soon as he’d dropped her through the sun roof of the car, and gestured for Haywire to get back inside, Mr. Negativity lifted the whole car off the ground, and carried it further away from town, to an undisturbed rooftop where the heroes could speak with the woman they rescued.

“And yet you find their story completely implausible, don’t you?” Xavier asked.
“Strangely, Professor... no,” Rina admitted. “It’s like there’s this part of me, this nagging little bit at the back of my mind that tells me that they’re right. That their world is the right one, and that this is all a lie.”
“You know, they claim that in their world, you have tremendous time-altering powers. Do you believe that to be the case?”
“Oh, it’s definitely part-and-parcel of the story. I mean, I’m not sure I believe this whole other-dimension story, but they do have powers, and if I end up buying into their time travel theory, I’ll take my own powers, too.”
“Fair enough,” the Professor said. “But what if they are right, and telling you the truth. If time is somehow out of synch in our world, mightn’t your latent time powers be what’s telling you that this world is wrong?” Rina rubbed her temples.
“Oooh, too much,” she said. “This Back to the Future bullshit is giving me a headache.”
“Relax,” Xavier said. “Let your body go limp. Right now, we’re only concerned with your mind. Your body is getting very drowsy. Your feet have become anchored to the floor...” Professor Xavier continued to drone on, lowering Rina further and further into a hypnotic trance.
Suddenly, Rina’s eyes popped open. “Professor!” she cried. “I remember! There was another world.. not yours and mine, not Chuck’s or Harry’s, but another one! A time, out of time, out of time! And a woman- a... green... woman. She told me that I would have to fix it! That I would have to make everything right! And she gave me... She gave me... She gave...” Rina opened her eyes in amazement. “It’s all true,” she said. And then, she fainted.

“You can feel it, too, can’t you?” Spiral said. She’d nearly worked up the strength to stand to her feet, and managed now by leaning against the car. “You two survived the switch because you’re not from this world,” Spiral said, nodding. “I was in Nexus Dimension- the realm between mine and this one- when the Event took place. I made it here, but I was so weak. I couldn’t stop them from attacking. My magick- it’s still coming back to me.”
“What were you doing here?” Charles asked. Spiral laughed. “An excellent question for both of you to ask me. The last time we encountered one another, I was working on the side of the angels, believe it or not. You see, some time ago, an alternate version of me came crashing into my lab. She, the other me, called herself the Traveler, because she came from a world where only she could move in and out of New York City.”
“Huh?” asked Haywire.
“She was a hero in that world,” Spiral continued. “And the two of you both were among its most evil oppressors. All lead by the wicked hand of-“ Spiral shuddered as she said his name. “Kyle.” Charles and Harry began laughing. Hysterically.
“It’s not funny!” Spiral warned. “In this world, he was all powerful, and all evil. Already, he had destroyed everyone he could by burning them alive from the inside out- poisoning their Celestial seed.” At Cain’s puzzled look, Spiral elaborated. “The Celestial seed is what separates this new world from its correct destiny. The Celestial seed is the potential for greatness which is locked inside everyone. That’s why I captured four young people, Mr. Negativity and Haywire. I needed to “borrow” their Celestial seeds. The plan was to take those seeds back to my counterpart’s world, where four people without names- four who never achieved that potential in our world- could use their powers to defend their world. Alas, that world has since been destroyed, and everyone on it is gone. I came to return those Celestial seeds.”
“But wait!” Charles said. “We could use them, couldn’t we? What if we gave those seeds back to those same young people? Wouldn’t they be able to use their powers then?”
“No,” Spiral said. “As soon as those same people got their Celestial seeds back, the power of Doom’s retroactively chronology would take them away again. But, if we could give those seeds to four people who never existed in Doom’s world...”
“There’d be no one to be affected!” Haywire cried. “We could make our own new superheroes!”
“Exactly!” Spiral said. She reached into her pouch. Charles, Harry, and Cain waited with bated breath as Spiral continued digging in her purse. Finally she stopped. “They’re gone,” she said. “I must have lost them between dimensions. There’s no way to get them back now.” All four heads hung in despair.
“But hey!” Charles said. “We can’t give up now! We’ve still got powers, the three of us. And Joe’s somewhere on this world, too. Which means Kyle’s probably still got his powers. Plus, this used to be the Marvel Universe. Surely there’s at least one other person on this whole planet who came from another dimension, right?”
“There is one other I am aware of,” said Spiral. “I think my magicks have recovered enough for a simple jaunt across the United States.”
“Across the United States?” Cain asked. “Where are we going?”
“San Francisco,” said Spiral. She danced her danced, and then, with a whirl, the limousine and its occupants vanished.
“Here we are,” she said, a moment later.
“Oh my God!” said Cain.
“Who?” asked Harry.
“Oh Dear Lord, not him,” said Charles.
“Waugh!” said their soon-to-be ally.

