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#11
APR 12 |
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“Planetary Strike” Part Eleven
The Lonely Hunter- Frostsword’s Command Ship
There was no way for Portal to know if Gaia was okay or not and it was driving him crazy. It made no sense for Brian to have separated him from her. What could he possibly have been thinking? Without Gaia right in front of him he was going to be off his game.
He thought Brian knew him well enough so what was it that had motivated the decision. Probably outside pressure from some of the jerks in this dimension. Charles was starting to feel better and better about his initial opinion of leaving this world to rot. The more he interacted with the people from here the less he liked it.
Fire Mage clearly had a girlfriend waiting at home. The Human Blizzard was one step away from becoming Ultron, and Josiah Rage looked like a cheap Samuel L. Jackson. Alise Parker was a whiny little girl who must have gotten her position through a few backdoor deals; there was no way she was actually qualified to be an A.R.M.O.R. Director. What was next? Howard the Duck was going to pop up as one?
That was probably what ticked Portal off the most of all...he wasn’t even the leader of his group! The cranky Swordsman from Earth-27538 was leading the charge and it aggravated Portal to no end to have to follow this stick in the mud’s orders. Why couldn’t this guy be like other versions of Kurt Marko? All the ones that Portal had encountered had no problem charging in and busting some heads. Not this guy.
“Ok, this is how it’s going to go: we’re going to take out this ship’s critical systems and make sure that Frostsword has no way off of this ship,” Swordsman said as he outlined the places he wanted taken out. The escape pods, coolant systems, propulsion systems and central computer core.
Personally, Portal wanted a chance to take off the escape pods because that seemed the least threatening, but knowing his luck he would probably get something like--"
“Portal you’re going to be on the central computer core with Forge, Paper Doll, Daken, Phobia and Surge. I’ll be taking Firestar, Jinx, Rimshot, Red Queen and Titan into the propulsion system.”
He proceeded to divide the others up into groups, but Portal didn’t hear because he was fuming. The central computer core was likely to be covered with security. It wasn’t until Dazzler of Earth-1509 tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Can I ask you a question?”
He didn’t really feel like talking, but the woman looked like she had seen a ghost. “Yea. Sure.”
“Have you ever encountered an alternate version of yourself?”
Portal snickered. “All the time. We are in A.R.M.O.R.”
Dazzler grabbed her shoulders like a cold chill had washed through the room. “I’m new to all of this. Seeing a version of myself serving Galactus gives me the creeps. I just can’t imagine me ever being like that.”
“Stick around long enough. You’ll see that you’re capable of anything.”
The Coldwitch
Fighter Repair Hangar
Wiccan dove forward and dodged the blast of a Kree rifle. He held his hands out and said, “Flesh from bone be gone!”
Two green flares came out of his hands that struck a pair of Kree soldiers. Their skin melted back from their very bones and they quickly crumbled to the ground dead. In their last death throes, their bodies wildly shook around. Wiccan tried not to look at them when he stood to his feet and erected a magical wall between his people and the Kree soldiers occupying the hangar. The wall would keep them from harm for a while, but he couldn’t sustain the structure indefinitely, especially with them piling on the rifle fire.
Satana felt that she had a way to end all of this. "Let me summon Balthazar and end this battle!”
Wiccan was firm in his response. “No! We may need you to summon him later against Selene and I’m not going to risk you wearing yourself out.”
Her brother, Damien, though he was from another dimension, didn’t agree. “It won’t much matter if we don’t even make it to Selene, and who’s to say another group won’t get to her first?”
“We can’t risk it!” Wiccan said. He had no intention of going into battle against Selene without all of his best weapons being available to him. It was quite obvious that the Selene of this universe was an extremely powerful magic user and he had no intention of facing her at anything less than his very best.
Magma understood Wiccan’s caution because on her world she had been apprentice of Selene Gallio. She understood just how ruthless the woman could be and how twisted were the things she was willing to do with her abilities. But she did have an idea. “How long do you think you can sustain that field, Wiccan?”
“Another fifteen minutes at most.”
“Good,” Magma said as she clasped her hands together and her body began to look like a living volcano. “I’m going to channel my powers and melt the hull behind the Kree soldiers.”
Damien looked wildly at Wiccan for support and then to Magma. “Are you crazy? You’ll kill us as well as them.”
“Not if Wiccan holds the field. Then we’ll have enough time to get out of the hangar,” Magma said. She was looking for approval from Wiccan before she began.
Wiccan took a deep breath and nodded. “Do it.”
The Pantheon
Captain Britain sat on the bridge next to Fleet Admiral Banner. He hated that this men were out there fighting while he was sitting down looking at it, but his position demanded he be in a place where he could convey new strategies and orders to the troops. As much as he wanted to be in the midst of the fight, it would have been folly for him to be. Part of him felt like a coward, but he knew this was necessary.
