Jean Grey held out her hand and placed it on her lover’s shoulder. Emma Frost took the tender touch for what it was, but she still couldn’t help but to think about the coming fight. She had known that her team had gotten in way over their heads when they decided it was for them to keep The Four, but she had never expected things to come to this. Emma hated that she had gotten Jeanie and the X-Men involved in her prideful struggle with Tony Stark. He wanted The Four and she would be damned before she gave them up. Now they were about to have The Avengers and Thunderbolts come down on their heads because of it.
Luckily, things had seemed to shift in their favor during the past hour. A group of dimensional travels called The Exiles had shown up and said it was their mission to stop the combined attack of The Avengers and Thunderbolts. Despite the fact that it was their mission their leader still had questions she wanted answers to.
“Just what are The Four?” Blink asked becoming a bit annoyed with Emma’s evasiveness. She really hadn’t encountered too many versions of this woman in her travels, but according to Bluestreak and Stepstone she was a ruthless woman on their worlds.
Emma sighed, “The Four are very much like yourselves.”
“Stop beating around the damn bush already! Tell me who The Four are right damn now!”
Emma laughed, but a stern look from Jean silenced her, “Fine. The Four are four beings from another world that all seem to be children of superpowered humans. Their names are engraved on each of the canisters they’re contained in. Alyssa Richards, Steven Summers, Lisa Farouk, and Damon Murdock. We were only able to do simple DNA analysis on them with Cerebro.”
“So why are the Avengers and Thunderbolts after you because of keeping The Four?” Blink asked.
Jean chimed in this time; “Tony Stark and Emma Frost have been competitors for years. Stark wants the chance to look at The Four and unfortunately he’ll do anything to get it. He has influence over War Machine and Icemaster who are both respective leaders of the Avengers and Thunderbolts.”
“Isn’t there anybody you guys can turn to? The Defenders? Fantastic Four?” Blink asked.
Emma looked at Clarice darkly, “The Fantastic Four all died in a battle with Mr. Sinister and Red Skull. The Defenders…”
“…disbanded after Shang-Chi and Gargoyle turned against us. None of us ever saw it coming really. Dr. Strange was busy and Nighthawk was injured. I was supposed to be the leader. Well, I won’t lead anymore,” Ben Reilly said.
“And that’s how you ended up with the X-Men I suppose? Running from your problems?” Reed von Doom asked snidely.
“You don’t know me and don’t pretend to,” Ben replied.
“I know a broken person when I see it. Whatever happened to you while you were on the Defenders left you less than whole. I’ve seen it a thousand times.”
“Oh really and just how would you know that? From the way you carry yourself I bet you barely lift a finger on your team let alone face any real danger,” Ben Reilly insulted as he finished pouring the milk into his bowl of cereal.
“Scum, my world was filled with more dangers than you could even begin to comprehend. I waged war against my father and at least none of my allies betrayed me!” Reed snapped.
When Reed had first rebelled against his father, Doctor Doom, he had garnered the help of The Last Marvels. They were called that because they were the last heroes of Earth that remained after his father began his universal conquest. There had been seven of them; She-Hulk, Thor, Silver Surfer, Hulk, Sersi, Candra, and Gravitron. Reed had great success with them and they were hurting his father’s empire before he got snatched away to Timebroker’s forsaken team.
Before Ben had a chance to spring on Reed the leader of the Exiles busted into the room, “Reed! Settle down! You can be such an…”
“…ass sometimes. I mean he seems like he has a good heart, but hell with Doctor Doom as a father the genetics aren’t exactly in his favor,” Bluestreak joked with Domino and Molten Man as they played Spades.
“Well, if the Doctor Doom of his world is anything like the Doom of ours then I say he’s a saint compared to what he could have been,” Molten Man replied as he laid down a 2 of hearts.
“Why do you say that?” Bluestreak asked curiously.
“Doom was involved in the Weapon X program that made me into what I am today. He was head of Project: Devour, which I was a part of alongside Victor Creed and Ben Parker,” Molten Man explained.
“I was trained by Weapon X just like
Bluestreak suddenly looked bewildered, “Logan? As in Wolverine?”
Molten Man looked confused, “Wolverine? Never heard of him.”
“Never mind,” Bluestreak quickly said, “Lets just get back to the game.”
“So how’d you end up with the X-Men?” Stepstone asked Bishop as they prepared themselves for a session in the Danger Room.
Bishop looked at Illyana darkly, “From what I’m told I was a soldier against the X-Men at first. I worked with Black Air alongside Trevor Fitzroy, Mountjoy, Blink, and Pete Wisdom.”
“So is seeing our Blink hard for you?” Illyana asked.
“No. I don’t remember anything from my Black Air time. I was mindwiped in Black Air’s last battle against the X-Men. Emma Frost wiped my brain clean. I guess she felt I was better off alive,” Bishop said with a bit of resentment in his voice.
Seeing that she was making Bishop angry the former X-Men leader changed the subject, “So is there an Astrid Bloom on your world?”
“There was. She was Emma’s teacher. Then she went dark and allied herself with Sinister. I killed her with a bullet to the head,” Bishop stated bluntly.
Gulping slightly Stepstone said, “Lets get this session started already.”
