Cast
of Characters:
Rockface Britannia
Mustang Spiderboy Wildthing
Makarra Marvel Girl Luna
Stark Nightshade
Sprocket Starbird Chaos
Magni Vanguard Sentinel
Doom Shaman Crimson
Feran
Hellscout Fleetfoot Ranger
Oracle
What has come before: The Earth has been occupied by the
Martian invasion force. Even after the mystical barrier over
Previously: Sprocket and her team have discovered the god of mischief Loki’s
plot to conquer Asgard. They have joined up with the young mystics they were on
route to see in order to buy Asgard time to amount up a defence, it does not
look good. Meanwhile in the Negative Zone Britannia and her squad are caught up
in a civil war. Siding with Hellscout’s people they hope to help overthrow
Blastarr and his Martian allies and find a way home,
it does not look good.
NEGATIVE MAGIC
Part Three
“Asgardians of the
galaxy”
or
“There’s no place
like Zone”
The Negative Zone
“Ok, is
everyone ready and know the plan?” Britannia asked for about the thirtieth
time. She could be forgiven for been a little nervous she and the others were
about to head into only their second super powered battle and it was against
the current ruler of the Negative Zone, his army and the Martians. Britannia
faced the assembled heroes of Little Midgard and the Zone. “
If we stick to the plan we can all get out of this alive”
The plan was
simply enough in theory. Lockley would teleport them in where the heroes would
free Lockdown and Anihillus and all port out again, simple. However there was
just the small matter of the hundreds of Balurrian military present as well as
Lord Blastarr and his son and that’s not even mentioning the fleet of Martian
Tripods approaching. Hopefully once freed the Nega Protectors could marshal
their people along with Anihillus’ forces the to break up Blastarr’s military
machine and drive the Martians back which should allow the heroes to follow
them back to Earth.
The heroes
tensed in a shared moment of silence before Lockley’s silvery energy enveloped
them all and they disappeared from the alley they had just occupied.
A flash of
silver light and the assembled Balurrian military let out and involuntary gasp
as eleven young heroes, two synthazoids and a large two headed dog materialised
on Lord Blastarr’s stage. Immediately Valeria erected a force field to hold off
the already approaching Balurrians as well as placing Lockley and Aaron seated
below the canine in a protective dome. Angelica reinforced Valeria’s field with
a wall of earth she called up from the ground beneath the Balurrian’s feet,
sending many of them into their approaching colleagues in the process. Valeria’s
and Angelica’s defensive wall although strong would not hold the Baluurians for
very long as they numbered in their hundreds, so time was of the essence.
Ranger as soon as he had materialised had headed straight for his father
Lockdown who was currently crucified across large metal poles. Within seconds
Ranger had crossed the stage area and was working on his father’s gruesome
restraints. Energy blasts and projectile weapons struck or bounced around him
as he worked. Ranger would have been a sitting duck if not for the efforts of
the others who were doing their best the clear his path and then keep him
covered.
Fleetfoot had
grabbed Hellscout under his arms and unfurled his gossamer wings, which until
now he had kept tucked away in the hard shell casing on his back. Fleetfoot
took to the air carrying Hellscout beneath him. The pair headed for the prone
form of Anihillus who was similarly bound as Lockdown. This part of the plan
was distasteful to the pair who both hated this devil with every fibre of their
being but it would not be the first time these heroes were forced to make
alliances out of necessity. By the time they had reached Anihillus Ranger had
already freed Lockdown and was carrying his father’s weakened body back over to
Valeria’s position. As they landed Hellscout took out the two guards assigned
to Anihillus’ imprisonment with his deadly accurate long barrelled pistols.
