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AUG 10 |
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“Planetary Strike” Part Three
“It is the wish of the United Nations that A.R.M.O.R. does not participate in what they have deemed to be a useless exercise,” Mr. Halloran said as he did his best to not tremble under the glare of the superhumans. The only one sparing him an angry stare was Charles Littlesky, but that was only a minimal relief.
Brian knew something negative was going to be hurled his way. The UN only sent their stooges when they had an issue. He almost felt bad for Halloran. “I would like to remind the United Nations that they signed the M.D.A. charter, which includes mutual defense.”
“But defending involves fighting, something those UN sods can’t wrap their puny heads around,” Motormouth said. She figured that insulting politicians should be an international pastime; they always made it so damn easy.
Halloran could feel the sweat piling on top of his hands. “If pulling out of the M.D.A is required to prevent this action then the UN is prepared to take that step.”
Dark Angel sucked her teeth. “Figures. Do any of your bosses have a brain?”
Portal seemed completely relaxed despite the obvious tension of his squad mates. “Maybe we need to hear them out. We are rushing into this.”
Gaia rolled her yes. “You’re just mad that Alise slapped you.”
Charles threw his arms up. “For no good reason.”
Brian was glad that Gaia had stepped in; she always knew how to keep Portal in line. “The M.D.A. is a safety net we cannot afford to lose. Think of the consequences: if we pull out and our ally falls, who do you think the M.D.A. will blame? Who do you think they will retaliate against?”
Mindbender looked Halloran straight in the eyes. “Does you UN fancy it can fight off a thousand worlds, mate?”
“Or an invasion from the endless number of interdimensional empires?” Motormouth asked. Her MOPED technology had allowed her to glimpse the horror of many realities and the people who sought to conquer them. There were things out there no one world could hope to fight off alone.
“How long do you think our world could survive someone like Hyperstorm?” Wiccan asked wistfully.
Mindbender shrugged. “Maybe a day or two.”
Halloran went over the possibilities they had presented. “The UN simply does not want valuable personnel being wasted.”
“But they’d rather planetary war? Sounds real smart there mate,” Mindbender said as he continued smoking his cigarette. He didn’t think his world’s A.R.M.O.R. had to deal with as much politics.
Portal smirked at his squad member’s comment. “This coming from the man whose first name is Palin.”
“That’s starting to get real old,” Mindbender said as psionic fire trickled out of the corner of his eye.
“Not to me,” Portal said to another rib check from his girlfriend.
Braddock ignored the banter. “Mr. Halloran we need you to stall for us. This mission has to be done.”
What Halloran wanted to do was curl up in the nearest corner and wait until all of this was over. “Ok, I’ll see what I can do. Just try to come back in one piece; I might keep my job that way.”
Brian hugged him vigorously and said, “Thank you! You may have just saved billions.”
That only made Halloran want to faint. He could already feel himself getting light-headed.
The Earth Assembly HQ (Earth-97701)
Alise walked into President Stark’s office with her head held low. She felt bad for threatening T’Chaka earlier; they had been friends too long and he deserved better. He was fighting a war and was trying to make sure Earth was left standing when all said and done. Every option needed to at least be considered even if some turned Alise’s stomach. The idea of the Horsemen being free would scare any rational person. They had murdered her great ancestor, Peter Parker.
Amiri only wanted to free them to give himself greater power and fulfill a family wish. When she was involved with him, he always talked about how Titus Nur had failed to control the Horsemen, but that one day a real Nur would. They argued about the events surrounding those creatures for hours on end. He contended that Apocalypse had created the Horsemen in an effort to make Earth stronger; that if Apocalypse had been allowed to do his work then Earth would have beat back the Magus long ago.
“So are you ready to do this?” Stark asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be. Doubt their disposition is going to change in five minutes.”
Stark threw back his head in laughter. “That is something we can both agree on. These Governors have easily got to be my biggest headache. I’d rather have Skaar stomping around in this office.”
Alise was sure he wouldn’t feel that way if he actually had to encounter Skaar. She had personally seen him make a joke of the Kree Royal Guard. “Be careful what you wish for, T’Chaka.”
The holographic interfaces in front of President Stark flickered for a moment and then the faces of the Continental Governors appeared on each one, and not a single one of them looked the least bit pleasant. Amiri appeared the fiercest, but Nurs usually had strong, fearsome faces. The blood of Apocalypse flowed strongly still despite centuries of it diluting by bloodline. Alise looked him straight tin those red eyes and, for a moment, she could have sworn his expression softened. Probably just seeing what she wanted to.
“Greetings, Governors! I’m glad that you were able to meet with me on such short notice.”
Amiri’s every word spat out like powerful venom. “It was my pleasure, President Stark. I am always ready to serve the best interests of Earth.”