Anakin looked out the window and stared down at his hand. Black energy lanced out from it and then retracted itself. The Jedi had felt strange ever since the attack that was done upon him by the vampire wizard, Kirigi. Some new power was working alongside his Force abilities and strangely enough the power felt good. It was something he wanted to hold onto. Such dark pleasures were something that a good Jedi had to fight against and Anakin struggled to fight them off now.
“Skywalker are you all right? You seem disturbed by something,” Belladona, the only person in the whole mansion who didn’t refer to Star Wars, said as she entered into the spacious room.
“I’m fine. Just itching for this battle to begin already though I do sense something is off. It’s probably just my powers not being attuned to this universe,” Anakin replied.
“Still your use of your powers is quite impressive to say the least. I think your Jedi might have been able to hold their own against The Band of Seven.”
Anakin smiled, “Who were they?”
“My trainers. They were Shang-Chi, Elektra, Pai Mei, Lui Kang, Ogun, Lady Shiva, and Fei Long. The world had never seen better fighters. They found me as a child in the wreckage of what was once the HQ of the Assassin’s Guild. I was raised and trained by all of them. I am the summation of all their abilities,” Belladona explained.
“What happened to them?”
Belladona paused before answering the question as if memories had flooded her mind too quickly, “They were slaughtered by the endless forces of Black Womb. Luckily, my mutant nature granted me immortality through my status as an External. I fought against Black Womb for nearly 400 years. I continued on the Boudreaux line and reformed the Assassin’s Guild all in an attempt to destroy Black Womb, but it was worthless. All worthless.”
“To fight bravely is never worthless. That’s what my master taught me before he was killed,” Anakin said.
“How did he die?” Belladona asked wanting to shift subjects.
“Against a powerful Sith Lord, Mace Windu, and his apprentice, Padme Amidala. We had been sent to a war rifed planet and it was there that he was slain. I should have paid attention, but I didn’t and it cost my master his life. Qui-Gonn Jinn was one of the bravest men I ever had the pleasure of knowing. I learned a great deal from him.”
Belladona sighed, “It seems we have both lost our masters.”
“Indeed.”
“Shouldn’t they have been here by now?” Blink asked Emma.
Emma nodded, “Yes, they should have been. Maybe they’re just trying to catch us off guard.”
“Or maybe not,” Blink replied as she pointed out of the window to the gates of the Institute.
Emma and Jean came up behind Blink and looked out of the window with her to see a tall, long blonde wearing a golden crown and cloaked in a black fur jacket. He was carrying a large sword in his hand and a collection of heroes was behind him. Blink recognized the members of the Dark Guard they had just faced and even some of the other ones looked familiar to her. She spotted what could have been a version of Sabertooth, a version of Puma and a version of Iceman.
“This must King Brian,” Blink whispered.
“Who?” Jean asked.
“I’ll explain on the way out. Get everyone together,” Blink ordered as she walked out of the door with a bit more attitude than she had walked in with.
“I was wondering if you would take all day or not,” King Brian joked as he placed his sword in front of him and rested on it.
“Lets cut the bullshit,” Blink said killing the light mood that Brian was trying to create, “Why are you here? Not trying to destroy another world huh?”
“No, but we did just get done annihilating two teams that were about to give you one hell of a headache,” Elsa Bloodstone smiled.
Emma and Jean looked at each other then back at Blink. Clarice wasn’t paying the couple any attention and was keeping her gaze focused on Brian, “Look your highness we appreciate it, but we didn’t ask for your help.”
“No you didn’t,” Brian smirked, “But Timebroker did.”
“What’s going on here Astrid?” Stepstone blurted out.
Astrid didn’t answer her former teammate and turned her eyes to King Brian. She couldn’t let herself get caught up in old feelings and old emotions. Things had changed too much. The rift between her and Stepstone would have to continue to grow. It was the only way to keep both of them sane.
“The Timebroker came to me with a deal. We’ve agreed to help each other every now and then. But that’s for me and him to worry about. Now I’ve come to claim my prize.”
“There’s no prizes to be claimed here,” Reed von Doom snarled.
“You must be the child of Doom,” King Brian sighed as he stepped forward, “I’ve come for The Four. They are mine. Do not oppose me. Any of you.”
That last comment had been directed to Blink and she knew it, but if the Timebroker had made his bed with King Brian then she had to give up The Four. Looking to Emma she gave a defeated shrug, “I gotta give him what he wants.”
“He can have them. Those four have caused me and my team more problems than any of you could ever know,” Emma said stepping aside to let King Brian through.
“Just because Timebroker is working with you don’t think that makes us anything even remotely close to friends,” Blink warned.
Elsa glared at Blink, “Shut up for once. We’re allies now so just take that reality and deal with it. Bitching and moaning about it won’t do us any good.”
“You destroy worlds. Kinda hard for us to get all nice and cozy with you,” Bluestreak laughed.
“Do you want to put a bullet in all their heads right now?” Bishop asked with all seriousness.
“Bishop! Don’t even go there,” Emma cautioned.
“Fine, we’re allies. For now,” Blink said as the Tallus began to glow.
“Guess we’re off to the next world. It was nice meeting you Logan and Domino,” Bluestreak waved.
“You too kid,” Molten Man smiled.