“Red Skull! Elektra!
Electro!” Sinister yelled calling out the names of his three top ranking
generals, in the wake of the Marauders’ deaths.
“Yes sir,” Red Skull said coming into the chambers of the
warlord followed by his other two generals.
“I want the enemies to me eliminated. Succeed where the Marauders failed and you
shall be greatly praised in the history books.
All three of you, but be warned.
These fools are not to be taken lightly,” Sinister cautioned.
“Of course sir.
We’ll take care of them promptly,” Red Skull promised.
“Good. I don’t want to have to get involved in this
conflict,” Sinister warned.
Blink looked forward and gave a grim stare to the citadel
of the man that they were going to kill.
Technically, her and the Exiles should have already disappeared as they
already accomplished their goal. Maybe
Timebroker was pulling some strings to keep them here to assist Mr. Majestic
and Darkstar. Honestly, Clarice was glad
for it because she wanted to kill this Sinister as much as any native of this
world. She had seen him commit so much
murder and destruction. He reeked of the
scent of her world’s Sinister.
“We have company,” Stepstone said as she saw a few familiar
faces headed their way.
Marrow, Colossus, Namor, Spike, and the lion/man hybrid
Afrikaa ran towards the group of Exiles and their ally. Stepstone ached for the chance to fight
again. Mistress Strange deserved to get
a hundred lives in return for her one.
Bluestreak deserved to have just as many killed for the limb that was
stolen from her. Anger simmered on the
edge of Stepstone’s psyche. The kind of
anger that made those who saw it cower in fear and afterwards made the person
experiencing it break down into tears.
Illyana hated to feel anger such as this and she had to try to keep
herself under control. She didn’t want
anything bad to happen.
“You have come far enough Exiles,” Afrikaa said as he
landed in front of Stepstone and swung his metal staff intending to strike her
in the chest. Stepstone dodged the staff
and while Afrikaa was off-balance she stabbed him through the stomach with her
sword. She actually found herself
enjoying the assault and took the time to savor Afrikaa’s last screams. Dark emotions were whirling through her and
as much as she was trying to ignore them she couldn’t. They were just far too tempting to give in
to.
“Witch!” Colossus yelled as came up from behind Stepstone
and was about to knock her over the head with his fists.
“Didn’t your momma teach you not to hit women,” Majestic
smiled as he grabbed the organic steel wrist of Colossus and squeezed. The metallic flesh bend like paper under
Majestic’s grip and Colossus let loose a high-pitched scream.
“Now that’s music to my ears,” Majestic said as he flung
the man’s body into Namor who was battling Reed von Doom. The two bodies collided with a massive
impact and Namor was killed instantly from the attack. Colossus was still alive, but in terrible
pain. Majestic knew that he would be no
threat to his allies now and so turned his attention to the last remaining
member of Sinister’s attack group.
“Guess that just leaves you Spike,” Blink said as she
dropped the head of Marrow to the ground.
The young mutant could only gulp,
as he knew what fate awaited him. All he
could hope was that maybe somewhere on the other side there was peace waiting
for him.
They had finally reached the base that contained the man
they all had been seeking for quite some time.
Darkstar was eager for retribution as she ripped open the doors to
Sinister’s Citadel. After the suffering
she had gone through in the Nucleus she deserved to be the first to have her
way with Sinister. Unfortunately, being
deserving had nothing to do with real life and upon opening the door her brain
was fried to a crisp by a powerful electrical blast from Electro.
“Bastard!” Blink yelled as she flung four of her energy
charged javelins the general’s way.
Electro dodged all of them with ease, but paying attention to Blink cost
him. He hadn’t seen Illyana use her step
disc to teleport behind Electro.
Sneaking up on him she gave a quick thrust of her sword through his head. When his dead body dropped to the ground
Stepstone promptly kicked it and spit in the man’s face.
“We need to stop playing games and do away with Sinister
for good!” Reed von Doom reminded as he stepped over the dead body of Electro
and past Stepstone. He nearly wanted to
cry out in utter frustration at what he saw waiting for him.
Elektra and Red Skull were at the head of this current
attack group. Behind them were
Crossbones who held his serrated shield with loving care. Captain Cold and Killer Croc were behind
Crossbones and all of them had murderous looks in their eyes. Reed knew exactly
what Sinister was trying to accomplish.
By attacking them in waves over and over again he hoped to be able to
kill a few of them and exhaust the rest.
“You kill our friends.
We kill you!” Killer Croc said as he licked his fingertips. His tongue roughly played with his green
scales. He was eager for the kill and
needed to consummate his hunger.
“I got this Blink.
Go ahead and handle the real business,” Stepstone said hanging her sword
over her shoulder and itching to make Croc eat those fingers that he was
licking.
“Illyana you don’t need to be a hero,” Blink replied, but
quickly stopped herself from saying anymore.
The look in Stepstone’s eyes was one she had never seen before and it
almost seemed like her pupils were red.
“I said I have this Blink.
Now go!” Stepstone said her voice taking on a tone that was unfamiliar
to everyone who had spent time with her.