Where Nur was venom, Governor Nguyen was ice. “Our duty is to answer when you call.”
“Still, it was short notice so I appreciate it.”
Grimm huffed and said, “Can we cut the formal dung and get to the meat already?”
The other Governors all silently agreed. Alise never cared for Governor Grimm’s abrupt manner, but that seemed a lasting trait in his family. Their fathers had come to blows on more than one occasion over it. At the time, Alise didn’t mind seeing Dad knocked down a peg or two; now she understood exactly why he would always get so pissed. Grimm had the manners of a starving bear in a dumpster.
“I’ve called you all here because crucial information has been gathered by S.W.O.R.D. and S.H.I.E.L.D. The Magus is planning to assault our solar system in a matter of days.”
Amiri spoke quickly. “Are you absolutely sure?!”
“Without a doubt, Governor Nur. I have you called you all here to mobilize our forces. The M.D.A. has already agreed to provide assistance.”
Governor Voleur frowned. “Do you really think their assistance will be enough?”
Alise had always found Sable Voleur to be a beautiful woman and one worthy of respect. She was a veteran of X-Force and had done many years of hard service in the war against the Magus. Her silver hair and lipstick were as bright as her aim was true. Parker had hoped that if any of the Governors were receptive to the M.D.A.’s help that it would have been her. It appeared that she was mistaken. Suddenly that hair didn’t seem so bright anymore.
“The M.D.A. will be providing us a tremendous amount of assistance but, no, it will not be enough. That is why I have brought all of you here. I want to discuss certain possibilities that we may need to consider in order to properly defend this solar system.”
Amiri wasted no time. “Then it is imperative that the Horsemen be allowed to be resurrected. With their assistance, Earth will be able to stand. Give me the authorization, President Stark, and you’ll have them revived within the hour!”
Sable laughed. “You can’t be serious, Nur! Do you really think we’re going to allow Apocalypse’s freaks to walk the Earth once again? Need I remind anyone of London?”
Lorien’s expression was mangled by historic grief. “I certainly don’t need to be reminded.”
Amiri wasn’t going to be deterred. “I can control them. I am not Titus Nur! What choice do we have in the face of annihilation?”
“We can reactive Bastion and the Prime Sentinels,” Voleur said.
Grimm snickered. “No offense, lady, but that’s just as crazy as letting the Horsemen run loose.”
Governor Nguyen shook her raven locks. “Madness on top of madness! You two are lucky our President is blessed with sense.”
Stark took a deep breath and ran his hands through his coarse beard. This was going to be the deep breath before the plunge. Back when he was campaigning for office, his opponents said his youth would make him impulsive and that he would make decisions leading to Earth’s doom. He hoped now more than ever that his opponents were dead wrong.
“Voleur, you’ll get your wish: reactive Bastion and the Prime Sentinels. I also want The Omega Sentinel back online.”
Sable started to smile, but it quickly faded away. “The Omega Sentinel? Mr. President, I’m not sure if that’s really necessary. Bastion should be—“
“Activate her!” Stark yelled. “And Amiri, bring back the damn Horsemen. I’ve already given Rage the authorization to activate the Deathloks. Blue Marvel and the Argonauts have been recalled to Earth, along with Technocrat and Force Works. We just can’t afford to hold back. Grimm?”
Tucker tensed up because he already knew what he was going to get asked. “Yes sir?”
“Release the Heralds.”
A.R.M.O.R. HQ (Earth-792)
With the briefing now over, Gaia ran out of the conference room with Portal chasing behind her. “Gaia, wait up! Wait!”
She finally stopped her jog and waited for Portal to catch up to her. He tried to give her a playful smile. “What’s wrong with you?”
Gaia poked a finger into his green shirt. “Why are you always so damn petty? You pick fight with Palin and Wiccan over absolutely nothing.”
“Is that what this’s about? Gaia swooping in to save the weak guys?”
Gaia stomped her foot. “AND you were about actually give Halloran room to breathe. You would see a whole world destroyed for a slap!”
At that point, Portal returned the anger. “You’re wrong! I’m looking out for you and me. These people caused their own damn war and I don’t like the idea of us having to fix it. We got enough problems here.”
The outburst made her relax. “What do you mean? How did they cause it?”
“See, that’s the problem. You guys just buy whatever Braddock feeds you. I did some more research beyond what he gave us. The heroes of that world set the Magus loose!”
“Why?” Gaia asked genuinely heartbroken at the idea of any Earth’s heroes doing that.
Portal forgot how emotionally sensitive she was. “They got desperate. Some new freak was giving them hell.”
White smoke spread low across the floor and rushed towards the couple. It shot upward and turned into a sculpture of Wiccan that the real one stepped out of. “If you’re going to tell the story, then tell it right. The God Set created an earthly avatar named Tichondrius. With this coming right after the all out war with the Cabal, they were crippled and tired.”