Fleet foot dropped his friend then turned to face the other approaching
Baluurian military. He smiled as he saw the rocky hide of
Jocasta as the
most senior hero and one of the most powerful present had elected herself the
one to keep Blastarr occupied. She was doing a superb job of avoiding the
powerful yet clumsy blows from the Negative Zone dictator. Blastarr in recent
weeks had become supremely over confident due to his new found military
superiority thanks to the Martians, this had lead to a
lack of exertion on his part leaving him out of practise and training in
combat. Bursturr seeing his father been bested by a
lowly Earth machine became enraged and flung the body of Spider Boy away from
him, who until this moment had been doing a pretty good job of occupying the
heir of Blastarr. Spider Boy landed with a thud but most of the impact was
absorbed by his symbiote. He looked up and saw Bursturr lunging for Jocasta his
fist ablaze with energy. His fist never made contact with the Avenger as energy
coated fist suddenly disappeared from the end of his arm. At first Bursturr was
silent taking in the image of the blooded stump where his hand had been mere
seconds before. Then he let out an agonised howl causing all near by a moment
of pause amidst the battle. Bursturr whirled round to see Wild Thing her claws
extended still dripping with his blood. Pain and anger got the better of the
fear Bursturr was feeling in the pit of his stomach and fired a fiery blast of
energy at Wild Thing from his good hand. A second later he was on her, his
wound altered cortorized by his energy powers. The blast surprisingly had
actually managed the catch Wild Thing off guard with its ferocity; the energy
had burned deep into the left-hand side of her torso. Rina’s healing factor
would deal with the wound in time but she had more pressing matters, namely the
huge Baluurian prince bearing down on her his hand and eyes ablaze with deadly
energy. Wild Thing rolled onto her good side slashing up with her claws
catching the slower Bursturr across his chest. From watching Bursturr Wild
Thing knew he was an unrefined fighter relaying on power and strength. She also
knew one on one she could beat him but the animal like ferocity that had over
taken him had her a little worried, perhaps she had under estimated her
opponent or worse over estimated herself. Wild Thing’s brief hesitation allowed
Bursturr to land a powerful upper cut launching Wild Thing into the air and
over the fighting forms of Jocasta and Blastarr. This in turn distracted
Jocasta allowing Blastarr to finally land a decent blow to the synthaziod.
Jocasta tumbled to the ground allowing Blastarr to retrieve a powerful ionic
cannon, Jocasta knew from experience this Martian weapon could do her a lot of
damage. She braced for the impact, which didn’t come. Blastarr Looked down at
his weapon confused when it suddenly backfired hurling him away to land in a heap
next to the crumpled form of Wild Thing. Jocasta rose to her feet looking in
the direction of her son, he was sat cross-legged eyes closed under the huge
dog Lockley. Aaron was using his ability to disrupt and control machinery to
overload the Baluurian weapons forcing them to rely on hand to hand or bladed
weaponry.
It was then
the Martian Tripods arrived, but the heroes had planned ahead for this. The
plan was just to delay them long enough to gather then get the hell out of
there. Makarra and Mustang immediately got down to business leaving the
Balurrians they were fighting to the others. Mustang fired arrow after arrow
into the surrounding buildings. Each arrow was attached to a metallic string
like tether Mustang had never seen the like of before, a gift from Ranger.
Meanwhile Makarra was busy gathering the tethers and racing round the legs of
the approaching Tripods hoping to snare them up. Makarra was fast but the
Martian targeting systems were beginning to compensate so when a stray blast
clipped his left shoulder Makarra retreated hoping enough lines had been laid
down. Makarra raced back to Mustang his shoulder badly burnt. The pair looked
up smiling as the two front Tripods of the attacking three became tangled and
fell taking a large chunk of the buildings they were tethered to with them. The
smiles soon dropped as the third tripod skilfully negotiated the complex web of
tethers and wreckage. This was the command Tripod and hopefully contained the
wormhole tech, which allowed the Martians to access the zone. Makkarra and
Mustang were directly in its path with no where to go both squinted as the
Martian weapons trained on them. Then not for the first time the two were
protected from certain death by a pinkish transparent shield.
“This is two
you owe me,” the air borne Britannia said as she directed her TK at the Tripod.
