The jet the Young X-Men were riding in crashed into Central Park. Sunfire groaned. While being High Imperial of the Hellfire Club made losing a jet look like loosing some pocket change, he knew they were neck deep in Skrulls.
"Magma set up some traps," Cannonball ordered without a moment's hesitation. "Roberto I need you and Ink to get airborne and scout around our position."
"I can help." they heard someone say. It was a woman they didn't know about and wearing the same yellow and blue X-Men uniform as the others.
"Who is she?" Rockslide asked sharply. "I've never met her before in my life."
"I am Cipher," the newly appeared mutant stated. Only Blindspot and Graymalkin looked like they knew her.
The four former New Mutants stiffened at her use of a codename of their late friend. Sure code names got reused and taken by others but Doug seemed special that no one else used his. Having a mystery woman use it didn't sit well with them at all.
Blindfold was surprised her friend made herself visible. For he would be after her...yet at the moment the Skrulls were a bigger threat. She had seen they would be able to find Cipher and attack her. At least that is what the hazy vision Blindfold had. Since Cable had gotten involved everything was changing. For better or worse was what Blindfold wasn't sure of.
"I think we need to crack open a window," Ink quipped as he punched the side of the crashed jet. Rockslide and Sunspot then started to rip through the jet as well. The jet was designed to be able to take repulsor fire from a tank and keep on going.
"I shall assist as well," Graymalkin stated before hitting the plane with a mighty blow. The lavender grey skinned mutant struck the plane again managed to make a fist sized hole in it.
It didn't take long for them all to be freed from the downed jet. Ink and Sunspot took off and looked around. Sunspot took a moment to show Ink where some of the local meta human related buildings and land marks were.
"Here's where Avengers Mansion is," Sunspot said pointing out the ruins. "And over there is the New York Hellfire Club building."
"So the Hellfire Club's New York place is only a few blocks from Avengers mansion?" Ink said shocked. He thought they were a lot further apart in New York City.
"I know," Sunspot said with an amused look. "Surprises me too given how worlds apart those two buildings feel."
Then several Skrulls flew at the pair. Ink raised his hand and made several of the aliens feel sick with the ironic power of the biohazard symbol tattoo on his right palm. The Skrulls started vomiting and lost control of their flights. Several even slammed into each other in midair.
"Well that was easy," Ink remarked with a cocky grin. "No wonder they're a check mark in being a super hero."
Then a Skrull cross of Venom and Vulture flew at Ink. The Skrull licked his lips and looked like he wanted to take a bite out of the Mutate hero. However a solar energy blast from Sunspot knocked the hungry Skrull out of the air and into some trees.
"Come on. We got to help Sam and the others." Sunspot said in a tone that made it clear that wasn't a suggestion.
Ink wondered if the team really would want his help. None of them liked him at all, and helping Donald Pierce kidnap several of them for money didn't help matters. Eric then wondered if there would even be a world where he could spend that cash he got paid after this mess.
Down on the ground Graymalkin stayed in the shadows and shade as he fought Skrulls. Jonas wondered how his team could be so blase to fighting aliens from other worlds. He wasn't aware the sheer amount of aliens the X-teams had fought over the years. The Z'Nox, the Shi'ar, the Kree, the Skrulls, the Brood, and more.
Jonas dodged the attacks of a Skrull with daggers for hands. Then suddenly a fast moving blue and reddish brown figure leaped out of a tree and kicked the Skrull in the face. A blue energy shield suddenly appeared over the person's arm and they slammed it into the face of a very wide and flat Skrull.
Rockslide picked up the stunned Great Lakes Avengers Skrull and crushed it into a ball. He then threw it at a Skrull with the powers of the Original X-Men.
"Who are you?" Rockslide asked.
"I'm Bucky." Bucky said with a slight grin. "Though I'm not from this earth and it's a long story."
"She isn't a Skrull." Blindfold said softly. If anything she was far, far worse than any Super Skrull could be. Ruth was scared stiff seeing a threat thought dead and gone staring her in the face, and surrounding Rebecca Barnes. Heroes died the last time Onslaught walked the Earth.
"You sure?" Ink inquired as he slugged a Champions Skrull.
"Which of us can see the future?" Ruth commented as she got out of the way of an energy blast. Rockslide punched the Super Skrull that attacked Blindfold. It was covered in technology items. Techno's techno pack, the Living Laser's gauntlets, Stiltman's stilts and Mysterio's fish bowel looking helmet.