“How is the battle on Uranus going, Admiral?”
Banner immediately said, “Lt. Roshi! What’s the status on Uranus?”
“There appears to be heavy fighting, but the defense network is still holding sir. She’s keeping us in this fight.”
Banner sighed. “I don’t know what we’re going to do when we lose Uranus.”
That statement surprised Brian. “When? Don’t you mean if? Uranus could very well hold and allow us to continue suppressive fire on the Magus.”
“Doubtful. The Magus will send everything he has at Uranus in the end to stop it. I foresee this battle being determined by other means.”
Cold logic always had a nasty aftertaste so Brian sat back in his chair for a moment appeared thoughtful. “Vulcan did mention he had something up his sleeve.”
A bright green flash suddenly appeared in front of the usually stoic Lt. Roshi, but his expression quickly turned to one of surprise. In a matter of seconds, Vulcan materialized from the energy with the Omega Sentinel in his arms. “I see secrets are not your forte, Field Commander.”
“At this point can we really afford them?”
Vulcan walked up to Captain Britain and Banner, sitting Karima at their feet. “I suppose not. She’s not badly damaged, but Cerebro invaded her systems. She’s fighting them off right now.”
“And what of the ground battle, Commander?” Banner asked. "You're supposed to be a part of it."
“I am, but there is a better way to stop them. I’ve just never done anything like it before.”
Banner sensed a grimness that was unusual for his Commander. “Sir?”
“I’m going to make sure that Uranus is not taken...but I may not come back from it. I’m honestly not sure,” Vulcan said. As he began to dissipate into green particles his last words to Brian were, “And then you’ll get to see my surprise.”
Cairo, Egypt
Deyunja cut down a dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents with one swing of his axe and with his other hand unleashed an aura that struck a squad of X-Force. The dim, white aura decayed the flesh of the mutants until it was nothing more than dried up flakes that fluttered away from their bodies. Only one of the squad members survived the attack due to her powerful healing factor, but it was going to take a while for her to pull herself together.
Mulzeta’s teeth were launching out of his mouth like missiles and cutting into Prime Sentinels, S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents, and whoever else got in their way. He laughed gleefully as his teeth would return to his mouth and fill it with the blood of the dead. It had been some time since he had experienced such carnage and he was going to enjoy every ounce of it.
Fire Mage had used her hands and created streams of fire that propelled her like a rocket through the sky until she landed behind Mulzeta. She grunted and flung her arms out in front of her, “Chew on this!”
Two pillars of fire ripped through the space between them and struck the White God square in the face. That was when Fire Mage shouted, “Mindbender! Now!”
Mindbender was only a few yards east of Fire Mage and was shielded on all sides by Prime Sentinels. They were keeping any enemy fire away from him as he followed through on Fire Mage’s plan. He looked directly at Mulzeta and focused the totality of his psionic powers on the White God.
Green and pink energy flickered out of Palin’s eyes as he subjected Mulzeta to the full, unbridled force of his abilities. Mindbender wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but part of him was exhilarated at what he was doing. All his life he had been taught to restrain his powers. His parents had been afraid all his power would take him down the same path his sister had went down and Xavier just didn’t want another threat of that magnitude walking around. So he always held back.
But now in this moment he understood why his sister went the way she went. Unleashing his power like this was living. His mind was completely free as it tore through Mulzeta’s thousands of memories. The joy of it was enough to bring the man to his knees and he wasn’t sure how he was ever going to be able to return to his restrained state after this. This is what Xavier and his parents had feared...that he would lust in his power.
And as Mulzeta crumbled to the ground with an anguished howl, Palin was beginning to understand why. But he felt no sympathy for The White God because Palin had front row seats to the centuries of destruction and chaos that Mulzeta had been a direct cause of. If anything, it made him plow through the god’s mind all the harder. He was oblivious to everything else around him. All that mattered was punishing this god.
He was so focused on his task that he didn’t feel the dark essence creeping up through the back of his neck and wrapping itself around him. When he finally felt that trickle of darkness, he stopped his attack on Mulzeta and fell into the waiting arms of Fire Mage. She looked at the crumpled Mulzeta and said, “You did good, kid.”
Mindbender looked up with still glowing eyes. Mulzeta’s red locks obscured his pale face and monstrous teeth. “He’s not dead, but his mind is empty. I don’t know if he’ll recover.”
Fire Mage noticed the fatigue in Palin’s voice. “I’ll have one of these Prime Sentinels get you out of here if you want, soldier. You’ve done your part.”