She swooped down grabbing the two heroes, ferrying them to the meeting point
behind the rapidly crumbling defences of Rockface and Marvel Girl. Hellscout
and the others had returned with the weakened Anihillus and Britannia had
already retrieved Wild Thing and Spider Boy. As soon as everyone was gathered
Lockley ported out. The heroes rematerialized in the sewer system they had used
to enter the city as Lockley couldn’t port this many people much further. As soon as they where all fully there
Hellscout pounced on Anihillus grabbing him by the throat.
“You have
caused nothing but suffering to my people and loath as I am to help you it
seems we must pool our resources in order to rid ourselves of the greater
threat of Blastarr and his Martian allies. Believe me when I tell you that I
will kill you when this over with just as my father did before (1)”.
“Indeed” was
all the weakened Anihillus replied.
An hour or so
later the group emerged from the sewers miles away from the city and were meet
by Hellscout’s father and sister. However they were not alone behind them stood
a vast range of heavily armed warriors from all corners off the Zone.
“I see word
got out” Jericho chuckled looking at his people joined up with Fleetfoot’s
insectoid race, the heroes of Shadow city plus various other zone races all
joined to oppose the advance of Blastarr and the Martians.
“Yes young
Jericho” the senior Hellscout Kenneth answered “Blastarr has made few friends
since coming to power”.
Over to one
side away from all the others were Anihillus’ followers who had come at the
order of their master. While travelling away from the city Hellscout had used
his mental link with his sister Oracle to allow Anihillus to contact his forces
via her mental abilities, much as it sickened them to share a mental link with
the tormentor of their people.
“I will heal
you as best as I can” Oracle said as she approached the heroes. Most of them
were reasonably ok just a bit cut and bruised and Wildthing’s healing factor
and Makarra’s speeded up metabolism were already helping to take care of their
wounds. The worst of the group were Lockdown and Anihillus who had been
tortured for days. Anhillus however away from his imprisonment was using his
cosmic rod to heal himself; the rods energies had been blocked by the Martians
technology while he was captive. Ranger’s mother Rosetta Stone was already at
her husbands side, she was still light on her feet even though she was heavily pregnant.
“You should
have stayed away” Lockdown murmured.
“And look what
happens when I let you out on your own” Rosetta mockingly chastised. At this
point Oracle knelt down beside Lockdown and used her healing abilities the fix
as much of his injuries as she could. Wild Thing and Makarra were now fine and
Anhillus worryingly was back to full strength already. Lockdown sat up and flex
his newly revived muscles.
“Right lets
go!”
Asgard, The Enchanted Forest, The Enchantress’ Castle
Sprocket was
way out of her depth. They were surrounded by Loki’s army and hopelessly
outnumbered. Sprocket herself had pulled
two hand blasters out of her tech pack was doing her best to dodge arrows and
other weapons from behind Sentinels photonic shield. Her jammer was working
better than she could have hoped and the various races of Loki’s army were
forced to resort to more conventional weapons, although the jammer was
worryingly sparking at the moment. Magni was in the thick of it and had troll
warriors rebounding off his fist left right and centre, this is what Magni
lived for and if the stakes weren’t so high and his friends in danger he would
have been enjoying himself. To her left
Sprocket could see troll warriors rolling across the floor in pain as
Vanguard’s psionic arrows pieced their brains. Chaos had taken to the air
pouring down electromagnetic force from one had and cosmic derived energy from
the other. Starbird was also in the air in her energy bird form, swooping down
phasing through the regiments of dark warriors. Sentinel was in front of
Sprocket maintaining her shield and taking down any troll who got too close to
Sprocket, who was now busy training to stop her jammer blowing up. Nightshade
had just teleported a spear through the shoulder of a troll who was about to
bury a large axe in the back of Feran’s head. As the troll fell Feran turned
nodding his thanks to his friend simultaneously back handing a human warrior
into some approaching trolls. The mystics comprising of Vincent Von Doom,
Shaman, Crimson and Voodoo were locked in battle in the skies overhead with the
god of Mischief and his son. They were outmatched by the sorcery of Loki but
the combination of their differing mystic aptitudes was giving him pause.