Rockslide punched through one of the Stilts and sent the Skrull crashing to the ground.
The ground then shook under the Skrulls. Magma concentrated and the Earth started to swallow up the alien invaders.
"Ok..." Bucky gasped seeing Amalla's power. "Who are you guys anyway?"
"We're the X-Men," Ink said proudly.
"I...never heard of you guys," Bucky admitted quietly.
"Seriously?" Rockslide asked as he hammered an X-Statix Skrull that was burrowing out back underground. "We only have 50 teams."
"He's joking," Cipher interjected. "Though it usually is seven or eight at a time with two or three main X-Men teams."
"With Wolverine on half of them," Ink mused thoughtfully. "Not sure when he sleeps."
"Wolverine doesn't sleep," Rockslide said recalling a meme as he punched a Skrull "He merely waits."
Dust sandblasted the invading Skrulls and suddenly felt a deep and burning pain. Like she was once again being turned into glass, and if she had a mouth she would have thrown up. She was forced to reform to her human form but was right in front of a Skrull in Iron Man armor. It smiled maliciously at her and was about to blow her head off with a triangular shield hit it in the back of the head.
"Is there a shield throwing convention that was being held that we weren't told about?" Moonstar asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Not that I know of," Bucky said honestly. She then used a leg sweep on a Mob Boss Skrull and he fell over.
They then saw the man was an African American in a patriotic red, white and blue costume. He gave Bucky a sideways glance for a moment before hitting a super mutated Thing skrull with his adamantim shield as hard as he could.
Cannonball gave Sunspot, Moonstar and Magma nonverbal commands to be careful about the heroes that showed up. They might be real or they might be Skrulls. Sam was going to give them the benefit of the doubt; after all in New York City you couldn't rob a bank or swipe a purse without someone in long johns showing up, and alien invasions got everyone to get together.
Ink hit the Skrulls with a psi blast. Several dropped to the ground, and the other heroes knocked them out. Yet for every Skrull they took down, it seemed like five took their place.
Battlestar hit an Invaders Skrull with an axe kick. It looked more annoyed then hurt.
Then a red, white, and blue whirlwind appeared to be hitting the Super Skrulls. Bucky had an awe inspired expression. It was him. She had wanted to meet him since she had ended up on this Earth. It was Captain America.
James Barnes looked shocked as he saw the female Bucky fight an odd Super Skull. He had a blue cloak, a tiara on its forehead, no shirt, a white skull on his chest, Black Widow's bracelets on his arms, and a pair of red pants.
She clearly had been trained by the best as she dodged a knife hand thrust from the Super Skrull and punched him in the gut. She then knocked it off its feet with a sweep kick.
Captain America then shot a Skrull coming up behind her in the face. The alien dropped to the ground dead.
"Whoa," Rockslide gasped as he was dealing with a Gamma Corps Skrull.
"Act surprised later, Cannonball ordered firmly. "We got Skrulls to deal with now!"
"We need to get to the Baxter Building," Captain America stated in a tone that got everyone to listen to him. "It is the only super hero base still usable and big enough for everyone that will show up."
V-V-V
The Avengers and remains of the Thunderbolts watched as the Nova Corps cleaned the Skrulls out of their way. The Robbie was surprised to see how much Nova had changed. He then remembered even before he became a New Warrior his friend had fought in a war against the Skrulls. It was something Rich never down played but also never really spoke of to anyone. Vance aka Justice in his super hero geekary and knowledge of all things super powered was the only reason the former Speedball even knew of that.
Then and there Robbie Baldwin admitted as bad as he had it, his friend Rich had been through worse. Suddenly the barbs and spikes on the Penance costume vanished and it looked like he was wearing black spandex instead of red and black leather.
"It's awhile since I've managed to change my costume my force of will," Penance admitted as he saw the stunned expressions on everyone's faces.
"Well at least it's better than your last one," Ronin quipped.
"You're one to talk," Wonder Man interjected.
"Hey which of us wore a green costume?" Clint remarked without any real heat. "You looked like Christmas Man in red and green."
Wasp smiled. It had been a long time since the team was relaxed enough for this sort of gentle ribbing. She then recalled it had been since Clint was gone that the team became unable to do that.
