Electricity sparked across the air-base as the two electrically powered individuals fired electrical blasts and Vibro-Shock Volleys around the battlefield as SHIELD and HAMMER personnel were struck by the attacks. So far Shocker and his opponent Night Thrasher were in a stalemate, Night Thrasher was immune to the worst effects of Shocker's attacks while his own armor protected him from the majority of the electrical damage his energy was firing. Still Herman Schultz, part of the newest Thunderbolt team knew that he was on the back-foot, his armor may be holding for now but soon the crossbow bolts would get through and he would be cooked. Still he had one trick left, and hopefully it would turn the battle around. Turning his Gauntlets Power Level to 2 he fired, not at Night Thrasher but at the smoking Black Hawk, the blast propelling it past his enemy.

"Poor Shot Thunderbolt." Night Thrasher commented firing his wrist mounted crossbows. Instead of dodging Shocker grabbed the bolts and held on watching the Black Hawk smash into one of the guard towers smashing the support legs.

"Come on man, let me go." Night Thrasher asked as he fired a stream of electricity into Shocker's armor not noticing the wobbling Guard Tower heading straight for him. The tower fell smashing into the concrete just behind Night Thrasher just as Shocker planned, letting go of the wires causing his opponent to trip backwards smashing into the tower. Groaning Night Thrasher got to his feet just in time to receive an energy enhanced punch to the face smashing his head against the tower.

"As I said before," Shocker said inspecting the damage he had done, "Airbase secure."

Frank flew through the ceiling, the timber shattering as She Hulk threw him up into the room above. While she did seem weaker then she had in their first confrontation he still wouldn't be able to beat her, he was still having problems with one of his arms not responding, possible damage caused earlier on in the mission either from the crash or his current foe using him as a Meteor Hammer. Getting to his feet he saw four HAMMER troopers firing on Songbird, the bullets eating their way through her defensive energy shield. With four swift punches Frank had knocked them out and saw that Maria had her own super-powered adversary in the form of Skein. Behind him something thudded and She Hulk re-emerged and threw a punch the smashed into his shoulder causing him to wince in pain.

Maria fought against Skein who lashed out with long iridescent cables that were wrapped around her costume. A few wrapped around her feet trying to crush her ankles but Maria responded by using her own powers and slicing them with her wings before firing off a swarm of sonic daggers that cut through the rest.

"What have you done?" Skein growled closing in for a punch. Maria grabbed the approaching former Thunderbolt and flipped her before grabbing her throat and squeezing, it was one of the first holds she had learnt during her time with the Grapplers, and if done probably would result in unconsciousness within ten seconds.

"Except you didn't learn it from them, you just think you did." her internal voice told her. It seemed that Skein wasn't going to go down without a fight as suddenly Maria's whole body shook and ached in pain. Squeezing harder she felt the strain intensify until it became almost unbearable before suddenly dropping as Skein fell unconscious.

"You almost got us killed." the voice of Songbird chided Maria's first internal voice.

"I couldn't because you already killed us." the first voice replied as Maria saw an image of a Hispanic woman crying on a beach while a building burnt in the background, seconds later and it was gone and all she could see was Skein and the HAMMER Troops unconscious on the floor.

Frank was pinned to the wall as the She Hulk began to crush his arms, he knew he wasn't getting out of this and silently he hoped that she would be quick and not play around with his injured body like the Hulk would. With a sickening creak and a sudden drop he felt his left arm rip out of its socket, the bionic arm only connected by a single wire as She Hulk turned her attention to his other arm. Behind her Frank saw that Songbird had dealt with Skein and was silently trying to sneak up on the green giant. If she could buy him enough time, or inflict enough damage Frank knew that he could take out the She Hulk or at the very least escape her grasp. Songbird pounced this time she hit She Hulk's head and stuck two sonic daggers in her ears before being thrown off by the angry hulk as the daggers exploded. Frank took his chance and watched as his left arm coiled around the She Hulk's arms pulling them off his right, which began to constrict around her thorax almost if it was a giant python.

"Oh you rotten basted." She Hulk cursed before passing out and changing back into Jenifer Walters.

