Salem-X
Issue #35 – Rebirth of the Coven – Part Two
Downtown Salem
"I wish we could get in there and see if they're all right," Portal said as she used her powers to open small portals to allow the electricity from the demons to enter them and come back out behind them, stunning them.
"I agree and with all this electricity from the demons the Hex-Com is not working very well," Salem said as he used his sensing powers to avoid attacks and his mastery over the Arts to land blows to the demons with his staves.
"I just can't get the image out of my mind, one minute we are enjoying our drinks and the next a blast blows apart the Café with Mistress X and the others inside. With so many wounded we can't help because these blue monsters appear," Time Witch adds as she uses her magic to slow the demon's attacks.
"Here I thought I would be getting away from demons," Reaper comments as he uses his scythe made of energy that appeared where his right hand once was to slice through the demons causing their power to drain and then burst into dust themselves from the after effect.
"I just wonder who keeps sending them. I am still too new at this to make a huge difference," Wiccan then sighs to himself as he uses his magic throw up shields to block attacks while he does his best to try and magically heal and sooth the injured.
"Erik!" Time Witch screamed as a demon whipped his arms and caused an electrical lightening bolt to come down on Reaper.
Reaper looked up and his eyes flared with energy as the bolt hit him. Reaper's teammates stared in awe as he dropped to one knee, grunted and then stood up, looking a tad more muscular and eyes flaring with ionic power. He leapt into the air with great strength and started pounding on demons. Wiccan noticed that the more strength he used the smaller his muscles, build and energy in his eyes got. It appeared that he could absorb the energy and channel it into himself and use it as added strength till he depleted it. Wiccan almost felt guilty watching him in action.
"Didn't realize you could do that," Portal said as she brought her hands together and then moved them apart to rip open a large portal above them all to allow a series of electrical lightening bolts to go elsewhere instead of hitting all of them.
"It seems that the other aspect of my gifts is different here on your world than mine," Reaper said as he wasn't sure what to make of his new found ability.
"Well I think I like," Time Witch began to say when a bolt of electricity hit her in the back and sent her into the side of a car knocking her unconscious.
"Ling," Salem called out as he quickly moved and landed by his niece's side. "She'll be okay."
"The witch is down, we can strike now. Finish them," a blue demon shouted as their movements and electrical blasts increased in speed.
"What are we going to do? There's too many of them to handle with bystanders everywhere," Wiccan said as he threw up a shield in time to protect a lady holding a baby.
"Sam, we need my sister, now," Portal said and then paused looking at Salem and blushing.
"It's okay, I know what you meant. I'm afraid to. The more I use that form the less I can control and distinguish between good and bad and the harder it gets for me to change back," Salem said with a worried look on his face.
"I don't think we have a choice," Portal said as she glanced at her boyfriend holding his niece in his arms.
"Don't worry, child. In life there are always choices and this time help has arrived not a moment too soon," a voice called out causing them all to glance over to the source.
Out of nowhere, three figures stood in the middle of the street. One, the owner of the voice, was a woman you looked to be about as old as Agatha was. She wore a brown with green trim hooded robe that covered her whole body. The hood was drawn back to reveal her face. She had shoulder length grey hair with small strands of brown woven in. It also appeared she had cat-like eyes and a nose that looked almost beak-like. The most unusual thing about the woman was that she had two small antlers protruding from her forehead. She looked very powerful as she stood over her other two female companions.
One of them wore an identical robe as the older woman. She appeared to be a tad bit older than the kids, had very tanned skin and wore very short brown hair with blond highlights. The other was obviously much older but was hard to determine her true age due to her blue skin and pointed ears that marked her clearly of Atlantian decent. She had two sets of gills on each side of her neck that sounded and seemed to move as if they were humming a tune. She wore no clothing except for a bikini made of some kind of armor and held a long staff in one hand and what appeared to be a shield in the other. She looked mean and ready for battle but neither woman moved as they awaited orders from the old woman behind them.
"Folma, Clara, help them finish up here while I check on the others inside," the older woman said as she whispered a few words and then vanished from sight.
The Atlantian ran into battle using her shield to deflect the electricity and turning demons to dust with the hard blows from her staff or stabbing them with the retractable blades on either end of the long staff. The younger girl whispered a few words and ran into battle as her robe shimmered and vanished leaving the girl dressed in a leather outfit of brown and green that covered her whole body minus her hands and head. She whispered words under her breath that Wiccan noted as spells. She took flight into the air and it appeared as if a falcon's image seemed to ghostly outline her body. She then landed in the midst of the demons taking them out as the animal images seemed to change from armadillo to bear.
