Remy LeBeau whistled merrily to himself as he drove home to his little cabin in Louisiana. He smiled and waved when he saw Rogue on the porch waiting for him, then his brow furrowed as he realized someone was there with her.
He parked his BMW and joined them.
"Bobby," he said. "Somethin' the matter?"
"The X-Men have been captured," Rogue drawled. "By aliens. We gotta help 'em, Remy."
"When did all dis happen?"
Bobby quickly explained the situation, and Remy frowned. "But why? What's da point?" He shook his head. "I just don't see their angle at all."
"We're working on it," Bobby said. "You in, Cajun?"
Remy grinned. "What, a mission without Gambit? Where'd the fun be in dat?"
"It's Doctor Strange, right?"
Penelope shifted her feet awkwardly as she stood in the Sanctum Sanatorium.
The Doctor looked amused. "Yes, that's right. And this is Wong, my student."
"Hi," Penelope said. "Listen, Doc. There's been a problem . . ." She told him about what had happened.
The doctor listened patiently, nodding for her to go on occasionally. When she was finished, he took a sip of his tea. "And you would like me to aid you?"
Penelope looked at him incredulously. "Well, yeah."
The Doctor nodded again. "And will you ask me, Miss, what was it? Penelope? Like from Odyssey."
Penelope looked at him sharply. "Are you flirting with me, Doc?"
Strange smiled again. "Am I?"
"Look, are you gonna help us or not?"
Strange stood and nodded. "Of course."
Johnny Storm sneezed, and felt his nostrils burn.
Literally.
He rode up in the elevator to the top of Stark Tower, where he got off on the floor Jarvis had told him too. He walked towards the the kitchen.
Mary Jane looked up, shocked. "Johnny!" she said. "I thought you guys were on Attilan!"
"Nah, I didn't go," Johnny said. "Sue, Reed, and Ben just went to help with some maintenance work, but I'm a bit under the weather so I stayed behind." He looked around. "I heard you guys have a bit of a problem."
"We do! And thank goodness you're here!"
"Fill me in."
She did so quickly, and Johnny frowned. "Where are the others?"
"Bobby went to get Rogue and Gambit, Penelope went for Dr. Strange, Dugan's out looking for Professor Xavier, and Pepper went to get War Machine."
"Okay, good. I'll call the rest of the FF, and then see if I can track down Thor. I brought the Fantaicar, wanna ride along?"
"Sure," MJ said.
" . . . so anyway, just get back as soon as you can so we don't all get taken over by an alien race," Johnny concluded his message to the others in the Fantasticar. "Love from Torch! Tell Crystal to call me!"
He ended the message, and looked at MJ. "Now to find Thor."
"How are we going to find him?" MJ said.
"Good question. I can't keep track of the guy. He could be in China, for all we know, or back in Asgard –"
"Or flying right past us," MJ suggested, as a blur of red and gold past them.
"Whoa!" Johnny spun the Fantasticar around, catching up with the god.
"Hey, Asgard!" he called.
Thor looked towards Johnny as they flew alongside each other.
"Johnny Storm," he greeted.
"Listen, we were just about to come find you!" Johnny called. "The Avengers and X-Men were captured by some aliens. Wanna beat some up with us?"
"Johnny Storm," Thor said. "It would be an honor."
Pepper sat in the jet, flipping through a magazine as she waited. When she heard footsteps, she looked up and smiled. "Hey, Jim," she smiled, standing to hug him.
"Hey, Pep. Everything alright?" Jim Rhodes asked, pulling back to look at her. "You sounded panicked on the phone."
"That's the thing," she said. "Tony and the others have been taken captive by an alien race. The Fantastic Four is in space, and the X-Men have been captured, too. We have to get them back."
"You got a suit?"
"Yes, and a team."
"How big?"
"Small, but growing. Jim, you're the closest thing to a leader that we've got. We need you on this."
"Of course," Rhodey said. "Tony would do the same thing for me."
"They better send Rhodey for me," Tony said.
"If they send anyone, you mean?" Jessica asked.
"They will," Carol said. "Trust me, they totally will."
"Sure. And then they get captured," Jessica sighed.
Carol stuck her tongue at Jessica.
Jessica rolled her eyes, running her hand through her hair.
"You made it very clear to MJ that she would be on tech support only?" Peter asked Carol.
Carol nodded. "She gets it."
Peter looked relieved, and sat back. "So what do we do now?"
"I told you!" Wade said. "We wait."