"Thanks for the save Maria." Frank said picking up his arm and watched as the nano-fibres rethreaded themselves. Ever since getting these bionic arms, after he lost his real ones at Asgard, he had dreaded something like this would happen. Even though his arm was re-attached he needed a massive amount of energy to reactivate the control systems.

"My name is Melissa Joan Gold." Songbird spat, "You should try and get your team mates names right."

"My mistake." Constrictor replied before activating the Comms. System, "Shocker are you busy."

"No mate, just sitting back enjoying a beer." Shocker replied, "How about you?"

"Maria and I have reached the War Room but we ran into She-Hulk and Skein on the way."

"No kidding I ran into Night Thrasher, he's well thrashed, how are yours." Shocker asked.

"Out Cold, one of my arms got damaged I need a jump start to get it working and naturally I though of you." Constrictor replied, "Give us a hand and I'll make sure you get credit for taking the War Room."

"Hmm tough one, I suppose you can have a jump-start this one time." Shocker answered, "I'll be there in five minutes."

"The mansion is only two minutes walk away from the airbase." Constrictor said angrily.

"Got to finish my beer before coming to help," Shocker replied as he reclined against a landed Eurocopter Tiger drinking a beer as he watched his fire-team move the unconscious Night Thrasher to the landed Zeus Transport. "Good job guys." he said sarcastically, "this one is on you."

Down in the bunker that protected the make-shift hospital the Sexton dodged the attacks from Cloak and Dagger. He knew he had to be careful, not only for the sake of the patients that the three battled around and over but for the sake of all the combatants. One wrong slip could cause the powers to collide resulting in a particularly dangerous phenomenon. Up ahead Cloak appeared out of nowhere using his powers to fill the Sexton with fear, it was funny that such a man would have these powers, he didn't seem the type to give into the darkness that the garment he wore represented. Thrusting his spade at the shadowy figure, the Sexton suddenly realised his mistake, as his weapon touched Cloak he left himself open to Dagger's attacks just as a pair of light blades struck his back. For a moment all three where frozen in position as a massive vortex appeared on the floor sucking all three of them down but leaving the patients and equipment untouched.

"How's that?" Shocker asked as he zapped Constrictor's arm. Frank responded by flexing his arm and watched as his fingers moved, directed by the cybernetic implants in his skull.

"Good work, we'd best hit the War Room before Scourge realizes we're behind schedule." Frank ordered as Songbird led the way through a corridor and down into the basement where a thick metal blast door prevented further access. "You want to do the honours?" Frank asked Shocker who charged up his gauntlets before firing an electrical blast that sent the door flying a good six feet. Springing inside Songbird used her powers to clear the splinters of wood from the crushed table and the dust thrown up by the door's impact only to reveal that the room was completely empty.

Abigail touched down in the glade where the Thunderbolt Sniper had been positioned before she had sent a bullet through his brain. That said she was cautious, her opposite number had treated this as a game and would probably have put in fail safes to get his 'final kill from beyond the grave'. Walking over to the body she saw something glint in the tree-tops and fired a volley of pulse rifle shots, but whatever it had been there was no return fire of thud of a body falling from the trees so she carried onto the body. Rolling it over she saw the face of a training dummy smile up at her a scorch mark from the Pulse Rifle on it's forehead. Attached to the dummies rifle was a wire that connected the trigger back to the real sniper. Following the wire Abigail found a box neatly wrapped and labelled, it was probably some kind of IED designed to kill a curious hunter. Abigail smiled pulling out a Stark Industries Portable Environmental Scanner, she would know whatever was inside before she even got within six feet of the strange parcel.

Sexton opened his eyes, looking up at the stars scattered across the red sky. Some were black, others shining white but most were grey. Occasionally flash of multi-coloured lightning joined the stars before dying down. A short way away Cloak and Dagger stirred before looking around them fearfully obviously ignorant of where they were or the danger they had put themselves in.

"Where did you bring us?" Dagger asked Cloak watching a bolt of lightning connect two stars.

"I can answer that." the Sexton interrupted floating over to the two of them, "This is a trans-dimensional space that separates different worlds within this universe and is precisely the reason why I didn't want to fight you."

"Wait you did this?" Dagger asked.

