#18 -
The Exiles sat around the rusty round table with Justice, Firestar, and Invisible Woman. The Morlock Tunnels had been turned into a makeshift HQ for the resistance. Most of the equipment was used or damaged, but Clarice felt right at home in it. This was the kind of environment she had spent the majority of her young life in. Justice and the others were kindred spirits to her. Their condition was worse than hers though. Blink never had the luxury of knowing a peaceful world. Justice and the others had known that and were probably tortured by it. She held a great deal of empathy for these resistance fighters. So much of it reminded her of home. So much it almost hurt. There were times she missed Morph and Mr. Creed so much that she could barely breathe. This was one of those times.
Anakin felt the disparity of this situation more than all the others. He had come from a world of sprawling space ships, magnificent cities, and worlds of a billion lights. To see any people reduced to this made him feel a great swell of rage. No one should have to live through these conditions. It reminded him all too well of the deserts of Tatooine.
Faith on the other hand was the least affected by this sewer drenched, war tainted environment. In her mind once someone got a taste of real Hell any earthly situation was a cakewalk. She had to traverse Hell realms for nearly three years with an idiot by the name of Xander at her side. She remembered all too well how that idiot slowly transformed into a cold-blooded warrior. Before long they were lovers and came only days away from marriage. Unfortunately, a drugged up witch ripped him limb from limb. Losing him felt like Hell all over again.
Captain Avalon felt all these thoughts and remained silent. She was going to keep a low profile within this group and the less she said the better it would be. All of the team had mixed feelings about her thus far. They all had been pretty open about their worlds and they weren’t quite use to someone keeping to themselves. Her fiancé, Pete Wisdom, had taught her the less people knew about you the better.
Belladona understood what it was like having to operate in small groups. She had fought a solo battle against Black Womb for nearly two centuries. Being alone in a fight against a much larger enemy was a tremendous lesson in despair. Belladona saw the desperation all around her. It was enveloping.
For every world she had been to it was still shocking to see the devastation that so many worlds endured. Stepstone’s world was a relatively tame world in comparison to this world and others like it. Being in this place made her yearn for her home all the more. She could only hope the Timebroker would send her home soon. Illyana had no idea the condition her world was in. When she had left, she had sent Karma on a liaison mission with Bill Foster, Commander Moscow, Thor, and Kelsey Liegh to the Shi’ar Empire. They were in the midst of a civil war that threatened to spill onto Earth. Only days before she joined the Exiles she had uncovered a large cache of Shi’ar weapons in Genosha.
“So did you have a Clone Wars on your world?” Justice asked as Firestar passed dusty lukewarm Coca-Cola cans around the table.
Angelica looked at her husband with annoyed dismay and quickly apologized for his behavior, “Please forgive my prying husband. This man doesn’t know when to stop asking questions.”
Anakin laughed away Firestar’s annoyance and said, “Don’t worry I don’t mind. No, we didn’t have a Clone Wars on my world. Chancellor Valorum was very good at keeping the peace. He was definitely unpopular because of that.”
“No offense guys, but I would prefer to stick to our mission,” Belladona said.
Captain Avalon could no longer hold it back. “She’s right. We need to solve our problem and solve it now. Justice you’re in pain aren’t you?”
If Justice was taken aback by the comment he didn’t let it show. “Yes. Yes I am in pain. Every day. I was hoping it wasn’t that obvious.”
Blink eyed Captain Avalon carefully and said, “It isn’t. Just who are you Avalon? I’ve been reluctant to pry, but now I want some answers. I want them now.”
All eyes were on Grey and she knew that she couldn’t continue to be evasive forever. So relutacntly she said, “I’m a telepath. My name’s Sarah. My abilities allowed me to figure out what our mission a while ago, but I didn’t want to reveal myself. Captain America thought of Justice as a son and that’s what the Tallus meant.”
Anakin was beginning to understand what was going on and said, “Freedom from captivity huh? The Tallus wishes us to kill Justice.”
