Backlash regretted ever saving these interdimensional travelers. All they did was die. The one called Superboy and his friend, Invisible Skrull, were all that stood to help him against the Brotherhood. Backlash was just glad that Wolverine wasn’t involved in the fray. Slayton had been pretending to be a student of Wolverine for years while in truth he was an undercover agent for Harvey Dent. Backlash could only imagine the rage the Marauder would have at being tricked. Joker’s anger at getting sucker punched probably would be enough to earn Slayton years of torture.

“Poor little Backlash. All alone and with nobody to help him,” Killer Frost laughed as she licked her deep blue lips in anticipation of the kill.

“I’m far from poor. I did pay attention to Wolverine ya know!” Slayton replied as he leaped into the air and unleashed his extraordinarily long psi-whips. One whip wrapped around the neck of Ray and extended to entrap the ankle of Midnighter. The second whip took the torso of Trapster. Unleashing the power of his weapons caused the minds of all those entrapped in it to temporarily turn to goop.

Using the moment of confusion Invisible Skrull entrapped the head of Resurrection Man in a bubble and began to contract the bubble with great force. Resurrection man whipped around in great agony and let loose flares of flame in the desperate hope to end his pain. He knew that he could never die, but nonetheless that never eased the pain of someone trying to do it. Cracks began to appear along his skull and blood gushed forth, but was simply contained by the field.

Meanwhile Superboy flew forward and slammed into Raven hoping to kill her quickly and make their escape. Moving with super speed he maneuvered himself behind the sorceress and snapped her neck. The sound was loud enough to catch the attention of Killer Frost who let out an anguished cry and sent ice spikes Superboy’s way. Superboy knocked away the ice with ease and moved to finish off Killer Frost when a yellow blast ripped the Kryptonian clone in half.

Backlash looked up with horror at the newest participant in the fight. Lord Sinister had seen it fit to check in on the matter at hand.

“You treacherous little worm! For you to turn your back on my Marauders after they took you in. You will die for such insolence you fool!” Sinister screamed as he sent a pillar of energy at Slayton.

There was nothing Backlash could do, but to pray that someone made Sinister one day pay for all of his sins.

Deathcharge, Bullseye, and Gladiator were the three screw-ups who had been assigned the most boring job in all of Sinister’s great empire. They were serving, as security for the Nucleus, which was so heavily fortified no one, would even be bold to make an attempt on it. So basically the three warriors sat around doing nothing, but trading war stories back and forth.

“I remember the invasion of Atlantis like it was yesterday. Black Manta had led the charge and there wasn’t a damn thing Namor could do to stop it! Ahh good times,” Deathcharge smiled as he chugged back a drink. The Atlantean had once served as a scientist for his kingdom and gained energy wielding abilities after conducting experiments on himself. Desiring a higher position of power Deathcharge sold out his people to Sinister.

“Yea I got held back from going on the Atlantis attack. I was in Hungary trying to push through Europe,” Bullseye sighed. It was because of what happened in Hungary that he was in the position he held now. He had been assigned by Sinister to kill the cybernetic man known as Bastion. He nearly had his kill if it wasn’t for the X-Men interfering and stopping him. Because of that Bastion was able to rally his Prime Sentinels and push back Sinister’s troops. Bullseye was lucky that he even still had his life.

“Gladiator was fighting in Australia. Ra’s Al Ghul beat Gladiator’s forces,” the metal covered brute groaned. It was said that ever since the devastating loss in Australia that Gladiator had lost his mind and was deemed too unstable to do any real work in the empire of Lord Sinister. So he had been reduced to being security at a place that had never had any real need for it.

Before Bullseye could comment on how much he hated Ghul a series of sirens went off all around him. It was the proximity alert. Someone was actually trying to get into the Nucleus!

Turning his face quickly to the computer Deathcharge gasped, “We got 20 plus enemies! Lets get prepped people!”

Gladiator rubbed the razor blades on his wrists together, “Finally Gladiator will have the chance to spill blood!”

Blink kicked one of the mechanical guards in the head as magma flew by her and struck two more of the artificial sentries. Clarice landed on the ground gracefully after striking her blow and allowed for Hardcase to leap over her and slam into another droid.

“Lets make short work of these guys!” Blink ordered as created portal after portal within the attacking robots. The energy from her portals was enough to rip the robots apart. All the while Magma and Storm were letting loose their elemental rage upon the attacking androids. The waves of robots just didn’t seem to stop coming.

“Finally we got some flesh and blood to hit on!” Bluestreak exclaimed as she peered upwards and caught sight of the hovercraft carrying Deathcharge and the others.

“They are pathetic worms!” Reed von Doom yelled as a blue beam flew forth from his hand and destroyed the vehicle. As the debris fell to the ground still burning the son of Doctor Doom turned to Bluestreak with menacing eyes, “And I have no time for worms!”

“I like your style Doom. No mess. No fuss,” Mr. Majestic commented.

“Move it people before Sinister notices something is up and sends in his lil storm troopers,” Blink ordered.