Tony Stark worked on adding his Skrull detector to his armor. Extremis made it easy to add it to his armor. Stark just hoped Lyja was sitting out this conflict. He really didn't want to have the Avengers beat the crap out of her given that would make Johnny Storm whine. And that was one of the most annoying things on Earth.
"You think Hank is alright?" Janet asked sounding concerned.
"I won't be surprised if he was in the middle of it," Tony replied honestly.
"Though at this rate I won't be surprised if he called himself Wasp," Ares remarked with a dark smile.
"That's not funny," Clint growled at the Greek God of War.
"I just can't believe Spider-Woman was a Skrull," Wasp said trying to change the subject before blood was shed.
"What I can't believe is how she fooled Wolverine," Iron Man commented. "He's the one that knew Jessica Drew. The rest of us might have helped her once or twice and seen her at some of those cosmic events but that was it."
Logan was strangely silent at that comment.
"Not like it matters," Ares said with an evil smirk. "Now that she was eaten by a T-Rex and is very dead."
"You people will never let that go will you?" Tony said in mock annoyance.
"I'm sure Ben will love to hear that," Clint said with a smile. "Like that story were a tank shot the Hulk in the groin."
"That is not funny," Janet muttered.
Then they heard Ms. Marvel gasp. They stopped their conversation and looked forward. They all saw Avengers Towers was in flames. The Skrulls were in the process of trying to break off Sentry's Watchtower that was attached the Avenger's base.
"And I just got the place fixed from when the Hulk smashed it," Iron Man grumbled as Sentry and the Nova Corps attacked the Skrulls.
"So Baxter Building?" Wonder Man asked.
"I just hope my apartment is ok," Carol said. The Skrulls seemed to enjoy destroying everything she lived in. Such as the Minicarrier shortly before this mess.
"Glad you have your priorities straight," Moonstone commented. Mrs. Marvel glared at Moonstone.
"Karla," Clint sighed.
"Are we sure he's not a Skrull?" Karla asked looking at Ronin.
"Completely sure," Iron Man replied without hesitation.
"And you never make mistakes," Moonstone said sarcastically.
"Clint is there a reason you believed in this woman beyond thinking she's attractive?" Tony asked with Moonstone looking extremely annoyed.
"I still ask myself that question," Songbird mused.
"The biggest clear spot is...Avengers Mansion," Wolverine said from the co-pilot chair.
Everyone who had been a long time Avenger winced at that. It was a sight filled with ghosts and pain. And Clint Barton wondered if someone made fun of his death. He wouldn't put it past Deadpool to make a wise crack or two about it.
As the Avengers landed around the ruins of Avengers Mansion they saw Yellowjacket, She-Thing, Mimic, and Paladin. Iron Man got suspicious as their costumes looked way to fresh for the madness that NYC was. In fact they looked like they'd gotten their costumes pressed and just put them on. Wasp gave Tony a slight nod as she noticed the same thing.
Iron Man was the first one out of the quintjet and asked "So where is everyone else?"
"Busy," Yellowjacket stated firmly. "The Skrulls are attacking every major city and even struck Camp Hammond."
"So what are you doing here instead of leading them?" Wasp said sounding extremely annoyed as she flew out of the quintjet.
"At least he wasn't found with Tigra this time," Moonstone commented in her usual snide way as she walked through the jet.
Criti Noll looked at Wasp with annoyance. The exwife of Hank Pym had turned down his experiments on her or was busy with super hero matters. Without them the Skrulls couldn't turn her into a living bomb. Not that they couldn't kill her, just that they couldn't use her to destroy a ton of other heroes at once.
"We need to test you," Iron Man said before turning on his device. And in a flash the four "heroes" were shown to be the Skrulls they were. Ares instantly opened fire on them with an M-16. It was a three round burst but the bullets were a kind that went through body armor and exploded violently in flesh.
"This isn't possible." the Super Skrull with the powers of She-Thing, She-Hulk, Crystal, Medusa and Invisible Woman gasped.
"Yes it is," Wolverine remarked as he cut into her with his claws. Ms. Marvel punched the Paladin Skrull through the ruins of the Mansion. Wonder Man flew after him and hit the Skrull with a worn support beam repeatedly.
Echo roundhouse kicked the Mimic Skrull in the face. The Super Skrull with X-Men powers turned one of his arms into ice and tried to vaporize Echo with his optic blasts. However the former assassin rolled out of the way, having learned from her last battle with an X-Men Super Skrull. A blast of radiation from Radioactive Man slammed into him. The next thing the Skrull knew was a hammer made of sonic energy dropping on his head and sending him face first into the ground.