When Rina came to, she was lying on the floor, cradled in Charles Xavier’s lap.
“Rina, are you okay?” He was shaking her gently, trying to wake her. “Rina, are you alright?”
“I’m okay,” she whispered. “I’ll be fine. It’s just all so- AAAH!” Rina screamed as the wall of the Xavier estate broke down and the imposing form of Dr. Doom entered the building. He raised a gauntleted hand, and fired a bolt of energy down at the young girl. Charles threw his body in front of the blast. Rina screamed, and felt Xavier’s body jerk next to her own. Doom took another step into the room, and laughed. The life was spilling out of Xavier’s body, and Rina knew she was next. Doom’s power bolts fired again, and this time made their way straight toward the young girl. There was no time for Rina to jump out of the way. And then, there was no time at all. The bolts were frozen in mid-air, and Rina snapped. She snatched the lamp from the end table near her, and ran at Dr. Doom, who was stand stock-still in the center of the room. The lamp fell against Doom’s face mask, then came crashing down again, and again, and again. The mask fell away, revealing a mass of twisted and distorted wires. Motion came back into the room, the bolt slammed into the wall, Doom raised his arms, and Rina jammed the lamp into the mass of wires that was Doom’s head. The Doombot exploded, throwing Rina across the room to slam roughly into the wall. She dropped to the floor, and didn’t move.

“What the hell is wrong with the world?” cried Howard the Duck. “Last thing I know, I’m back in my old apartment, looking to hook up with the old gang, when all of a sudden BAM! The old gang thinks a duck man is a big freak of nature or something! What’s with the world these days?”
“Dr. Doom has sent a machine back in time to keep the Celestials from implanting their seed in our world, rendering it virtually uninteresting,” said Charles.
“That was my second guess,” said Howard. “Whatever it is, it sucks.”
“Yeah, you should try living there full-time.”
“Get in the car,” said Cain, trying to disguise his surprise. “We’ve got to get back to the mansion to regroup.”
“X-Mansion?” Spiral asked. Haywire nodded.
“I’ve been there,” said Howard.
“Yeah, me too,” said Spiral. She danced, and the car vanished again.

When the car reappeared, it was parked in the garage where it belonged. When Spiral, Charles, Cain, Howard, and Harry reappeared, they were standing in the middle of the Xavier Estate’s living room. Rina was on her knees in the living room, cradling Xavier’s unmoving body in her arms. Tears were pouring down her face. She was shaking her head from side to side, and mumbling, “None of it right... so wrong... my head, killing me... it’s all wrong!”
“Not now, Rina,” roared Cain. He pushed her aside, and held his stepbrother’s body in his arms. “We don’t have time for your stupid games! Can’t you see that Charles is dead?” Cain set the body down against the ground, and stood up. “Charles is dead,” he said. “But his dream will never die. We, the six of us, are this world’s last best hope. And together, we’re going to make this Doctor Doom fellow pay!”
“Yeah, sounds like fun,” said Howard, chomping on his cigar.
“We can do it,” said Chuck. “Together. As... the X-Men!”
Spiral rolled her eyes. “Surely,” she said, “you must be joking.”
“Oh, I’m not joking,” Charles said.
“Yeah,” Howard put in. “And don’t call him ‘Shirley.’”