Voodoo had used his dark mystic abilities to animate the corpses of some of the
fallen warriors Magni and Feran had kindly supplied. Voodoo’s zombies had
proceeded to attack Token, who panicked firing mystic energy randomly into the
approaching hordes retreating rapidly effectively taking him out of the fight.
This is the
point it all went wrong. Loki fired a powerful bolt catching all four mystics
at once sending them hurtling to the ground just to Sprockets right while at
the same moment a combined punch from the father and son duo of Ulik and Ulak
sent Magni hurtling into the mystics. The others were also been forced back
until they all formed a tight circle back to back. Things did not look too
good, especially as the jammer had just blown up. Suddenly everything around
Sprocket became blurry and she found herself along side a beautiful shimmering
lake. The water in front of her began to ripple and then rise eventually
forming the most elegant woman Sprocket had ever seen.
“Greetings
Josephine, I have chosen you” the lady’s soft voice rang in Sprockets ears like
tiny bells.
“Chosen me for
what?” Sprocket answered still in awe of the woman before her.
“Chosen you
for your intelligence and your heart to be one of my new Pendragons” and with
this Sprocket felt her whole body tingle. She felt empowered and capable.
“ Wow!”
Sprocket managed to stammer after a few seconds. She suddenly understood all
about the Lady of the Lake, Avalon and how she should protect it and all of
Earth. “Thanks” Sprocket continued after another few seconds. “This is all well
and good but you really couldn’t have picked a worse time to choose me as I’m
in a little bit of trouble back home”.
“I have
tendency of doing that lately” the lady smiled “but I’m sure you’ll make it
count”. Then just as suddenly as she was at the side of the lake Sprocket was
back in Asgard about to be ripped apart by trolls.
Sprocket
definitely felt good surprisingly considering her current predicament but
however more powerful she did feel it certainly wasn’t enough to take on a
whole army of Trolls and a god. Things looked bleak to say the least. When
Sprocket heard a most unusual sound for Asgard, a jets engine. The heroes looked up as a silver and black
form speeded across the sky and then proceeded to pepper the troll army with a
mixture of repulsor blasts and powerful bombs.
“Who the hell
is that?” Nightshade gasped a little relieved.
“I think
that’s my dad” Sprocket stammered in awe as the figure came to hover over them.
“Hello
sweetie, how do you like Warmachine 2.0?” Mayor Rhodes looked down asking his
daughter “and don’t worry I’m not alone” he continued gesturing to the tree
line of the Enchanted Forest. The tree line suddenly erupted with Asgardian
warriors side by side with the citizens of “Little Midgard”. Sister Mary Samson
was rapidly firing a huge energy cannon into the hordes of trolls; while
Crystal froze and torched others at will just enough to drive them back away
from Sprocket and the others.
“Nooooo!” Loki
screamed from the air “I will have my
conquest”.
“Not today
foul wretch” a sultry voice yet full of hate came to Loki’s ears from the hole
in the castle wall. The Enchantress had managed to free herself in the
confusion of battle. Loki managed to quickly erect a shield, as The
Enchantress’ hate filled energies struck him. Suddenly an arrow pieced Loki’s
unprotected back. The god of mischief
looked down to see the grim and determined face of Balder staring back up at
him.
“ I will
protect Asgard and its citizens until my dying breath as will the armies I
command in lord Odin and Thor’s absence”.
Loki realising
he was outflanked as he had not counted on the array of superhuman powers the citizens of “Little Midgard” and their
blasted children possessed retreated through a mystical portal, which then
appeared a second later to retrieve the still fleeing Token.
Sprocket
surveyed the area the armies of Loki were in disarray with his departure and
were been easily dispersed or captured by the Asgardians, Feran’s wolf packs
and the “Little Midgard” heroes. In the corner of her eye Sprocket caught sight
of something powering up through the hole in the wall of the castle.
“Quick
Nightshade can you port me and Magni up there
“ she said gesturing to the castle “ I want to know who’s up there”.
“Will do
chief” Nightshade said mock saluting Sprocket, but despite her sarcasm a second
later the three heroes materialised inside the castle.