The Paladin Skrull found himself being hammered with kinetic energy. Criti Noll snarled. He needed real warriors for this. Those three were pathetic.
"Any last words?" Ares inquired with a cruel smile. "Besides your screams of pain of course."
"And where is Hank?" Wasp said in a commanding tone.
"You have no idea how pathetic Pym is" Criti Noll said "It's easy for me to...ahhh!"
The arrogant Super Skrull sizzled a bit from an electric arrow that hit him in the chest. Moonstone made a note to not bad mouth Pym in earshot of Clint. Karla then remembered when Pym had fallen the most that Hawkeye still believed him and helped him prove his innocence of a murder that Egghead framed him for.
"Pym is a close and personal friend of mine," Clint Barton snarled with a dark timber. "You taking his life ticks me off!"
"Pym and his size changing powers are child's play to my people," the faux Yellowjacket proclaimed. Ionic energy crackled as the Skrull took on costume traits of the Vision, Black Panther, Wonder Man, Quicksilver, Arache, Hercules and Wolverine.
"Jeez," Clint said as he looked the ungainly and elements thrown together costume. "Do all you new Super Skrulls have to such patchwork and ugly costumes? I mean come on you can get powers from nearly everyone but can't design a decent costume."
"That's rich coming a guy using some woman's old costume," Wolverine commented. Echo gave Logan an annoyed look since she let Clint use that costume after he helped rescue her.
"Yeah well I'm changing back to my old costume and codename after we beat this smuck's can," Hawkeye proclaimed. Inwardly he was glad they at least didn't bring up the toga costume he'd used at one point.
"It doesn't matter since you'll be dead!" Skrulljacket bellowed.
"Righttt," Clint said sarcastically. "You have any idea how people have said that?"
Skrulljacket came at Hawkeye with the speed of Quicksilver. However Sentry was faster and the Skrull walked into Sentry's fist. While Skrulljacket was knocked back by Iron Man who had hit him with his pulsars.
The Skrullian invader let out a massive howl of pain and he was then hit with a massive wave of kinetic force by Penance. Then Radioactive Man hit Criti Noll with a right cross. Wolverine took advantage of the Skrull seeing stars and slashed Skrulljacket with his claws.
Fast as lightning Skrulljacket turned his body diamond hard and punched Wolverine in the face. There was a thunderous crack as Skrulljacket's hand broke hitting Wolverine's admantium laced skull. Though Wolverine was still sent flying into the ruins of Avengers Mansion.
Sentry let loose a massive burst light right in Criti Noll's face. Then Criti Noll felt he was being hit with energy blasts from all sides. The Skrull screamed in pain.
Then Criti Noll knew what being shot with a Desert Eagle felt like. Ares really liked that gun. The Greek God of War then slammed the shield he had gotten off a fake Captain America into the faux Yellowjacket's head.
A loud crack filled the air. Ares then fired his gun again to make sure Criti Noll was dead. Wasp and Clint looked at Iron Man and wondered why he let Ares on the team. Ms. Marvel understood it was to have the sort of power of Thor and Wolverine's attitude. Of course Carol doubted that Clint would have ever let Wolverine on the team. To be honest he was one of the few who helped out the West Coast team that weren't given reserve membership. Even Darkhawk got that for helping them once.
Wolverine slashed the Fantastic Four Super Skrull in her face. Then Clint hit the Skrull with a freeze arrow. Ice instantly formed over her and Ares punched the frozen Skrull and shattered her. Wasp didn't look happy about that.
Echo didn't like this. She was fighting for her life against super powered shape shifting aliens with a broken arm. She mused darkly even with both arms she was outclassed and unable to beat that Skrull that impersonated Daredevil. Maya was driven from her musing by a massive blast of ice. She then barely managed to avoid another optic blast from the X-Men Super Skrull. Still Echo managed to grab one of the Skrull's wings and yanked on it hard.
The Skrull screamed in pain. Moonstone stuck the X-Men Super Skrull in the back of the head with a hammer punch. The Skrull turned and got a photon blast to the face for his troubles.
Clint fired an electric arrow at the Paladin Super Skrull that was now made up of water. He sizzled and changed back to the normal Skrullian form. Wonder Man punched the Skrull as hard as he could and sent him flying through the air.
The Skrull was sent flying back to the ground as Nova returned.