Chapter Forty-Four: Sowing the Seeds of Doom

No Powers Boy
and
Elyk/Agent Ryker
The End of the World As We Know It: Part II-4

When Kyle awoke, he was staring at the four stone walls of Dr. Doom’s dungeon. After a moment’s reflection, he decided he liked being there now even less than he had the first time he was locked in Doom’s dungeon. Back and forth, Kyle paced. He tried to trace back the last thing he remembered. He, Joe, and Charles had been in battle with Graviton. Then something else happened. And something else, but he wasn’t sure what. That had been, what- yesterday? The day before? And then Doombots came, to catch him. And that girl had been there. CJ. When had she entered the picture? How could he know her name? Kyle clutched the sides of his head. It hurt to think. It hurt so much! But he had to think, or he would never make it out of Doom’s dungeon. Who knows what sort of terrible fate awaited he and the other Supercools? Rina must be somewhere here, too. For her sake, he would try. He sat down in a corner of his cell to try to reason a way out.
And then, he heard the large metal door at the end of the hallway creak open. He ran to the small window set in his iron door, and peered down the corridor. The man Kyle didn’t recognize in the black-and-orange costume was carrying another prisoner into the cell opposite his. As the man in black passed by, Kyle got a good look at his fellow prisoner. It was Kyle Reeser.
“There can not be two of me,” Kyle said aloud to himself as soon as the man in the costume had left. His alternate-reality evil-duplicate’s clone’s twin or whoever was still passed out. “That is clearly a fake me. Maybe a Captain Universe or Phoenix Force clone of me? Yes! That must be it! So if I can wake that other me up, we’ll both be able to escape using its incredible powers!” Kyle began rattling the bars of his cage. “Other Kyle! Other Kyle, wake up! Other Kyle!” Eventually, Other Kyle began to stir. Finally, he sat up. And then, he made his way to the window of his cell. The two young men stared at one another from opposite ends of Doom’s dungeon.
“You’re me!” Other Kyle said.
“No, you’re me,” Kyle said. “That’s why I’ve been calling you ‘Other Kyle.’ Because you’re my evil clone from an alternate dimension.”
“Impossible!” Other Kyle said. “If you were really me, you’d have my powers, and since I can see your powers with my powers and see that you don’t have my powers, you obviously can’t be me.”
“A-ha!” Kyle said. “I don’t have any powers!”
“Exactly!” Other Kyle said.
“Exactly!” said Kyle. “So you can’t see my powers with your powers, because if you have powers, you’re clearly NOT ME!”
“But that’s because you’re NOT KYLE,” Other Kyle said.
“If I’m not Kyle,” said Kyle. “Then just who exactly am I?”
“Well, you’re clearly a shapeshifter. Skrull?” Other Kyle asked. And suddenly, it was all very clear.
Memories came flooding back into Kyle’s head. He wasn’t Kyle at all, was he? He remembered it all so clearly now- his name was Leslie Eric Ryker, and he was born in the mountains of West Virginia. When he was eight years old, Les’ mutant power had surfaced after a schoolyard fight with a nasty bully. After a particularly well-placed punch knocked his nose out of alignment, Les slid it right back into place, already expressing his someday very advanced shapeshifting powers. At ten years old, Les was pulled away from his somewhat relieved hillbilly parents, and sent to be raised as an agent-in-training for the federal government’s S.H.I.E.L.D. program. He was deep cover all the way, taking on undercover assignments no costume-detection methods could crack. He was foolproof. Then, Skrull agents managed to shape-shift their way into America’s government, and S.H.I.E.L.D. decided it was time to fight back. Les was brainwashed to believe that he was a genuine Skrull, captured by the American government and stripped of his memories. After a convenient “escape,” “Elyk” was welcomed back to Skrullworld with open arms. His superiors decided to give him another chance, and brainwashed Elyk into believing he was an Earthman named Kyle. Two sets of implanted memories later, Les joined the Supercools, reverted to Elyk, reverted to Les, reverted to Kyle, and was finally, in Dr. Doom’s dank dungeon, putting the pieces back together again in his brain. To Kyle- the real Kyle- it just looked like he was flipping out.
“Hey, Other Kyle!” Kyle called. “Are you going to be alright?”
“Fine,” the former Kyle said. He closed his eyes, remembered what he was supposed to look like, and morphed back into Agent Ryker’s body.
“Ryker!” Kyle shouted.
“Yes, it’s me,” Ryker said. “No need to shout.”
“Sorry,” Kyle said. “But how did you get here? Why did you look like me? And what’s going on?”
“And why, if they never close, are there locks on the doors at Denny’s?” Ryker asked.
“Ooh, that’s another good one,” Kyle admitted.
“Sorry,” Ryker said. “That’s all very complicated. And right now, we really just need to focus on getting out of here.” He paused once more as the door at the end of the hall opened again. The man in the black-and-orange was back again, this time hauling a scrawny, unassuming blond kid with him. Ryker jammed his finger into the keyhole of his cell, and manually pushed each of the tumblers back into place. The door swung open, catching the villain in the side of the head. Kyle, from in his cell, contributed his own power, blocking whatever counterattack their captor might have planned. Ryker morphed his arms into thicker, stronger limbs, and beat the villain to the ground with them. Meanwhile, the other young man had pulled himself and an iron key ring free from the villain, and was in the process of letting Kyle go. Each young man finished his appointed task at the same time, and the three of them ran together for the heavy door at the end of the corridor. Just as they neared it, two more figures appeared in from the hallway beyond. Speed Demon’s whole body vibrated as he laughed. Captain America’s shield, clutched firmly in the villain’s hands, was a nearly unrecognizable blur of movement.
“Just where the hell do you think you’re going?” Titania asked.
“Oh damn,” the three men chorused.

“There are still far too many anomalies unaccounted for,” Doom said. “Release the Doomsquad.” One of the mad dictator’s faithful lackies scurried to unleash a fleet of armored thugs on the unsuspecting world. ”And while you’re at it, send a unit of Doombots to my assigned hot zones.”
“But boss!” Oddball exclaimed. “Won’t the armors and robots just stop working like everything else?”
“No, fool. They originated here, within my safety zone. You, they, and all other things which were present in my Embassy at the moment I activated the Doom Machine were spared its effects.” Doom pulled a satin cord, and the draperies comprising one wall fell away. Behind it, a twenty-foot spire reached toward the sky, crackling with energy. Any attempt to touch the device at work would doubtless be blocked by the column of translucent white energy surrounding it on all sides. “In all other ways, this world should be completely reset- except the puzzling little anomaly I just sent downstairs with Arsenal.”
“Perhaps his proximity to the safety zone at the time you activated-“ Thunderball began. Doom’s synthesized voice cut him off quickly.
“Of course I’ve already surmised that, dolt! I merely want to run a few tests to check that logical hypothesis. Then he, and both Kyle Reesers can be destroyed.”
“Lord Doom,” Thunderball said with a bow.