Directly in
front of the young heroes Loki’s Martian contact was been lead through a
shimmering portal which seemed to lead into a large expanse of white dotted with
various openings to other points. The Martian was followed obediently by 013
his human telepath slave and was guarded by a battalion of Skorpsmen. Just
inside the doorway in the air Sprocket could see a dark skinned human seemingly
in some kind of hypnotic state, She quickly thought back to her hero reviews
and recognised the UK hero Shift of the Genetix team. “That’s how the Martian
got to Asgard” Sprocket thought to herself “they’re using our own teleporters
against us just like the whole Nefaria project Panther told us about”.
“Halt you must
answer for your crimes against my father and all of Asgard!” Magni boomed
pointing at the retreating Martian. At this the Skorpsmen opened fire. A blast
caught Magni in the chest hurling him against the wall. He would have taken
Sprocket with him if Nightshade hadn’t ported her out of the way. As the two
ladies teleported they realised something was different. They found themselves
briefly passing through the white room and Sprocket was sure she saw Britannia
and the others racing across.
Earlier, The Negative Zone
Hours after their narrow escape from Blastarr’s military and the Martians Britannia and the others found themselves once again charging head long into their stronghold. However this time they were backed by an army of their own. The combined peoples of this section of the Zone had banded together to stop Blastarr and drive the Martians out. Even the hated Anihillus had forged a temporary pact with the others in order to rid himself of his bitter rival.
The charge was
lead by the newly recovered Lockdown backed by his own team of heroes known in
the Zone as The Justifiers.
The hero Sonar swooped down ripping up the
ground with his tremendous strength flinging Baluurian warriors everywhere.
Sonar’s fellow Justifier Bolt raced at speed through Blastarr’s troops
disarming them at super speed he was followed by his team mates Centuria,
Prisim, Mote, Guardian and Oceanius who used their incredible abilities to take
care of the now unarmed troops.
Anihillus
charged screaming with rage smashing head long into his hated enemy Blastarr,
showing blow after blow of cosmic force down on his opponent. Fleetfoot had
taken once again to the air and was busy co-ordinating his people in aerial
assaults on the Martian Tripods, while The two generations of Hellscouts were
forming their people into ranks using their plasma rifles to pick off the enemy
troops. Jericho had taken it upon himself to engage Bursturr in single combat,
jumping to the rescue of Oracle who Blastarr’s heir was heading towards.
It had been
agreed that Britannia’s team had done enough for the Zone and they were
politely told not to concern themselves with the zone war and concentrate on
getting home, however as Hellscout had put it “they would always have friends
here when needed”.
The team stuck
to the edge of the battle heading towards the lead Tripod. Valeria used her
abilities to mask them all in a dome of invisibility. They rounded a tall
building towards the East of the city and ran head long into to their quarry.
The Tripod was under attack by a combined effort from a battalion of
Fleetfoot’s insectoid race in the air and a band of Anihillus’ cultists on the
ground. As the team neared the Martian war machine a number of the insectoids
fell consumed by a Martian energy weapon and the cultists were forced to
retreat due to the crumbling buildings all around them. However luck was on
there side as the combined assault had managed to breach the outer shell of the
Tripod not enough to be any real concern to the occupants but it did allow
Lockley to see inside and where he could see he could teleport.
Once inside
the team stuck to the walls as best they could so as not to cause an invisible
obstacle for the Martians and inadvertently give themselves away. Although Rina
had to be restrained from gutting a Martian a few times. After a brief search
they discovered what they were looking for. At the centre of the ship in an
oval room they discovered the secret of the Martian dimensional access.
Strapped to a large metal ring at the central point of the room was the famous
rock starlet and hero Lila Cheney. All assembled knew of Lila’s vast
teleportational powers and somehow the Martians had managed to utilise this to
create some kind of warp hole. Behind Lila through the gateway they could see a
white area with other humans stood by other openings leading to many different
points.
“One of those
doors must lead to Earth” Britannia turned to face the others.
