lternate Avengers Issue #28 Dance with the Devil
Black Knight – Dane Whitman
Crystal
Wasp – Janet Van Dyne
Pulsar – Monica Rambeau
Vision
Bloodstrike – Eric Masterson
In the courtyard of Castle Doom, Mephisto, in his monstrous form, knelt down to threaten Dr. Doom. Under his foot, his grisly remains spoiling the effectiveness of the pentacle that had held the demon, was the body of Prince Vladimir, the latest claimant to the throne of Latveria.
The Avengers were freeing themselves from the chains Doom had used to imprison them. Prince Vladimir's men were starting a shootout with a group of Doombots.
Baron Mordo had just pushed Prince Vladimir onto the pentacle. Seeing the result of this, he thought to exercise the better part of valor and, with a quick spell, teleported away.
Dr. Doom, Earth's newest Sorcerer Supreme, stood calmly at the podium where he had first summoned Mephisto.
"Any more offers to make?" Mephisto asked, as he attempted to grab Doom.
But he found he couldn't close his hand on the Latverian monarch. It felt like there was a cylindrical tube around the dictator. As he tried to seize him, he could seeing writing on the ground around Doom light up.
"You have a second pentacle protecting you. Doesn't say much for your confidence, does it?"
"I prefer to think it speaks volumes for my level of preparedness."
As Prince Vladimir's men had already either been slaughtered or had fled after loosing their leader, the Doombots turned to attack Mephisto.
"Well, fearless leader," the Wasp asked the Black Knight. "Do we fight Doom or do we fight Mephisto?"
"Take Mephisto," he replied. "He's easily the more urgent threat. I'll deal with Doom."
Mephisto ignored the attacks of the Doombots and most of the Avengers but he screamed when he felt the Bloodaxe bit into his leg. Reflexively he kicked out and Bloodstrike crashed against one of the castle walls.
"Doom!" the Black Knight called out. "You've got to send Mephisto back to where he came from!"
"Not until I wrest the soul of my mother back from him!"
"It astounds me that you can take over this country and actually do a good job of running it and yet you still have mommy issues. Can't you see he'll destroy us all?"
"You mean, he'll destroy you. I have protection against him."
"But you don't have protection from me," he pointed out, cutting down the podium with the Ebony Blade for effect. He then dropped the blade so the point was just above the ground. "And I could easily destroy your protection."
Reacting to the threat, Dr. Doom raised his gauntlets and blasted Dane Whitman full force in the chest.
Meanwhile the Vision was trying desperately to affect Mephisto.
Pulsar flew up beside him.
"Nothing we do seems to work," she said.
"Bloodstrike was the only one who could hurt him," Vision pointed out. "Can you get him back in the fight? I have something I want to try."
"Sure thing," she said as she sped off.
Vision floated up to the demons face. His solar blasts hadn't had any effect yet but now he tried them right in the eyes.
Mephisto was at least bothered by this. He swatted at the Vision. Even though he had lowered his density so that he was intangible, Mephisto's magical nature was such that he knocked the Vision down to land at Doom's feet.
"Get away!" Doom screamed at him. He kicked at him but he did go right through the intangible body. "Don't you know what you're doing?"
It may not have occurred to the Vision but Mephisto saw that he was lying across the pentacle rendering it ineffective. He reached down and snatched up the super villain.
"Vision," the Black Knight called out, having recovered from Doom's blast. "Stay there until I give you a signal. I've got a plan."
Pulsar had flown over to where Bloodstrike lay in the rubble of the castle wall.
"Wake up, big guy," she said pulling on him. "You're the only one that Mephitso has even felt. You've got to get back into the fight."
He growled at her and threw himself back into the fray. He threw the Thunderstrike mace with its chain attached so that it wrapped around Mephisto's leg a few times. Thus secured, he began to hack away with the axe.
Mephisto was just gloating to Doom about the punishments and tortures he would inflict on him when he felt this new pain. He tried to dislodge Bloodaxe but he held on.
Then the Black Knight flew up and struck at Mephisto with the Ebony Blade. Mephisto screamed in pain at this also and recoiled from the blow.
"Now Vision," Dane called out.
The Vision, still intangible, sunk into the ground restoring the effectiveness of the pentacle. But this time Mephisto was above it and reacted as though he were impaled upon this cylindrical shape above the pentacle that he couldn't cross.
Next Issue: Magneto starts the Mutant X-odus!
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