“Do you honestly think the three of you can escape this embassy alone?” Titania said with a laugh. “You’ve got no clue how many villains there are wandering these halls, do you? Trust me, you’ll never get out of here.” Her massive fist shot out, catching Speed Demon in the chin and knocking him against the far wall of one of the open cells. “At least, not without me you won’t.” Before anyone could ask, Titania explained, “Somehow you guys are important to Doom’s big plan. But if I’ve got to choose between Doom’s big plan and my husband, you guys are just going to have to help me put a stop to it.” She paused for a second.
“My name’s Titania, by the way. And I figure there’s no one here I can’t beat, so long as they don’t get to gang up on me.”
“I can help with that,” Kyle said. “I’m No Powers Boy.”
“And you can call me Doppleganger,” said Ryker. “That was my S.H.I.E.L.D. codename. We can use it until I think of something cool.”
“I don’t really have a fancy name like that,” the young man said. “The only name I’ve got is Steve. Steve Rogers.”
“You’re-“ Kyle began. He caught himself. “No, no you’re not. Something else to work on later.” He picked the shield up from the floor where Speed Demon dropped it, and handed it to Steve. “Use this to defend yourself,” he said. “You’ll catch on before too long.” At the same time, Ryker was closing the cell that now contained the Speed Demon. He looked once at Kyle, once each at their new allies, and the foursome made their way up the stone stairs to the rest of the Embassy, and the exit beyond.

For a minute, it almost seemed they’d make it all the way out without resistance. Of course, that wasn’t going to happen. Titania had only been in the Latverian Embassy for a matter of hours, and her sense of direction wasn’t infallible. At the top of the stairs headed up from the second subbasement, she turned by mistake into one of the Embassy’s kitchens. There, helping themselves to a quick bite to eat, was the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes.
Both parties stopped in mid-step or mid-bite and stared at their opponents. Then, the baboon munching on a sandwich from the countertop acted. He leapt from his perch, shifting in mid-air to become a thick burlap sack, which tangled itself around Kyle’s head, and began constricting. The seal from the monkey’s skin was so thick, no light could penetrate, effectively blinding Kyle. He knew his attacker was right ahead of him, but without visual contact, he could do nothing to break the animal free. At the same time, the attack was tight enough to cut off most of his windpipe. Kyle was being choked to death by a burlap monkey.
Seconds after the baboon’s attack, the other attackers launched at one another, too. Titania’s powerful legs lifted her off the ground and toward the man at the kitchen table. Moments before she connected, the man dropped out of phase, and Titania crashed into the tile floor. Ryker’s fists doubled in size and swung toward the nearest opponent- an orangutan- but a seemingly knowing blink from the monkey sent the agent flying back against the wall. Left with only a single opponent, the gorilla in the corner went screaming at young Stevie Rogers. The youth pulled the big red shield up to block the oncoming attack, and the gorilla’s fist pounded against it instead of Steve’s chest. Most of the impact was absorbed by the Vibranium, but without Captain America’s muscles to back it up, Steve was knocked back out of the kitchen by the force of the blow.
Titania picked herself off the floor and swung again at the Red Ghost. Her attack was no more effective this time than it had been the last. Kragoff laughed as the musclewoman’s punches slipped right through his body.
“We owe Doom our lives for correcting the genetic degeneration we’d undergone. Crushing you for him will be our pleasure.”
Meanwhile, Titania’s comrades were faring no better. Kyle had dropped to his knees now, and was still struggling to take in air. Agent Ryker, pinned against the wall, could do nothing but watch as a massive, super-strong gorilla chased young Steve Rogers around the kitchen, gaining more ground with every second.
“Swush Pah-Nahs!” Kyle screamed from beneath burlap monkey. Even as he did so, the strategy was coming into play. Steve, more concerned with watching his opponent than watching where he was going, ran smack into Titania. The giant gorilla pressed its attack, but the amazonian villainess wouldn’t have it. With a backhanded THWACK!, she sent the gorilla flying through a wall into the sitting room beyond. The Red Ghost could only gasp in anger as Steve scrambled to pull the baboon off of Kyle. He only succeeded a little bit, but that little bit was enough to let in the air and light No Powers Boy needed to transform the baboon back into a harmless pet. Then, since relatively human thought patterns were part of the monkey’s superpowers, the little monster screeched, and ran terrified from the room. A well-placed blast from No Powers Boy’s pistol dropped Piotr, the orangutan. The little baboon, wounded and scared, ran to its masters arms. The Red Ghost phased into solidity just long enough to scoop up his pet, who suddenly became a boa constrictor, and crushed the breath out of the crotchety old villain. Agent Ryker took back his human shape again as Titania remarked:
“This teamwork stuff isn’t so bad. I’ll have to remember that ‘switch partners’ thing.”
“Uh... yeah,” said No Powers Boy. “Let’s move.”
They moved. They got as far as the front foyer. Kyle reached for the door’s handle, when suddenly a strong gust of wind knocked his hand away. The gust slowed down, and was finally recognizable as the lightning-fast Speed Demon.
“Doom’s onto you, Titania,” a voice said from behind. The party turned to see Arsenal, the orange-and-black-clad villain, entering the room. “The rest of us will be here any second, and then you’ll never stand a chance.” Arsenal lifted an umbrella from the nearby stand, and pointed it at the heroes. The umbrella glowed orange, then twisted itself into a submachine gun. He pulled the trigger, spraying bullets at the party. Steve cowered under his shield, Kyle drew his thick cape around his body, and Elyk shifted himself into a more thick-skinned creature he must’ve seen while on the Skrull homeworld. Titania, unfazed by a few bullets, marched straight at Arsenal. The villain dropped his gun, which turned back into an umbrella, as Titania approached. Meanwhile, No Powers Boy’s powers flared as Speed Demon ran, leaving the villain jogging at a normal human pace. Ryker’s arm stretched into the villain’s chin.
Arsenal knocked the potted plant from its pedestal nearby, picked the pedestal up, and pointed his bazooka at the incoming attacker. Titania knocked the bazooka aside as Arsenal pulled the trigger, and the blast knocked open a massive hole in the wall instead. The Gray Gargoyle appeared in the doorway from the embassy, transforming the jamb into stone with his touch. Behind him, Klaw’s sound and Electro’s electricity buzzed and hummed. Kyle put his hands on Steve’s shoulders, and pushed the young man toward the hole. Steve ran, followed by Ryker, then Kyle, and Titania brought up the rear as the four would-be heroes bolted out onto the street.
A crowd was already gathering out in the street. People were pointing and gasping, trying amongst themselves to identify the strange new building. When the wall of the embassy was blown out, and four strangely-dressed people came running from the hole, the crowds surged to get a closer look at these odd figures. Titania grabbed Steve by the collar, and leapt into the air. The crowds gasped. Then Ryker grabbed hold of Kyle’s waist, sprouted wings, and flew after Titania. The crowds gasped even louder, and many of the braver members of the crowd pushed their way into the embassy to see what was going on. The villains blasted away at the crowd, but by the time they made their way outside, the four escapees were gone.