“I believe you
are right and eager as I am to get my son home and to some safety I would not
feel right leaving this doorway open to harm are new allies” Jocasta added from
the rear of the group in as low a voice as her artificial vocal cords could
manage.
“I agree
mother and I have been subtly probing the ships workings since we boarded and I
believe I can overload the system from the main reactor and still allow us
enough time to exit through the gate”. Aaron piped up.
“Once you’ve
found the reactor how long do we have to get out?” Britannia crouched whispering to the young
synthazoid in his mother’s arms.
“I’d estimate
once I have sabotaged the reactor it will give us approximately 3.5 minutes to
exit the ship” Aaron answered matter of factly.
“Plenty of
time” Makarra grinned, receiving a collective sigh from his team-mates in
answer.
“We can’t just
yank Miss Cheney off that thing,” Valeria added “If Aaron is handling the
reactor I’ll free her but we will have to do it simultaneously and still hold
open the gate”.
“Which means
if you’re here we can’t all be invisible” Rockface sighed.
“Well two
teams it is then” Britannia announced taking charge once again. “Aaron,
Jocasta,Mak,Ben. Lock and Myself will head to the reactor and do what needs to
be done while the others stay her and cover Val while she frees Miss Cheney and
gets us a way home. Everyone in?” Nods of agreement came from each of her
friends.
“A sound
strategy “ Jocasta acknowledged.
The team
readied themselves and Valeria dropped her shield revealing themselves to the
startled Martians and Skorpsmen. Angelica charged forward as laser blasts
deflected off her super dense skin. Valeria followed closely behind her as they
headed for Lila. As Rina and Clint joined Angelica in defending Valeria and
beating on the Martians, Britannia led her team in the direction of the
reactor. Makarra naturally raced ahead
using his speed to disarm the skorpsmen in their path and turn their weapons
against them. Jocasta held Aaron close to her chest as the artificial child
used his abilities to short out as much electrical equipment as he could.
Britannia followed as close as she could to Makarra, using her pendragon
heightened powers to take care of any resistance in their path. At the rear
Spider Boy tangled the corridors with webbing making pursuit difficult. Within
minutes they were at the reactor. Makarra had already taken care of the guards
and was just dropping the final one to the floor next to an over heating pistol
he had been using. Jocasta hurried forward holding out her son. Aaron placed
both his hands on the surface of the reactor then extended a wire from his
belly button, which connected directly into the reactors main frame. Aaron’s
pupiless eyes suddenly became a brilliant white, and then a second later he
pulled back and retracted the belly wire.
“Done” was all
he said.
That was all
Lockley needed to hear, a silver flash and all disappeared from the reactor
room only to reappear a fraction of a second later in the gate room. Valeria
had quickly but carefully freed Lila from all but one of her connections to the
gate allowing it to stay open. Angelica seemed to be almost enjoying her self
as she beat guard after guard while Rina most certainly was enjoying every
violent second. Mustang had pinned numerous skorpsman guards against the wall
with his arrows, as Britannia looked at the arrangement she was sure he was
trying to write his name.
Britannia and
the others didn’t stop as they materialised in the room and headed straight
through the gate closely followed by the others and lastly by Valeria who
yanked Lila through after her. As the gate faded and died they could see
explosions rocking the gate room.
“See” Aaron
added.
Britannia and the others found themselves in a
pure white space with various doorways leading out to numerous locations. By
each doorway stood a human, some they recognised such as The Vanisher and the
android Zero but most they didn’t. Suddenly and image flashed before them.
Britannia rubbed her eyes. “I swear I just saw Sprocket,” she said in
disbelief. Britannia suddenly found her attention drawn to a nearby doorway by
a feeling similar to when she met the lady of the lake but less overwhelming
and awe inspiring. Through the doorway a squad of skorpsmen were ushering their
Martian master through into the white room. “Quickly that one!” Britannia
yelled at the others, already racing for the door.