Portal shook his head. “You would make excuses for them.”
Gaia picked up a stray thought with her telepathy. “He killed Thor!”
Wiccan nodded. “And ransacked Olympus.”
“You forgot a part. They got killed because they were trying to use him as a weapon. Their own arrogance got them killed. Don’t try to make them look like hapless victims.”
Wiccan sneered at Portal. “As self-serving as you are, I figured you would be the first to understand why they did what they did.”
Defenders Orbital Base (Earth-97701)
Year: 2021
It was the safest place they could all think of to meet en masse. The base hadn’t’ been used for years, but Amadeus (Crusader) had the place back online in an hour. He wasn’t the world’s greatest engineer for just hyperbole’s sake. Songbird (Defender) would have preferred the place stay shut down. Too many bad memories, but everyone was rattled by the deaths of Thor and Warlock Xavier.
Everyone was looking for the first person to speak. Finally, Rogue (X-Man) spoke. “I think we in some deep shit, yall.”
Winter Soldier (Avenger) laughed. “Thanks for stating the obvious. Now what do we do about it?”
Cho had his own idea. “We should banish Tichondrius to the Negative Zone.”
Winter Soldier had spent a few years on assignment in the Zone so he knew some of its basics. “We can’t do that. Otherwise we risk him terrorizing some other world, one that may not have any superhumans at all.”
Goliath (Avenger) couldn’t agree more. “What’s to stop Set from just creating another avatar? We can’t pile all of them into the Negative Zone. It’s not feasible.”
Rogue frowned. “So we need to shut Tichondrius and Set up at the same time.”
Her husband, Warpath, grimaced. “Xavier tried that and look where it got him.”
Red Wasp (Crusader) seemed like he was about to bust. “We may have to fight fire with fire.”
Songbird didn’t like the sounds of that one bit. Hank Pym had crazy ideas wrapped up in him that always proved more detrimental than beneficial. It was because of his Jocasta Drones that Techno and Atlas were dead. What really pissed her off was how Pym always dodged his way out of taking responsibility for his creations. Atlas and Techno were not the only deaths on Pym’s head, either: the entire country of San Marco owed their fates to him, but no one wanted to hold him accountable.
Attuma (Avenger) wasn’t too crazy about Red Wasp either. “What sea sludge idea have you bubbled up now?”
“Who was the last person that gave us as much trouble as Tichondrius?”
Gravity (Defender) remembered all too well who that was. His old team, the Young Allies, had been murdered by him. “What are you getting at, Pym?”
“Tichondrius is the avatar of a dark god. We need someone capable of attacking that threat in the most aggressive manner possible. We need to set the Magus free.”
The Blue Marvel, leader of the Avengers, was horrified at the idea. “Absolutely not! Have you lost your damn mind, Hank? We’re getting old, but I don’t think dementia has set in yet.”
Hank flapped his wings above his fellow heroes. “Why not? We contained the Magus once and we can do it again. Why not use him as a weapon?”
Gravity wanted to yank the fool right out of the sky. “Because he murdered my whole team and might kill another. He’s unstable man and not the kind of person who gets used.”
Amadeus snapped his fingers and chimed in. “I could create a device that would keep the Magus’ mind scrambled to all but one thing. Then this focus would be solely on killing Tichondrius.”
Hellion (X-Man) put a hand on Gravity’s shoulder to calm him down. He knew Gregg’s pain because he had lost his team against the Cabal. “Are you sure a device like that could work?”
“Absolutely! You’re talking to the guy who tamed the Hulks.”
Blue Marvel knew the arrogance of geniuses because he was one. “No, we can’t do this. We’ll find another way.”
Hank was now red in the face. “Why? Because you say so? If you had made the hard choice in Wakanda, a lot more of us would be here right now.”
The Blue Marvel wanted to reply so bad that his lips were trembling, but he couldn’t. Hank was right; the New Warriors were gone because he couldn’t kill Satana. His morals had cost lives and he didn’t want anymore on his head. So he would let his friends decide and live with their decision.
Scorpion (X-Man) leaned over to Rogue and whispered, “I think he just cut Marvel’s balls off.”
Genis-Vell saw the anger on Songbird’s face and knew his wife did not like where any of this was going. “I know all about hard choices Hank, but this is stupidity. Do you want San Marco on a global scale?”
Amadeus couldn’t believe the negativity. “We can do this guys!”
“I think the kid might be right,” Winter Soldier said to the surprise of many in the room.
Songbird had had enough. “You try to set him free and my team will fight you Hank.”
“Same for mines,” Rogue said.
Hank was adamant. “Then you’ll find me waiting.”
A.R.M.O.R. HQ (Earth-792)
Gaia looked back at forth at Portal and Wiccan as they finished the story. “So what happened? It couldn’t have just ended like that.”