Blink nodded her head and turned to the rest of those under
her command, “Move it!”
After the Exiles and Majestic were gone Illyana smiled
wickedly at her opponents, “You’re going to get to see a side of me I haven’t
shown in quite some time.”
Stepstone hated her dark side,
but she lusted in it at the moment. She
was going to unleash the Darkchilde. Her
skin turned black and her eyes went completely red. Golden horns popped forth from her forehead
and claws came out of her fingertips.
Wings ripped forth from her back and she growled with a hideous voice,
“I’m coming for you! Be ready!”
Sinister heard his doors crash open and laughed, “I had
hoped that you were all coming to pay me visit.
I’ve been watching your activities for quite some time. You’ve put quite the cramp into my plans.”
“We plan on putting a permanent cramp,” Blink said taking
her time walking towards Sinister holding a javelin in each of her hands.
“There are three of you.
You have no hope against me!” Sinister yelled as he turned around and
sent a blast at Blink.
Reed von Doom shoved the woman out of the way and tackled
her to the ground. He looked down at her
for a moment almost with care and then said, “Watch yourself girl! I can’t always be around to save you.”
“You needn’t worry about that Doom. I can take care of myself fine,” Blink said
rising to her feet.
Both of them could only watch as Majestic was locked in
combat with Sinister. He was taking the
heaviest blasts that Sinister could throw at him and he didn’t seem to be
faulting. Sinister wasn’t tiring either
in this fight. Both men were didn’t seem
to want to give an inch. Blink and Reed
wanted to join in the fight, but they couldn’t find any opening to spring on.
Neither would have to find an opening as Sinister was
finally able to find his and blew a hole clean through Majestic’s chest. The hero wasn’t even able to let out a gasp
as he fell backwards with a thud. Blink
become so enraged pink spatial energy was surging from her fingertips, but it
didn’t matter. She was
disappearing.
NO! Not like this! Not like this!
Timebroker looked upon his team of Exiles with tremendous
sorrow. He had hated to rip them away
from that awful world, but he could only bend the rules so long before Vange
took notice and retaliated. Cheating in
the game always carried heavy consequences with it. Though the blow he could have struck Vange
would have been worth it. Sadly, things
had not worked out as planned and he was short two teams.
“Why did you pull us away?
We could have taken him!!” Blink yelled, as the veins across her
forehead were clearly visible.
“I could not break the rules any longer. There would have been too high a price to pay
I’m afraid,” Timebroker replied.
“I think its time you give us some answers and give them to
us now!” Bluestreak exclaimed surprising everyone with the ferocity of her
voice.
Blink had forgotten all about her teammate in the midst of
her rage and she turned back to Bluestreak to see that her arm had been
replaced with some kind of nanotechnology.
She would ask for the details later, but right now they needed to full
court press Timebroker for information.
It wasn’t often that they got to deal with him directly and they might
not get another chance for months.
“You all are part of a great cosmic game to protect the
Omniverse from slow, inevitable death.
My counterpart, Vange, seeks to destroy all things and I’ve only kept
him at bay through a game of sorts we’ve agreed to play. You all are part of that game,” Timebroker
explained.
Reed von Doom could barely contain himself, “A game? You risk the safety of my world for a
game? You are fortunate I do not slay
you where you stand you impotent oaf! How
dare you assume that you even had the right to pluck us from our worlds
regardless of your so-called mightier intentions?!!”
“I gotta agree. We
lost Mistress Strange and Hardcase because of a game,” Stepstone said
coldly. The memory of Strange’s death
still stung her deeply, but she would be the levelheaded one in this. If Blink couldn’t be someone had to.
“This game as you put it ensures the survival of all your
worlds. I would not have chosen you if
you didn’t have the ability to do this task.
I promise when I feel that things are right I’ll return you to your
worlds. Blink can attest to that fact,
but I need all of you right now. Vange
is starting to win this game and we need to fight back against him. Your team is now the best one I have and you
will be my marshals in this fight,” Timebroker said as his image began to fade
away.
Blink and all the other Exiles felt the air leave their
chest and they felt like they were almost floating. Clarice knew what was coming and yelled out
one last warning, “No bullshit Timebroker!
No more bullshit!”
Once they were gone Timebroker
shook his head, “Things are just beginning.”
The fires of hell burnt all around the former Marauder as he struggled every second to survive. That damn woman had sent him to a place where his death was essentially assured. But he wouldn’t go down without a fight and he’d make sure it was a nasty one. A damn nasty one. Diving out of the way of some large claws he rolled into the hot mud of this hellish dimension. Rising to his feet he tossed a tiny blue bomb that stuck to the claws and created an explosion that was big enough to give him at least some proximity room to work in.
“Stop Deathstroke!
Go no further!”
The killer of thousands turned his head to discover the
source of the voice and had his gun ready to fire. Turning around slowly he saw an oddity amidst
the dimension of demons and ghoulish creatures.
A handsome white man with slick backed blonde hair was smiling at him.
“I have an offer you have no choice, but to accept,” Vange
grinned.