Britannia her
TK shields up barrelled through the skorpsman guards and the flailing Martian
quickly followed by the others. They landed in a crumpled heap on the floor on
top of a bald human with the numbers 013 branded to her forehead. The doorway
quickly blinked out of existence.
“Noooooo!” 013
screamed clutching her head before lapsing into unconsciousness in Mustangs
arms.
“It’s you
isn’t it you’re the one I felt through the gate guiding me home” Britannia
stood and walked towards Sprocket.
“Yeah I feel
it too, say you haven’t met a watery chick lately have you” Sprocket replied.
“ Well looks
like The Lady is full on with her recruiting, welcome abroad” Britannia
smirked. “Now what the hells been going on here?”
Epilogue
It had been
two days since Loki’s attempted attack on Asgard and the lost heroes triumphant
return. Magni had insisted that a great feast must be held in order to
celebrate their great victories. So it was that the young heroes found themselves
stood in line on a stage in the centre of “Little Midgard” behind Mayor Rhodes
in his most formal mayoral robes.
“I’m sure you
are all relieved as I am to see our young charges safe return and proud of
their achievements on their adventures. I am as equally proud of the brave
exploits of these other heroes whose actions in Loki’s recent attack bought the
citizens of Asgard and Little Midgard valuable time in mounting our defences.”
At this Mayor Rhodes turned to wink at his daughter. “Myself and the rest of
the council have been in talks for the last two days with the leader of the
resistance the Black Panther. We have made many decisions in light of these
talks and It gives me the utmost pleasure to announce that as of today the
heroes you see assembled before you if they are willing will be officially
inducted into the Avengers” gasps of shock and surprise escaped the lips of all
the heroes, the loudest of which came from Sprocket. At this point the Black
Panther himself came out handing each one a communications card, which all
readily accepted. T’challa then took up position next to Mayor Rhodes at the
podium.
“My warmest
greetings ladies and gentlemen of Little Midgard and the kingdom of Asgard. I
am filled with joy and more importantly hope at the performance of our young
heroes in whom we have invested so much, perhaps unfairly. Regardless they have
shown their colours and I for one am more than happy to lead them in our
continuing fight against the Martians”. The crowd erupted in cheers as T’challa
finished and the loved ones and friends of the heroes rushed the stage nearly
breaking ribs with the hugs of congratulations.
“I wouldn’t be
a Martian now for all the tea in china” Mayor Rhodes beamed lifting his
daughter into the air and hugging her for all he was worth.
Author’s Notes
Not much to
add this time as I wrote the last two issues simultaneously but I would love
comment on the story and art.
Where should I
go next?
Find out where
Franklin’s squad is?
Check on the
England of Captain Britain: The End?
Where’s
Killraven?
Go to the
Martian Gladiatorial Games?
Or something else entirely?
As always you can
contact me at daveevans78@hotmail.com or via the
Pendragons mailing list.
See you all soon
Dave
(1) The first
Hellscout actually beheaded Anihillus in the pages of Fantastic Four, however
an infant form was taken away and cared for by the Alpha Primitives who had
become trapped in the Zone.
Cast of characters (new additions)
Rosetta Stone –
Lockdown’s former partner and now wife, mother of Ranger
Skorpsmen –
Genetically created Martian infantry.
Shift –
Joseph Clifton – member of the Marvel
UK team Genetix, Shift has the ability to open dimensional gateways. Shift is
currently under the control of the Martians who are using his and other
teleporters powers as a system of gateways between places and even dimensions.
The Justifiers –
The Negative Zones premiere team of heroes based out of Shadow City and lead by
that cities champion Lockdown. Members include: Sonar – super human powerhouse from across the Zone, Bolt – master of speed, Centuria - warrior woman, Prisim – powered by a light manipulating gemstone, Mote – size altering hero, Guardian – multi powered hero from a
distant world, and Oceanius – lord
of the seas.
LEGACY GALLERY:
(From left to right): Sprocket, Magni, Starbird, Sentinel,
Chaos, Feran, Nightshade and Vanguard
(From left to right): Shaman, Voodoo, Vincent Von Doom and
Crimson.