"We need to get moving now!" Rich Rider yelled in a commanding tone that surprised everyone.
"You heard him," Wasp told the other heroes. "Let's move!"
Ms. Marvel and all the other fliers took off for the Baxter Building with the ground bound heroes not too far behind them. Ms. Marvel looked back for a moment and saw why Nova wanted them to get moving.
The Skrulls sent a whole battalion to the shattered remains of Avengers mansion. Iron Man using Extremist was able to access the still active computer core under the ruined townhouse and was able to get the remaining defenses working.
"We need to get rid of the Skrull fleet that's in orbit," Nova said "Worldmind said he had a plan to help deal with that but didn't tell me what it was."
The heroes soon arrived at the Baxter Building and found they weren't the only ones there.
There was a team of X-Men, the Young Avengers, and to Iron Man's annoyance the New Warriors. Then Tony noticed Bucky from Counter Earth was there as well among the solo heroes that had turned up. Tony felt they were scrapping the bottom of the barrel if the Young Allies had showed up but at the moment they needed all the help they could get.
"Where are the rest of the Young Allies?" Iron Man inquired. At the moment they needed all the help they could get and find out if the Skrulls had invaded Counter Earth as well as the regular Earth.
"The who?" Bucky asked clearly having no idea who he was talking about.
"Your allies on Counter Earth." Iron Man replied.
"Is that what you call my Earth?" Bucky asked sounding extremely confused.
"It is since Doctor Doom moved it from another dimension to the other side of the Sun."
"What?" Bucky said "I don't remember any of that. I remember ending up here after a battle with Onslaught a few weeks ago."
"Great," Tony muttered. "Yet another alternate reality."
"It's just like any other Tuesday around here," the Thing said with a bemused expression.
"Well at least she isn't another Summers family member," Ink joked. He got a few polite chuckles from various other heroes.
"Like we need his help," Night Thrasher snapped harshly. "It's Stark's fault we're in this mess!"
"Oh I'm so evil," Iron Man said with sarcasm flooding his words. "I only wanted to keep Gyrich or anyone else from getting the job. You know the ones that would make you wish it was me running it."
Iron Man then got into Night Thrasher's face. He actually saw himself flinch in Iron Man's gold faceplate. The New Warriors were seeing a side to their leader they never expected to see.
"Not like you have a clean record Night Thrasher or should I say Bandit?" Iron Man commented. "Oh yes I know exactly who you are Donyell Taylor."
"He's not Night Thrasher?" Jubilee asked shocked.
"He's definitely not Dwayne," Nova said adding his two cents.
"Great I was following a guy that used to date Gambit's ex-wife." Jubilee said with a straight face. Compared to some of the more insane things of the Summers clan or the X-Men had faced in general that was simple.
"I was trying to do what needed to be done," Night Thrasher growled.
"You were just trying to balm your wounded ego," Iron Man said shaking his head. "And ended up being nothing more than a pest to what I was doing. I mean really unregistered heroics and writing on Avengers Tower all you did."
"Does anyone here understand what they are talking about?" Graymalkin quietly asked Rockslide. The psionically held together rock mutant shrugged.
"Basically there was a disaster and then politics got out of control," Patriot told the lavender grey mutant. "Tell us what we had to do to be a hero instead of just doing what is right."
"Well if they didn't go in half cocked this won't have happened," Ms. Marvel growled at Patriot.
"Carol didn't you read what SHIELD reported? The CEO of Damage Control was using super villains to increase their profits. And gave Nitro the MGH he used to make explosion." Logan butted in.
"You mean my brother died because some CEO wanted to make more money?" Donyell snapped. "This whole registration bullshit and Captain America is dead over dollar bills?"
"And Hill didn't even want to bother looking into it," Logan snarled at Stark, with one of his fingers over the Unibeam generator.
"Well that left off the report," Tony remarked.
"Geez when this gets out I might be able to buy SHIELD's assets with the change in my sofa," Sunspot said half joking.
"So when I was busy in space fighting off Annihulus and then Ultron and the Phalanx you were using junk and getting a bunch of depowered mutants Bandit?" Nova commented trying to get the conversation back on track. Ms. Marvel got a bad feeling when Nova mentioned Ultron.
"Well we fought the Zodiac and Machine Smith," Tempest said getting into Nova's face. "So it wasn't like we were sitting around doing thing."