“I don’t understand all of it,” Titania said. “But I’ll give you the basics. See, Doom contacted Crusher an’ me and told us that he was going to get rid of all the superheroes in the world, and that he wanted us to be his personal army, and that we were going to take over the world. Crush an’ I went on our honeymoon to Niagara Falls, so Doom was going to give us Canada. We’d sort of run it, and he’d be the King or the emperor or whatever.”
“Get rid of all the heroes?” Ryker asked. “How was he going to manage that?”
“With his time machine,” Titania replied. “He said he was going back as far as it possibly could- back to the beginning of time. He said something about the Celestial seed? The thing that makes our superpowers possible. He sent this machine back in time to stop the Celestials from planting this seed, so this whole world has developed without any sort of superhuman people. The only people who were spared were those of us who were inside the Embassy. You he kept-“
“-because of my powers,” Kyle answered. “I can block access to that Celestial seed. He must have known, somehow, that I have this... bond to the Celestials. And you, uh... Steve. You must’ve been spared, somewhat, by being... I don’t know what I’m trying to say.”
“Wait a minute,” Titania said. “This little runt is a superhero, isn’t he? Like one of the Avengers?”
“Um... no?” said Kyle.
“Yes, yes he is!” Titania exclaimed. “He’s a superhero! Who is he? Iron Man? He could be Iron Man, in that suit- who knows?”
“He’s not Iron Man,” said Kyle.
“Well he’s sure not Thor,” Ryker said. Kyle glared at him. “What? Is he the Hulk?”
“I’m Batman, aren’t I?” Steve asked. “Can I be Batman?”
“Who’s Batman?” Titania and Ryker asked.
“It’s not Batman!” said Kyle.
“Spider-Man,” said Titania. “That scrawny little twerp. I can’t believe I’m hanging out with Spider-Man.”
“So what are we going to do now,” Ryker said, changing the subject.
“I don’t know,” Kyle confessed. “But we’ve got to consider that we’re the last four- or three- or whatever people with any kind of powers left in the world who aren’t on Doom’s side. There’s nowhere we can go for help, so if we’re going to stop Doom, we’re on our own. And he’s sure to come after us...”
“There’s no ‘if!’” Titania insisted. “Crusher’s been written out of this reality, and we’re going back to put everything right. I wouldn’a freed you guys if I you weren’t going to help me.”
“There’s no question,” No Powers Boy said. “We’re going back to stop Doom. We’re our world’s only hope.”
“We’re them, aren’t we?” Steve asked. “Just like in the comic books and on the movies. We’re real heroes!”
“Like the Avengers,” Titania confirmed.
“No,” Kyle said. “No, there’s only one group that could ever hope to stop Doom.” He put his hand out toward the other four. Titania added her hand to the stack. Steve followed suit. Then, Ryker put his hands on top of everyone else’s.
“Right,” Ryker said.
“Now,” said No Powers Boy. “We’re the Fantastic Four!”

Chapter Forty-Three: Making the Grade

Mr. Negativity
guest-starring Deadpool!?!
The End of the World As We Know It: Part I-3