Wiccan sighed. “Both sides made good on their promises, unfortunately. Hank tried to free the Magus and those opposed to him attacked.”
“Don’t try to make it look like some tragedy,” Portal said. “If Songbird was smart she would have just taken out Hank at that meeting. Instead, he won. Pym transported and trapped the X-Men in The Negative Zone. After that, Songbird grew some balls and tried to off him, but it was too late. Pym let his secret weapon loose then.”
A silence fell then and Gaia, much like a child hearing a bedtime story, asked, “Who? Don’t leave me hanging!”
Wiccan whispered the name, “The Sentry.”
Portal didn’t feel any sympathy for the heroes of Earth-97701. They screwed up when it counted most. Why should he care about how they screwed themselves over? Portal had been to countless worlds and knew that some were just packed with idiots. Obviously, that Earth’s heroes fell into that category. Now his girlfriend was being asked to put his life at risk and so was he…for a world that didn’t seem to have the slightest bit of intelligence.
He elaborated on what Wiccan wouldn’t. “Not just the Sentry…a Sentry hopped up on a dozen different power enhancement drugs. He tossed the Defenders around like they were rag paper and bam! The Magus is free. That’s the world we’re being asked to protect; a world where the heroes can’t even solve a disagreement without killing each other. So sue me if I think Halloran has a point.”
“No world is perfect, Portal. If you can’t see that then why are you even here?” Wiccan asked as he turned to walk away from the couple. He had had enough of Littlesky.
Portal ran up behind Wiccan and yanked him back so that they were face to face. “Don’t try to get all self-righteous on me, Billy! The Carmondians invaded Earth-521 four days ago and we lost all contact with them, but the M.D.A. isn’t lifting a finger to help them because it doesn’t fall under the rules. Yet, we’re breaking that rule for this Earth. What makes them better? What gives them the right?”
Wiccan could say nothing as Portal continued his barrage. “And what about Earth-670? Serenity practically begged for the M.D.A. to help, but they weren’t moved an iota. So don’t try that moral shit with me. Saving this world is all about politics. Not worthiness.”
Gaia understood her boyfriend’s anger and was beginning to share in it, but what could they do? The rules were unfortunately the rules. She took her boyfriend’s hand and said, “C’mon, baby. We should just go. I need some company before we go.”
Portal was still breathing hard, but tried to relax some. He could see that he was scaring Gaia. “Ok. Let’s go.”
The couple left Wiccan alone in the hallway. He couldn’t bring himself to judge Portal a moment further and he couldn’t tell them that he hadn’t known about Earth-521. Billy had made a close friend there and all his thoughts were suddenly on his safety. The sorcerer fell to his knees and buried his hands in his face as he began to cry.
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To Be Continued...
Next: In A.R.M.O.R. #4: What do Brian and Portal promise Wiccan? And how will Brian feel about President Stark’s decisions?
So for this installment I’m going to give you a rundown of The Blue Marvel’s team, The Argonauts.
THE BLUE MARVEL (Adam Brashear) - Earth’s greatest hero and one of the few remaining heroes still alive from the 21st century. He is at the front lines of the war against the Magus. He has tremendous super strength, speed and invulnerability along with flight.
GRAVITY (Gregg Willis) - The Cosmic Protector appointed by Eon in the year 2030. He, like the Blue Marvel, is one of the few heroes left from the 21st century. He’s bitter at how things went down with the Magus and wishes he had done more to prevent it. He is a powerful gravity manipulator.
ARCHMAGE (Delilah Markus) - She’s a member of the Order of Knives and is Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme. She is the first one to hold the title since Tichondrius killed Warlock Xavier. Her order was nearly wiped out by Selene, so Delilah yearns for vengeance.
BLIZZARD (Engrid Worthington) - She is a direct descendant of Warren Worthington and Candy Southern. Her skin burns to the touch as it is always four hundred degrees below zero. She has wings made up of compacted ice from which she can release ice javelins and darts from.
CROW (Francisco Vaughn) - Avian life forms are his domain and he is able to take on the traits of any one of them. He was once a member of X-Force, but was recruited by the Blue Marvel after preventing an assassination attempt on President Tyrone Malus.
SPECIMEN 4 (Gary Moore) - He was an experiment created by X-Force to help in tracking down soldiers who went AWOL, but the Continental Governors put the idea to a halt. Gary was about to be put down like some rabid dog when the Blue Marvel stepped in to save him. Gary has enhanced senses and shape-shifting abilities.
MISCHANCE (H’Mek Duvari) - H’Mek is a transfer from the Imperial Guard. He doesn’t like being with the Argonauts but does it out of loyalty to Emperor Xulin Nermani. He is able to create probability bubbles, which result in improbable actions that can be seen as bad luck.
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