Starsmore shook his head and managed to stand to his feet. “Not a chance. I’m finally getting to cut loose.”
The Horseman of Death flew over the two and scowled down. “You’re lying. You’re exhausted and you know it.”
Exodus saw power behind those eyes and wondered if rage could stir it to life again. He had felt the residuals of what this young man had done to Mulzeta. That kind of psychic power rivaled his own, but such a frontal assault left him open. Even now, Death could see the dark essence that wormed its way into the man’s psyche. It would be nothing for him to pluck it loose, but Death saw no gain in that.
Palin was weary, but he wasn’t about to let any Horsemen of Apocalypse know it. He had more than his fair shre of history with them. “Don’t worry about me, I've got plenty of fight left.”
Fire Mage was never one for a whole lot of blustering and belly aching. “Well then shut up about it already and let’s get back in this thing!”
Death nodded and gave a menacing smirk to Mindbender. “Very well.”
Fire Mage paid no attention to him as he flew away and directed the Prime Sentinels that had been guarding Mindbender to attack Deyunja, who was still tearing through her people. Superior numbers and the White Gods were still giving them trouble. Fire Mage saw that pure attrition wasn’t going to win this fight.
Grabbing Mindbender’s arm, she asked, “How many more times do you think you can pull that trick off?”
Uranus
Vulcan rematerialized in the atmosphere and saw that the Deathloks had been reduced to a mere few hundred in the face of thousands of Kree. Despite the fact they faced inevitable annihilation, the machines fought on like victory laid waiting around the corner for them. In that respect, Vulcan envied automatons: they only understand the concepts you wanted them to understand and the idea of futility was lost on the Deathloks. They would fight with the same intensity they carried now even until there was only a single one standing. Some would construe it as courage, but it wasn’t really that. Courage required an understanding of failure. The Deathloks had no such understanding and Vulcan hated them for it.
Putting his wrist communicator to his mouth, Vulcan said, “Gravity...be prepared to move in five minutes.”
Ok, Gabriel. How are we looking out there?
“Not very good, I’m afraid, but I’m about to try and level the playing field.”
Do you mind me asking how?
Vulcan took a deep breath and decided that it was best not to answer Gravity’s question. The answer would only upset him and he needed his old friend focused. The Cosmic Protector would need to live up to his role today and Gabriel intended to help him a bit with the task. After all, what were friends for?
Focusing inwardly, Vulcan closed his eyes and his body began to glow blazing white. Gabriel Summers had been able to manipulate any kind of energy since he was a teenager and, at over two hundred years of age, he had learned every facet of his abilities. But this was something he had never done before.
Diving downward, he struck the ground with the force of a hundred hydrogen bombs.
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To Be Continued...
Next: In A.R.M.O.R. #12: What surprise is waiting for Wiccan?
A Look Into the Life of Mindbender
Palin Starsmore was born to Rachel and Jono Starsmore on November 18th, 2015 in Seattle, Washington at Stark Memorial Hospital. His older sister, Tara, quickly took to her duties as an older sibling and the two gave the staff of the Xavier Institute quite a few headaches.
Palin’s early years were mostly uneventful and he had as normal a childhood as a child of X-Men could have at Xavier Institute. He manifested his powers only a year after his sister did at the age of 13. The boy’s vast psionic powers quickly overwhelmed him and he constantly had to be aided by his mother.
Chamber went to Prof. X wanting genetic locks to be placed on his child for his own sake, but seeing as how the practice had been outlawed Xavier refused. Determined to help his child get a grip on his psionic powers, he relinquished his duties as leader of the Silver Squad of X-Men to dedicate all his time to his son. He did this with the assistance of Xavier.
While Palin struggled with his abilities, Tara excelled with hers in ways that none of the other psionics at the Institute thought possible for a girl her age. Xavier predicted in a matter of two years that she would be the equal or better of him and, truthfully, that scared the death out of him. He consulted with the members of the Illuminati about how to handle the potential threat the child represented.
Palin, unintentionally, felt the plans of the Illuminati in his sleep and warned his sister about what they planned to do. Angry, Tara left the Institute and disappeared completely off the map. No one was able to find her and Palin fell into a deep depression.
After three years of therapy with Dr. Worthington, Palin was finally able to start living a normal life. He began training with Xavier and his father again, but Jono saw that his son was learning more from Xavier and that the two were forming a strong bond. Jealous, but not wanting to admit it, Chamber left the Institute for a job with MI-13. Palin hardly seemed to notice as his training with Xavier grew more intense. He was learning the full extent of his abilities, but more importantly he was learning how to restrain them. With Xavier’s help, he felt like he would be able to live a normal life apart from what his parents had been through.
Then, unexpectedly, Tara returned…
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