Firestar flared up at that comment and yelled, “No one is touching my husband! No one!”
Blink held up a hand of peace and quickly said, “And none of us intend to. We’re here to help. The Tallus may not mean that. The wording there was vague.”
During the entire conversation Justice held his head low in shame. The Exiles had come to do what he had been debating on doing for nearly three years. Love of his wife had kept him around, but maybe the arrival of the Exiles was a sign that it was time for him to go. He was about to affirm Anakin’s statement when sirens began to sound off around the underground tunnel.
Invisible Woman reached underneath the table and released a hidden gun she had placed there. Grabbing the weapon she said, “We have an intruder alert! Brace yourselves everyone!”
“I can teleport us out of here,” Blink said, but Invisible Woman shook her head.
“Too much information for us to leave behind.”
Anakin unleashed his lightsaber and said, “Then we fight.”
“So why not just destroy all the valuables in here and run for it?” Faith asked. She loved a fight as much as the next person, but it seemed stupid fighting yourself out of a corner when you didn’t have to.
Invisible Woman rejected that suggestion as well. “A scorched earth plan isn’t beneficial to us. If worse comes to worse we’ll do it, but if we can hold off then we may just be able to transfer information.”
“Slim hope to be betting on,” Stepstone said wishing that Blue streak was still around. She would have been able to do some quick recon and give them an idea what they were up against. She could ask the telepath to try and fill that role, but something about that woman didn’t sit right with her. She was hiding something form them so she automatically couldn’t be trusted.
“Hope is all we have,” Sue replied.
Captain Avalon snickered. “Seems more like desperation to me.”
Before anyone could respond the steel door that guarded the cell’s hideout exploded violently. Justice used his telekinesis to deflect away the debris and once the smoke settled their enemy was made plain. Sandman was flanked by robots that were as lanky as Jack Skellington, but packing enough firepower to shoot off a round every minute for three years.
“Sandman! How the hell did you find us?” Firestar roared.
Baker smiled. “It wasn’t hard to. Your friends were putting off so much extradimensional residue that they were like beacons.”
Blink’s heart sank at that revelation. The exposure of Justice and his cell was all their fault. If not for their sudden appearance the heroes would have never been discovered. The Tallus dropped them off where they could be in any damn scenario. It seemed like they were doing more damage to some of thee worlds than they were helping.
“Look, just surrender now and save me the trouble. A messy fight isn’t what any of us want right now,” Sandman said.
Clarice smiled. “Was just about to say the same for you.”
“Woman, you should be happy that compassion stays my hand. Otherwise, my machines would have cut you down already.”
Anakin’s eyes glossed over gray and they began to pulsate as he tapped into his abilities. With the power of The Force the heads of all the machines were imploded. As they fell all around Sandman, the Jedi said, “That’s what I make of your machines.”
“So you think you might want to go ahead and give up?” Blink gloated as she folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot in mock impatience.
Sandman snarled. “Giving up isn’t an option.”
“He’s right,” Captain Avalon said and then she turned to Blink. “We need to go right now! Grey is sending in more troops. We won’t be able to handle them.”
Clarice turned to Sue and asked, “Where do you want to go?”
Susan bit her bottom lip and said with firmness, “Philadelphia. Get us to Philadelphia. Warbird should be there.”
Blink nodded and opened up a portal. She could only hope this world’s Philadelphia was in relative close distance to the city on her world. Clarice moved everyone through the portal until it was just her and Captain Avalon.
“I am going to make this very clear to you right now. Don’t hold anything else from us or we will have some problems,” Blink warned. Captain Avalon seemed unmoved by her words.
“Let me make this clear. I will tell you what I want to tell you and how I want to tell you.”
Blink stepped back in front of her portal and said coldly, “Find your own way then.”