Charles shut the door behind Joe as his friend went off to find a job. Then, double-checking that the blinds were pulled across the window, he closed his eyes and embraced the tingling sensation that transformed his body into Mr. Negativity. The Nega-Bands appeared from wherever they hid, gleaming in the few rays of sunlight that made their way through the blinds. Charles didn’t need to shower or shave that morning, as his human body always returned rested and clean after a transformation into Mr. Negativity. Charles looked again at the pile of luggage Joe had packed the night before, which now rested in the corner of the boys’ hotel room. He took a deep breath.
“It’s now or never,” he told himself. Charles drew the power of his Negative Zone body into the Nega-Bands, where the energies were easier to control. Then, very carefully (don’t want to blow up the hotel), he began to let some of the portal power seep from his body, sliding very carefully along the edges of the leather bags the Supercools had no room to deal with. It was done. Charles opened his eyes, only then realizing he’d closed them at all. Then, with a quick burst of motion, he stretched his waist and shoulders as far out as he could (much further than any normal human can), and with an audible pop!, he drew the bags into his Negative Zone body, where they would stay, safe, until presumably he would be able to release them. Charles felt a slight rumbling in his chest as the bags slid into place; something else was moving somewhere in the Negative Zone. It wasn’t a new feeling, or an especially dangerous one. Charles looked back at Kyle, who was still sound asleep. Kyle can handle check out duties himself, Charles figured. And it wouldn’t hurt for me to get going, either. He stepped to the window and, when he was sure no one was looking, stepped out of the window, aiming first straight up into the air, and then as best as he could manage, toward Boston, and the Massachusetts Academy. With the Nega-Bands increasing his flight speed, he would be there in no time at all.
As he neared the school, Charles sank below the tree line, then dropped to the ground in an out-of-the-way corner within visual distance of the school. He popped back into his more human form and pulled the small bag off his shoulder. There, in the woods, Charles dressed for his interview. He had opted to wear the standard Massachusetts Academy uniform Joe had “scavenged” after their last visit. Once he was finished, Charles repeated his earlier trick with the one leftover bag, and made his way through the forest to the front gates of the Massachusetts Academy.
“Nice outfit,” Emma Frost smirked as he arrived at the front gates. A brown trenchcoat bundled her from the chilly fall air. “But something tells me you’re not here to apply for enrollment, are you?” Charles shook his head no. “Well, come on in to my office, and you can tell me all about it.”
As they stepped into Emma’s beautiful headmistress’ chambers on the Academy grounds, the White Queen pulled off her trenchcoat and hung it on the nearby rack. She was wearing, as she almost always did, skin-tight white clothing. Contrary to their original agreement, Charles had already begun explaining his proposal, and she seemed intrigued.
“I think that sounds like a fine idea,” Emma said. “We certainly can use the staff now that the Academy’s expanded, and it wouldn’t hurt for our ‘special’ students to have one more teacher who knows about their... unusual circumstances.” As she spoke, the White Queen casually pulled off her suit’s jacket.
“And frankly, I wouldn’t mind putting you somewhere where I can keep an eye on you and your friends.”
Charles burned with embarrassment and anger.
“Well you don’t have to be such a dick about it!” he shouted. Emma just looked at him, astounded.
“Excuse me?” she asked. She looked flabbergasted.
“Fine!” he shouted. “It’s not like I’m an idiot, you know!”
“What is the matter with you?” Emma shouted. “I’m going in.” And with that, she forced her mind into Charles’. A moment later, she returned. “Fascinating,” she said. “You have a second mind resting comfortably within your own, just as you, too, reside in his. It’s the most unusual sort of telepathic bond I’ve ever seen, and frankly, it was entirely too muddled before I got there.”
“Was?” Charles asked.
“Yes,” Emma said, completely unapologetically. “I’ve just done the telepathic equivalent of cleaning your room- neatly sorting his thoughts from your own. Frankly, it needed to be done. I’m surprised it’s taken you this long to trip over one another’s emotions.” Charles closed his eyes, and concentrated. Joe? Are you there?
“Fascinating,” he agreed. “Thank you, Ms. Frost! I-“ Emma held up a hand to stop him.
“Wait,” she said. “You’re about to thank me a lot more. The Massachusetts Academy is a prestigious school, and one who’s reputation I take very seriously. I can’t just hire some young man with no formal education to be a math professor here.” Charles face fell. “However,” the White Queen continued, “I would very much like to keep you and your friends at hand, especially so that you can tell me more about this unique bond you seem to have developed. And I most certainly could use extra teaching staff. And so, I propose that you come to work for the Massachusetts Academy as a student instructor, working mostly with our ‘special’ class. A year, two a most, spent hard at work on developing your teaching skills should qualify you for an honorary degree in Education from the Xavier School of Higher Learning, our sister institution. In addition to the salary you will be paid, you and your friends will be invited to live in my departed sister’s penthouse lodgings in New York City, effective immediately. Would that be acceptable?” Emma smiled. She knew exactly how acceptable that was. Charles stammered for the right words.