"I wouldn't admit to that Zodiac fight," Clint said with a wince. That showed exactly how poor the teamwork of the "New Warriors" was. He trained the Great Lakes Avengers better then the team had been by that point.
"You should go be with them Ink." Rockslide said "I mean they're all a bunch of fakes and losers like you."
"Rockslide," Cannonball said in a commanding tone.
"What their leader is a completely untrustworthy liar," Rockslide remarked. "Ink would feel right at home."
"Didn't the Avengers send Ultron into space?" Decibelasked as he recalled what Nova said.
"Yeah they did," Cannonball mused in a thoughtful tone.
"WHAT?" Nova yelled with energy crackling around him.
"Calm down…." Ben Grimm stated firmly. "Or at least take peeling Stark out of his tin can outside."
"What the hell were you thinking? Do you have any idea what Ultron nearly did to Kree space?" Nova said. His hands glowed as he stared Iron Man in the eye.
"And this is after they set the Hulk into space." Hawkeye added in to the conversation. "Thanks a lot for that Tony."
"Outer Space is not your trash can," Nova snapped harshly at Iron Man. "Quit using it as a dumping ground for things you don't like."
"Yeah they got the Negative Zone for that," Moonstone smirked.
"You're not helping," Iron Man said with his hands raised.
"See that sort of stuff is what Starks thinks he can do because he's better then everyone," Night Thrasher snapped.
"We intended for the Hulk to end up on a peaceful planet." Tony explained. "It'd at least be a vacation for Bruce given he probably could fix the ship eventually. Something went wrong and we all know how that went. And don't throw stones at me Bandit. You're not perfect."
"What's the Hulk going to do on a paradise planet with no people on it?" Rockslide asked with straight face. "He'd get bored."
"Well he always wanted people to leave him alone," Sunspot commented.
"Well it didn't turn out well," Night Thrasher snarled.
"Can it kid," Wolverine snapped. "We got bigger things to worry about then your little ego."
"Right we got a fleet of Skrulls over head," Iron Man stated to get things back on what was important. "Anyone have any idea why this time?"
"Well someone told me it was for religious reasons." Hulkling interjected. He surprised everyone by speaking up at this gathering.
"So you're telling all of this destruction and death is because of a group of religious fanatics?" Iron Man inquired.
"Yeah" Hulkling replied with a slight nod.
"Things like this make me glad I'm an atheist," Iron Man muttered.
"Does Thor know that?" Rockslide quipped.
"I'm sure he does," Dani Moonstar said in her "school teacher' tone."And it isn't funny Santo."
Bucky was glad they weren't all turning to him for leadership. While Steve would know what to do, James had no idea. He was the new Captain America and while he felt confident in being Captain America, he wasn't ready to lead the Avengers. Plus the fact the Avengers team right now had enough members that had lead the team before on it that he wouldn't need to.
"Hey Bucky," Clint called out as he remembered something he'd said years ago. "I always thought you'd make a great Avenger."
Captain America smiled at that.
"So what is the plan?" Wiccan asked.
"It depends of Logan can get X-Force here." Tony stated. Wolverine's expression was one of complete shock. Similar expressions were on Cannonball and Sunspot's faces at there being a new version of that team running around without even being asked to join it.
"Seriously Logan I'm the head of SHIELD and you think wearing a black and grey version of you usual costume disguises your identity at all?"
"I told Slim it was a stupid idea," Logan grumbled.
"In any case is the rest of X-Force available?" Ms. Marvel asked.
"Probably since we don't use Stark Tech." Wolverine admitted.
"If Logan can get X-Force here then we get them to help us deal with the Skrull fleet in orbit." Iron Man said as a plan was starting to come together. "I have something in space that can help us."
"Excuse me." Cannonball said "There's an X-Force unit and I wasn't asked to be part of it?"
"Scott didn't want me to ask anyone of you but James to join it." Wolverine remarked. "And oddly Rahne managed to be part of it. Not sure what she was thinking to even want to go the places we've gone."
"Has Cyclops gone crazy?" Cannonball asked pointedly. "I mean does everyone forget when Pete Wisdom took several of us under his wing or that Rahne is the only New Mutant that wasn't trained by Cable?"
"Really?" Rockslide said "No one ever says anything about X-Force and Pete Wisdom."
"Well to be honest it was a very strange period of time for us," Cannonball admitted. "We all kind of wanted to put it all behind us."