Clarice stepped back into her portal and it dissipated before Captain Avalon had a chance to stop her. Sarah cursed under her breath and pulled a silver medallion from her pocket. The wizard, Ian Fate, had given her the item after she had saved him from Madruk Kurios. It was a one time item that granted you one favor. She had to make it count and she knew exactly how.
She gripped the item tightly as the hundreds of footsteps of Grey’s troops became louder and louder. Sarah really wished that Peter was with her right now. She was missing the hell out of him and needed his comforting hand. As the troops of Grey became visible she muttered angrily, “You will pay for this Blink!”
“Her powers are amazing!” Justice exclaimed as they exited from Clarice’s portal. “If our world had a version of her we’d all be in Stark’s city by now.”
Anakin looked behind him and saw Blink step through the portal alone. Once she stepped through, it closed behind her and the Jedi asked, “Where is Avalon? What has become of her?”
Blink shook her head and said, “Baker got to her. I wasn’t able to save her. I wouldn’t have been able to get out.”
“Don’t go beating yourself up Blink. Shit happens. We do a dangerous job,” Faith said knowing that her words were probably of little comfort to her leader.
“We still have a mission to complete before we can leave this world. Justice, what do you want us to do for you?” Blink asked.
Justice looked solemnly to his wife, sighed and said with resolve, “I need you to teleport me into Grey’s citadel.”
Firestar gasped. “That’s insane! Vance what the hell are you thinking? That’s suicide!”
Moving forward he wrapped his arms around Angelica and hugged her tight. “I know Ang. That’s the plan. This war has taken too many of our friends. We can finally end it.”
Tears began to stream profusely down Firestar’s face and she said in-between sobs, “Why Vance? There’s gotta be another way. Let’s meet up with Warbird and figure something out.”
Justice shook his head. “It can’t wait any longer. This needs to end now and I intend to do it. I’m sorry Angie. I really am, but this world needs me to do this.”
“Why do you wanna leave me? Tell me that?”
Vance pulled Angelica close to him and hugged her tight as he could. “I don’t want to leave you Angie, but I gotta do this. Grey has ruled over us for too long.”
Blink interrupted. “You don’t have to do this right now Vance. We’ll give you a couple of days. Prolong our stay here a little bit. I can begin to help transport people to Stark’s city.”
Vance shook his head. “No Blink. If I do this now there won’t be any reason for you to stay behind.”
“If you’re doing this then I’m coming with you!” Firestar exclaimed.
“No Ang! This-
Angelica slapped Justice across the face. “I don’t want to hear it! You want to go and kill yourself off and leave me behind. I don’t think so partner. We’ve been together for too long. If you do this…we do it together.”
Clarice stepped forward and laid a hand on Justice’s shoulder. “So are the two of you ready to go?”
Justice nodded and looked to Firestar. She nodded as well. Blink stepped back from the two of them and formed a portal underneath their feet. As the two heroes slipped through it they kissed for one last time.
“I hope their sacrifice isn’t in vain,” Invisible Woman said as she knelt on the ground and began to cry.
“It won’t be. When we move from world to world we have to fix things and it’s usually in some major way. I have a feeling those two will succeed in what they intend to do,” Anakin replied. He wasn’t a master at consoling, but he was doing his best.
Sue continued to cry for her lost teammates, but simultaneously cried with joy at the new hope her children’s future had.
“They saved another world! When are you going to let us move against them?” Deathstroke asked outraged at the success of the Exiles.
Vange laughed and moved his long blonde locks from the front of his face. “You will get your chance Deathstroke. Be patient. Besides I want you all to be more than just an opposing team for the Exiles. I want you to be a downright overpowering army of ferocity. You’re not quite there yet. So give me time.”
“And what of our newest member? Does she not add enough?”
“She is powerful, but also held back by the side of her that is still good. She will be valuable, but there is some faultiness there,” Vange replied.
A slender, redhead stepped into the middle of the conversation. Flames surged around her body as she said, “The Dark Phoenix is many things. But faulty is not one of them.”
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