"Looks like we have them now, let's finish this," Salem said as they all dove into battle and very glad that he did not need to call on the Goblyn power.
Inside the Café ruins
"Mistress X, are you okay?" Shaman asked as he knelt down beside her.
"Yes, I'm fine. Costume and protection spell absorbed the brunt of the blast. Is Darklight and VivaMuerte on their way?" Mistress X asked as she got to her feet.
"Negative. With all the mystical energy and electricity it is playing havoc on the Com System," Shaman said.
"Need some help here guys," Python said as she became a giant snake slithering fast to avoid the electricity and turning demons to dust by squeezing them with her strong tail or chomping on them with her sharp teeth.
"On it," Shaman said as he took on a smaller version of his dragon form to attack the demons.
"What did they mean by the last of the O'Brien line?" Mistress X asked as she sent a few force blasts at the demons and made her way to Zafar and the dead girl.
"It means that with her death, her family bloodline of witches has come to an end," Zafar said wiping a tear.
"How do you know this? Did you know her?" Mistress X asked growing suspicious of this and the connection with the book of Agatha's that these demons were trying to get again.
"Kill the man but the Master wants Agatha," the blue demon said as a group swarmed at the two witches.
"Too close quarters in here and the building is unstable for anything major," Zafar said as he tapped into elemental powers and caused a gust of wind to hit the demons and push them back.
"There is a hospital up the block, let me test my abilities," Mistress X said as she called on her powers. "Derujni Ot Eht Latipsoh!"
Wanda released her magic as a pulse of white energy went outwards from her body. In a shimmer, every human body vanished leaving the demons, Salem-X and the dead O'Brien girl in the Café. Wanda sighed heavily. The bad news was that the girl they had come for was dead, but the good news, she had been the only casualty. With the innocents gone it was time to cut loose and that is exactly what her team did. In a matter of moments all the demons were gone but twenty, but they had soon found themselves standing in the center with the demons surrounding them.
"It's over. Soon we will activate our electrical powers and the whole area between us will become an electrical field with you four caught in the middle," the demon laughed as electricity quickly began to build.
"Not on my watch, and you tell your master she will not get the book," a woman shouted as swarms and swarms of hornets, wasps and yellow jackets invaded the café attacking the blue demons causing a few to make and escape while the others burst into blue dust from the intensity of multiple stings.
"Who is that?" Python whispered to Shaman as the swarms vanished and an old woman with antlers appeared in the room.
"I was afraid that once Agatha died that the Book would be in danger and she would make her move. Glad to see you well, Wanda and just what have you done to yourself, Sorana?" The old woman asked of Zafar.
"Klara, are you a sight for sore eyes," Zafar said as he then gave a sad glance to his feet.
"Oh, dear. We've spent forever looking for Sullivan's daughter to only find her like this," the old woman named Klara said with sadness in her voice.
"You know each other? How did you know Agatha is dead and that I'm….wait a minute," Wanda said suddenly getting a strange sensation from Zafar. "Laever!"
A blast of white magic hit Zafar sending him to the ground. When Zafar stood back up, he was no longer a man but a woman with blue eyes and beautiful long blond hair. The rest of Salem-X stood there in shock as Wanda stormed towards the imposter. Wanda didn't know what angered her most. That an imposter had gotten past her and her team or that this man or woman had played with her emotions. Wanda stopped inches from the woman's face.
"We tend to the situation here and then everyone, including you will return to the mansion and tell me everything, and I mean everything," Wanda said as she moved past the woman knocking her to the side and went outside to check on the children.
"She took it better than I thought she would," the woman who had gone by Zafar said with a smile as Klara rolled her eyes and followed after Wanda.
Young Avengers
The Pride – Part Two
Los Angeles – Yorkes Residence
"Will you stop it already?" Archtress asked as she rolled her eyes.
"Sorry, I can't help it. We're riding in an actual Avengers Quinjet. Billy is going to be so jealous," Teddy said with a smile.
"Won't be so enthusiastic when the Avengers find out we stole one of their ships," Patriot said, still not sure he liked the idea.
"We didn't steal it, per say. The Avengers abandoned it below the old headquarters and technically, A.J. has inheritance rights to it since it was built and financed by his ancestor Tony Stark," Tamia said as Cassie smirk not knowing how comfortable she was with it.
"Don't worry, with Kate's money and my abilities, this thing has been fully upgraded and made over. It would take a lot for them to realize it used to be one of theirs. This is the new YAJet and it's ours," A.J. said with a smile.
"Well, theirs the Yorkes' house so I hope your upgrades work," Thomas said as he grew restless sitting still for so long.