“She’s right. I’m not picking up any minds except those of prisoners so we’re good to go for now. But Sinister’s eyes see everything. He will know something is wrong at the Nucleus and send his enforcers after us,” Xavier warned.

“The Nucleus is under attack sir. We’ve got reports coming in left and right from nearby bases and the security systems of the facility itself. Whoever decided to attack it decided to attack it hard,” Killer Frost reported to Sinister, who’s back was turned to her.

“Who are the attackers?” Sinister asked having his suspicions that it was either Bastion or Ra’s Al Ghul as he considered them the only two capable of launching a successful attack against his massive prisoner lab.

“The two X-Men teams are confirmed, but they’re also accompanied by a group of strangers that are a bit baffling sir. Blink, Cannonball, and She-Hulk all died in the invasion of Atlantis yet they’re with the X-Men. A copy of Storm and Mr. Majestic were also spotted amongst the attackers,” Killer Frost replied fearful of how Lord Sinister would react to what she was telling him.

“Perhaps the humans have finally learned that genetics is a weapon of awesome power. Go with your Brotherhood and Factor X. Eliminate the attackers and get their DNA samples. I will teach the humans who the master of genetics is,” Sinister exclaimed.

Bowing Killer Frost turned away from Lord Sinister and walked out of the room. She had to hide her excitement at being able to take on the X-men again. She owed Meggan for killing Whirlwind and anyone who would pretend to act like her best friend, Blink, deserved to get killed in the worst way possible.

“Okay guys we’re going to split up here. Bluestreak and Reed will come with me. Stepstone will go with the X-Men Gold team. Lorna, Xorn, and Cannonball will go together as well. Everyone else get to the center of this base and shut all the damn security off,” Blink ordered as she could hear the coming of more robotic drones.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Hardcase said. He had to admit that this Nucleus gave him the creeps. It reminded him far too much of Rune’s Blood Castle back on his world. The governments of the world freely gave their criminals to Rune for him to feast upon. Rune grew in power until he made a bid to control everything. Too many Ultras had died in the battle against him and what was found inside the Blood Castle could make anyone spew their insides.

“What happens if we can’t get to the center of this place?” Cortez asked curious as to what Blink had for a back-up plan.

“Then that means we find Darkstar and haul ass with as few causalities as possible,” Blink replied completely certain in her leadership for once. Ever since the vampire world where she lost Morph and Sunfire she had been unsure of herself. Something about this world had restored confidence to her.

“If we keep talking we’ll have security all over our asses in a sec here people. Lets just do the damn thing and get it over with!” Stepstone yelled growing irritated with the doubts of the others. She just wanted to get this mission over with and move on to the next world.

“I gotta agree with Illyana on this one. The rest of you guys can’t keep up with me and I don’t want to leave any stragglers in my dust,” Bluestreak teased.

Blink rolled her eyes, “Move out people!”

This was the third room that Reed had examined and already he was growing tired of seeing the pathetic prisoners begging for someone to free them. Blink had been weak to oblige the fools, but none of them had been of any combat use thus far. Doom could only hope that this room would bear more fruitful prizes.

“Please! Free us!” Silver Sable yelled as she pulled fanatically at the chains keeping her pinned to the wall.

“Finally! Fighters,” Reed said as he blasted Silver Sable, Black Widow, and Dr. Light free of their chains.

Eight deformed arms protruded out of Black Widow’s back and her eyes no longer resembled those of a human. She had been subjected to the horrible experiments of the Nucleus and would never again be the same person she once was. Looking up with pleading eyes she said, “Kill me please. I don’t want to live like this.”

Seeing Widow reminded Blink of the horrors that Sinister and Dark Beast had reeked upon the people of her world. Nothing would ever wipe those memories from her mind and seeing this pathetic woman made all those memories flood forward. Taking out one of her javelins Blink looked down upon Black Widow with mercy and ended her life.

“There is no time to mourn! We must move!” Reed von Doom commanded as he lifted Silver Sable and Dr. Light to their feet.

Stepstone cut down the last of the machines guarding Darkstar. With her superior strength Meggan ripped loose the chains of Darkstar and the exhausted woman fell into Meggan’s arms.

“Here take her Senyaka,” Meggan said as she passed the Russian off onto the shoulder of Senyaka. He kept Darkstar stable with one arm and held his sword with the other.

“Okay now let’s hope everyone else is doing good,” Cortez commented as he prepared to amp up everyone’s powers. With Darkstar in tow they now had to barrel their way out of the building.

Almost on cue the roof of the Nucleus began to shake violently. Pink energy could be seen poking through holes and crevices in the roof. Stepstone looked to the seemingly sleeping Darkstar, “She’s ripping the roof wide open!”

Within a matter of moments the roof was ripped clear off the building and the sight everyone saw descending from the sky was enough to make their skin crawl.

“It’s the Brotherhood and Factor X,” Meggan gulped as she saw the wicked smile plastered across Killer Frost’s face.