“Thank you,” was all he could manage. Emma’s reply was cut short when the window behind her shattered open, spraying glass across the room. Just behind the glass shards came an acrobatic figure, dressed in red and black tights. He landed on the back of Emma’s chair, throwing her head forward into the desk, then flipped off the back, and landed crouching on the desk, a large gun pointed directly at Charles’ head.
“Hello,” the man said. “My name is Deadpool. Can you say ‘Deadpool’ boys and girls?” Deadpool looked Charles up and down. “Who are you?” he asked, poking Charles in the nose with his gun barrel.
“Assistant teacher,” Charles replied, still trying to decide whether or not Deadpool was a threat.
“Riiiiiiight,” Deadpool said, winking. “Nudge, nudge, say no more.” He looked back at Emma Frost. “Picking them young, are we, Cher? Oh, that’s right, you can’t answer me, what with your bleeding to death and all.” He turned back to Charles. “Now, tell me right now where the girl is, or I assure you, I will... make... you... turn... into... a... universe?” Mr. Negativity put a hand on Deadpool’s gun. It disintegrated into itty, bitty pieces.
“That’s Mr. Universe to you!” Mr. Negativity shouted. His backhand knocked Deadpool back through the hole he’d made a moment earlier. As soon as he was certain Ms. Frost would be okay, Mr. Negativity followed onto the campus grounds. Deadpool already had another gun ready.
“Look kid,” Deadpool said, “I just got over this thing. Something even more bizarre, frightening, and oddly arousing than the time I walked in on my mom in the shower, okay? So don’t mess with me today! You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.” He sprayed a stream of bullets into Mr. Negativity’s body.
“What is it you want here, Deadpool?”
“Ah, my adoring fans. I see my reputation precedes me, Space Case! Tell you what, let’s get to the next paragraph with battle stuff, and then we’ll get to the exposition, deal?”
“What are you talking about?” Mr. Negativity asked. He swooped in close, and grabbed a handful of what was supposed to be Deadpool’s costume. Instead, a whole handful of Deadpool’s flesh oozed through his fingers. “Gross! What are you?”
“I’m Batman. I know, I know. You’d think it’s flesh, right? But it snot! I’ve been doing a lot of that lately. Oozing, I mean. Really kills the party mood, most times. But some chicks think its kind of cool. Rawr.” Deadpool kicked Mr. Negativity in the chest, pulling himself free. Mr. Negativity returned fire with a few more Nega-Blasts, but Deadpool somehow managed to avoid them.
A crowd was beginning to form around the two combatants as students left class to find two superpowered types duking it out in the middle of the Quad. From the corner of his eye, Mr. Negativity saw one of the members of Generation X. “Syn-“ he called, before realizing that he couldn’t give away his identity. He flew in a loop around Deadpool, feinted another blast, and a few seconds later made his way back to where he’d started.
“Kid!” Mr. Negativity yelled, pointing at Synch. “Run in and check on your teacher.” He gestured toward Emma’s chambers. With his attention diverted momentarily, Mr. Negativity missed Deadpool’s next attack- a tossed grenade. The weapon fell into Mr. Negativity’s body, where it detonated harmlessly.
“Damn it!” Deadpool howled. “Why don’t you play fair?” He jumped at Mr. Negativity, catching the hero squarely in the face with both feet. Mr. Negativity plowed into the ground. Deadpool, still standing on Mr. Negativity’s face, wiggled his hips and pointed his fingers in the stupidest little dance Charles had ever seen. “Yeah, baby- felt that one, didn’t ya?!? I rule!”
“Dishes sew whom Ellie eighteen,” Mr. Negativity mumbled. For a second, he maliciously considered slamming the Nega-Bands together and letting the Scavenger deal with this mess, but even though his friend’s thoughts were still carefully shielded, Mr. Negativity knew that would be a bad, bad idea.
“What did you say?” Deadpool asked. Mr. Negativity grabbed the mercenary by his ankles (carefully not squeezing them too tightly), and tossed him into the air. By the time Deadpool came back down, Mr. Negativity was on his feet, and caught Deadpool once more by the ankles. This time, he proceeded to bounce Deadpool face-first into the ground- once, twice, three times, four, five.
“I said, ‘This is so humiliating,’” Mr. Negativity answered. “But I was talking about you.”
“Ow,” Deadpool said. “Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Whee! Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.” Finally, Mr. Negativity stopped.
“Now,” he said. “Are you ready to talk?”
“Oh God,” Deadpool whined. “I think you broke my kidneys.”
“Why did you attack the school?” Mr. Negativity insisted.
“Terry,” Deadpool said.
“Who’s Terry?”
“Terry- Teresa O’Rourke- Siryn. I went to check up on her and her X-Force pals, and they told me that cat witch with a capital ‘b’ had slit my pookie-ookie-ookums’ throat. And I knew if I’d suffered that kind of traumatic injury, I’d probably run home to Daddy. I mean, Banshee’s lost his ability to speak- what?- like seventeen times now? It just frigging ridiculous! Plus, they’ve got band-aid face, whassisname, who blew his whole neck off. So I know she came here, and I want to know where she is.”
*She is not here, Wade.* Synch’s voice pounded into Deadpool and Mr. Negativity’s brains. *I’m synched with Emma now, and I’ve telepathically scanned the campus. She was here a couple of days ago, but then she left again, headed for New York.*