"We did this." The Sexton corrected her, "You see we represent the three dimensions that all worlds in this universe are categorized in. Mr. Johnson represents the worlds consumed in darkness while you Ms. Bowen represent the world were good has triumphed. The dark and light stars around us represent these worlds and sub dimensions but as you see most are grey including Earth. They are the worlds my powers represent, places were neither good or evil has complete control. When our powers clashed it sent us here to this meeting point of the three forces ruled over by the Grey Lady."

"Can she help us get out?" Cloak asked.

"I'd rather avoid her if we can." Sexton said, "She is not a person who is good, evil or even neutral like myself, she is the thing that destroys species and worlds before recreating them to start anew. She is a natural process that happens to all things when they are ready to be affected by her."

"And she would end us if we met her?" Dagger asked.

"She would we are intruders in the home where neither of the forces we represent should be found in." the Sexton told them, "To return back home we need to find a link between Earth and another one of these dimensions and hitch a ride with whoever's travelling along the link."

"Well this blows," Songbird stated, "there's nobody here." Frank had to agree it looked like the room had been vacated before they got here. Maria was sitting on the table listening for any signs of life while Shocker was pulling books off one of the shelves.

"What are you doing?" Constrictor asked him as he pulled a copy of the English Dictionary off the shelf.

"Looking for a secret switch." Shocker answered, "It's always in the book-shelf."

"Shocker this is real life not Scooby Doo, there is no secret switch or passageway." Constrictor told him as he dodged flying copies of Moby Dick, Great Expectations and the Grapes of Wrath. The shelf was now empty apart from an ancient looking copy of Confucius War and Peace, Shocker pulled the book and a grinding sound could be heard as a trap door in the floor creaked open.

"It's always War and Peace." Shocker announced, "Would have tried it first if it hadn't been written in Chinese. You owe me an apology Mr. It doesn't happen in Real Life"

"Just get down the hole." Constrictor ordered, Shocker stomped down the stairs before saying, "Anyone got a light?" behind him Maria lit her whole body up with a pink glow and pushed past Shocker as Constrictor follower them down. Eventually they reached the bottom and pushed through the arch at the bottom that led into a massive chamber lit by sinister torches that illuminated the whole area. Decorating the chamber were holes filled with skulls while in the middle broken bones had been used to construct a morbid memorial to the few marked graves that the Thunderbolts were standing on.

"Jesus Christ this place is a blood bone yard." Shocker said.

"Calm down Shocker it's just a sunken cemetery." Constrictor replied. He had to admit there was something odd about the place. From the back of the chamber something moved and Constrictor had enough sense to duck forcing the others down.

"What was that for?" Shocker growled as he got to his feet. Maria pulled a shurikin star from one of the skulls and placed it in his hands.

"Somebody threw this at us." she announced. Suddenly the creepy statue of bones exploded and a heavily armoured figure smashed into Shocker as a second took out Maria. Frank stretched his arms and threw the figures off into the torch light as a third figure dropped down. As Shocker and Songbird stood they saw who there attackers were; Bengal, American Son and Rescue.

"Your meant to be dead?" Frank told the armoured woman who stood in-front of him.

"Reports of my demise were mistaken." Rescue replied, "Leave now or join those that fell here." she offered as the Thunderbolts and their attackers circled each other.

"There that's Earth." The Sexton pointed out indicating a grey globular star. Suddenly a pulse of lightning lashed out from one of the dark worlds and struck the Earth. "That's our way home, everyone concentrate on that energy flow and get ready to use your powers." Sexton instructed, "In three, two, one." there was a flash of light all three of them vanished.

Back in the Graveyard the Thunderbolts faced off against the three Insurrection Heros. It was clear that none of them would back down and that at any moment one side would attack. Firing her Repulsors, Pepper struck the Constrictor as Songbird blocked Bengal's thrown Shurikins while Harry used his own shield to block and electrical blast fired by Shocker. Underneath them the floor rumbled and one of the grave's cracked open as a pale hand forced it's way to the surface. Dragging itself up a beautiful yet terrifying woman emerged, her skin decorated with painted symbols while her amber eyes danced as she surveyed the scene. Everyone seemed hypnotized by her arrival until she smiled a cruel yet beautiful smile.

"It's good to be home." she stated as she walked towards the stairs back to the surface.