"I only learned about some of that when I became head of SHIELD." Iron Man admitted. "You ran into some very stuff even I found strange. You were even thought dead until you attacked the X-Statix."
"Our legacy was not to be used for that." Cannonball sighed.
"Still can't believe you all lost," Ink mused. "I mean the stuff killed them, you guys would eat for breakfast."
"The Professor wanted us to go easy on them," Cannonball replied. "That they would help with human/mutant relations and having terrorists beat the shit out of them in public wouldn't help."
"That sure didn't work," Moonstar grumbled.
"Idiots like that were an endorsement for Registration," Iron Man remarked in a slightly snarky tone. "But enough on various versions of X-Force."
"Yeah we have a world to save," Clint Barton commented before giving Echo a look of concern.
"I am fine Clint," Maya stated before holding Ronin's hand with her own.
"Don't we have that one stuff that helps people be able to use limbs while the bones heal?" Johnny asked Iron Man. "I know you and Reed invented that but not sure where Reed put it."
For a moment Logan wondered what the Punisher was up to in this war. This sort of conflict only meant that Frank would have to break out the heavy artillery. Though Wolverine was sure that he could tell what Punisher had done afterwards.
V-V-V
The Hood charged into the warehouse he and his gang were using. It used to be an AIM base before the Young Avengers took them down. Parker Robbins wondered how the hell the Avengers or other heroes were to save the world when he easily beat the Avengers.
They made Tigra an Avenger and his gang easily beat and humbled her. Parker Robbins grinned as he remembered that. It was the first part in making him a big name in the criminal underworld. And after fighting the Avengers he knew how to beat the capes.
There was nothing that could get in his way. He could defeat all the heroes, he had an army of super villains at his command, and he magical powers. Life was looking good for him.
Then a window shattered and a burning backpack was thrown through the hole. The sprinklers came on and what came out wasn't water. The Hood screamed as he burned. The water line had been replaced with the gas line and the two bit thug saw that his dieing and burning gang was made up entirely of Skrulls.
Watching from a distance Frank Castle almost smiled. This time the villains weren't going to survive with just third degree burns and upset stomachs. The Punisher pushed a button and set off the explosives he'd set up around the warehouse. If the Skrulls and the Hood weren't dead then Frank wasn't sure if had anything on hand that could kill them.
V-V-V
After X-Force arrived the assembled heroes got a huge surprise as a huge force of Nova Centurions showed up. The Nova Corps surprised the hell out of the invading Skrulls and were able to rout the alien forces. One of the Novas landed on the roof of the Baxter Building next to several of the heroes.
"Hey bro like my new look?" the Nova Centurion asked Rich Rider.
Nova's jaw dropped as he saw his brother in a Nova Corps uniform.
"Robbie?" Rich gasped. "What the blue blazes are you thinking?"
"Trying to save the day like you." Robbie said with his arms crossed around his chest.
Rich then grabbed his brother by the front of his uniform and yelled "You think this is like super hero comics Robbie? Are you insane? We're about to go into a fight with the Skrulls and you want to know what newbie heroes like you are? They're worm food and don't even know it!"
Rich knew what the Skrulls could do. He'd fought a war with them as part of the Nova Corps. It was something he never wanted his brother exposed to. Why had Worldmind recruited Robbie for this?
"If I survive this," Rich grumbled to the other heroes. "I'm rebooting Worldmind with my foot."
"He's right," Rockslide said to Robbie Rider. "One of my friends got killed just before this. We barely had time to bury him before this mess."
"You guys. Keep my brother safe," Rich commanded like a general to the New Warriors, Bucky, Ink, and Aegis.
"I'm not a babysitter Nova," Night Thrasher snapped. He then found himself being held over the side of the Baxter Building by the throat.
"From I've heard Bandit you aren't worthy of wearing that suit and you're a crappy leader of the New Warriors. I heard Shellhead here once pulled rank and said as a founding member he could take charge. Well I'm the only founding New Warrior here and I'm telling them to make sure my brother survives this mess. Got a problem with that?"
"Well I'm here," Penance said taking off his helmet "And I back Rich on this."
"Does that make him Kid Nova then?" Ink asked with an amused expression.
"We can work out code names after this over," Iron Man interjected. "And we need all the help we can get Nova."
Nova tossed onto the ground like he was a sack of bricks. No member of the New Warriors even offered to help their leader to his feet.
"Right let's get to work," Rich Rider firmly stated.