“There, now don’t you feel silly?” Mr. Negativity asked.
“New York, huh? Well then, so long, suckers, and thanks for all the fish!” Deadpool pressed the smiley face buckle on his belt.
Everyone stared at him. He pressed it again. And again. And then again and again and again and again and again. “You sank my battleship!” he sobbed. “My teleporty belty fun thing doesn’t work anymore.”

Mr. Negativity put his hands in the air. “Play along, Deadpool, and I’ll fly you to New York myself,” he whispered. The mercenary nodded a quick nod.
“And that’s our show for today, ladies and gentlemen!” he shouted, putting his hands in the air. Deadpool began taking sweeping bows as Mr. Negativity checked an imaginary watch. “Remember, Boston isn’t too far from New York- and super-battles can spill over into the area. Had this been an actual emergency...” he pointed a finger at every one of the students in the crowd. “Any one of you might be dead. I’m sure your headmasters will have a lesson for everybody tonight in Superhuman Emergency Drills. And the next time we come back, I’ll expect to see some better results, okay? Okay. Come on, Snot Boy.” He grabbed a piece of Deadpool’s uniform, and sailed into the air. Everyone in the crowd just looked embarrassed.
“...next time.”
“...have known it would be a test.”
“...right, you know. We...”
“...Academy.”

“Not bad,” Deadpool said once Mr. Negativity had dropped to a more reasonable speed. “Not bad at all. Ever considered doing mercenary work?”
“Ever considered doing Emergency Superhero Drill Fake Battles?” Mr. Negativity asked.
“Aaah! Giant metal face!” said Deadpool.
“Boo,” said the giant metal face. Charles’ reaction was instant and primal. Something in the back of his mind panicked, and forced its way through the mental screen Joe put between their two minds. He sent only one word: “Danger.”
A net fell atop the two heroes, and pulled them down to the ground. When Mr. Negativity and Deadpool stood to their feet, they faced Mr. Sinister’s private army- the Dark Riders.
“Apocalypse ascends,” said Gauntlet.
“The Twelve are gathered,” said Barrage.
“The last days of all X-Men are here,” said Foxbat. And then, they attacked.

Two bolts of scorching heat blazed from Barrage’s arms and into Mr. Negativity’s chest. Mr. Negativity didn’t flinch. Gauntlet’s weapons roared toward the same target, with the same effect.
“The time of testing is at hand, mutant!” Gauntlet cried.
“Okay, again, I am not a mutant,” Mr. Negativity said. “And, I’m clearly passing this test with flying colors, if you know what I mean.”
Barrage and Gauntlet simultaneously screeched in rage. Not that they could do anything about it.
Meanwhile, Deadpool was contesting with Foxbat. The Inhuman’s claws flashed, slicing a hole down Deadpool’s uniform, and beyond that, through his chest. Deadpool looked down at the gaping wound torn in his flesh. He looked back at the monster’s giant claws. Then back at his chest again.

“That ain’t no knife,” Deadpool laughed. He reached behind his back, and pulled out a very, very large machete. Foxbat shrieked like a tiny little girl, and ran off in the opposite direction. He ran straight through Mr. Negativity’s crossfire, and was struck by a stray heat-blast from Barrage. Twin blasts from the Nega-Bands knocked out Gauntlet and Barrage. Mr. Negativity and Deadpool turned to face the hulking form of the last Dark Rider.
Deadpool took one look at the monster facing him, and began drumming on his knees. The big man flexed, and with a loud POP!, a half-sized man came squeezing out from between his shoulders. Deadpool began humming under his breath. Mr. Negativity had to ask, “Um, your mutant power is to make midgets pop out of your back?” Deadpool began playing his imaginary trumpet. The big man grunted, and three more little men sprang from his back. “Heebah-hubba-hobba-hubba,” said Deadpool. Suddenly, Mr. Negativity remembered the big man’s name. At the same time, the big man was caught up in a burst of arrogance, and cried out his own name just as Deadpool finished his song.
“Tusk!” all seven combatants screamed at once. The big man swatted Mr. Negativity aside with a powerful backhand, while his four little helpers piled on Deadpool.
“Gah!” Deadpool screamed. “I’m being set upon by a swarm of midgets! Why does this keep happening to me?” The little men didn’t answer, they just kept poking Deadpool with their impossibly stubby fingers. “Gah!” he cried once more.
Mr. Negativity flew back into the battle with a determined look set on his face. He roared straight at Tusk’s massive form, pouring more and more speed into his charge with every passing inch. Tusk set his stance firmly, and braced for impact. The two met one another with all the force and inertia of a hypothetical physics problem. Another midget went squirting out Tusk’s back as the two prime combatants each took a moment to recuperate from their powerful meeting.
Deadpool drew his very big gun, pointed it, and pulled the trigger. One little midget’s brains went running down his boots. The other three shrieked, and began biting. “Gah!” Deadpool cried, dropping his very big gun.
Mr. Negativity was the first to recover. He scrambled to his feet just moments before Tusk could, aimed his arm at the Inhuman’s face, and let loose a powerful Nega-Blast.
“Ga-“ Deadpool screamed, before being interrupted by a midget’s tiny fist jammed into his mouth.
“Urk!” drooled Tusk, dropping back to the ground with a heavy THUD! His little midget friends waved goodbye, and faded out of existence. Then, like a defeated video game nemesis, Tusk, too, disappeared, taking the bodies of his fallen comrades with him. Then, to Charles’ amazement and relief, Deadpool vanished, too. A familiar feeling washed over Charles, and though it was largely comforting, it made Charles feel very odd, indeed. He could sense, somehow, that a monumental shift in reality had just taken place, though he couldn’t identify precisely how he knew. He looked around, and though the trees of upper New York state still stood in the same spots they had moments before, Charles knew that Deadpool and the Dark Riders had no place in the world in which he now stood, brimming with Negative Zone energy.
“Oh dear God,” he said. “I’m home.”