"Trust me, they would have to have some serious stuff to be able to penetrate our cloaks," A.J. responded.
"Okay, going in for a landing," Cassie said as she and A.J. piloted the ship to the ground below.
"Remember, from this point forward we use codenames only. Last thing we need is the Pride to know who we are," Archtress said as she felt a range of emotions flooding through her.
"Ship is landed, powering down and in full stealth mode and cloak fields are in full. Costumes on everyone," Iron-Lad said as he activated the nanotechnology within his body causing his skin to shift and change until he was in black armor.
"Whoa, new duds?" Hulking asked as he called on his powers becoming bigger, muscular and green.
"In honor of my distant grandfather, I call this my stealth armor. I will be undetectable, and if you all stay close to me, through our network system I can generate a field to keep you all cloaked as well," Iron Lad said as he headed towards the hatch.
"I can relate. No matter how many times I do this I still get goose bumps," Patriot said, in full costume, stretched out his right arm and allowed the nanotechnology to leap off and form a perfect replica of his grandfather's shield.
"Seems like it adapts to us as well," Speed said as he seemed to blur and in half a second he was in his full green and silver costume.
"Makes me a little nervous to think about that," Talon said as her green and white costume switched on and flexed her clawed fingers.
"Okay, lets do this and no show boating, breaking from the group or doing anything that will give us away," Archtress said as the nanotechnology clothed her and Pym Particles, courtesy of Stature, allowed her birth mother's staves and her idol's bow to grow to full size. She put a stave on each leg and the bow on her back allowing the nanites in the costume to latch and bind them to her.
"Do we charge in there or what?" Talon asked.
"No, don't know what kind of security they have. My sensors don't read any life forms inside. I will approach the house first and tap into the security and shut it down. Then I will signal the rest of you and we can go in and see what we can find," Iron Lad said as they all nodded.
"No, we all go together," Archtress said challenging the alpha role.
"Actually, why don't you tell us what you're doing here on my property?" A man asked from behind them.
They all turned toward the house to see four people standing on the front lawn. One couple, were wearing old fashion pilot outfits while the other couple wore white lab coats. The Young Avengers immediately knew them from their profiles as the time traveling Yorkes and the inventing Steins. Iron Lad swore under his breath for being caught in their trap. He immediately began scanning and assessing the situation at hand.
"You might as well stop now, you're wasting your time," Dale Yorkes chuckled.
"I am looking right at them and not picking up any life signs.
"Oh, that is my doing. What a person can do with holographic communications these days. And yes, as you can see my signal can't be traced thanks to the Yorkes little firewall device from the future," Victor Stein added with a grin.
"I say we kill them now," Stacey Yorkes chimed in.
"We can take them," Hulkling said as he pounded his fist into his other hand.
"A bright one you have there. Beat up the holograms. Even if we were here we wouldn't be worried. You are all standing within a nanotech disrupter field. You cross the field and the nanites in Iron Lad's body and assuming in your costumes will all explode upon impact," Janet Stein said without emotion.
"How can that be? Did you really give us something that could danger us?" Stature growled.
"No, they're bluffing," Iron Lad said with confidence but knew he was doubting like the rest of the team.
"You think a family of inventers and time travelers couldn't prepare for you when we found out you were coming after us?" Victor said as the Young Avengers looked to Iron Lad with surprise.
"You see, we were surprised to find holofeeds that Ultron had attacked the Avengers Citadel and it had blown sky high with Stark's son inside. Now no one else would take note, but not being from the time period, our indicators started to go crazy," Stacey said.
"The world began to fade and we had moments to get out of there before we were destroyed within the timeline. We could only go back and not forward because the timeline was being rerouted to an alternate path and since we can only go forward and back in a straight line and not hop to alternate realities we had to move fast," Dale said.
"Our only conclusion was that someone from that moment had gone back in time and did something so drastic it changed the future. Making our future different and making the one we were in to go to an alternate future. Not sure at what point we would be safe we programmed our machine to take us back to the exact second the shift began so we would be safe in our timeline," Stacey said.
"It was surprising to be standing there to suddenly see young A.J. Stark to appear out of nowhere. We jumped forward to see what new future befell us and saw him and the Young Avengers attacking the Pride. We tried to push forward again but some kind of feed back shot us back and we saw our house destroyed as a result of you all. We attempted one more jump back and made it back to an hour ago before our time machine blew," Dale said.
"So why isn't the rest of the Pride here with you if you knew we were coming?" Archtress asked wanting to face her parents killers.
"Because the virgin we were keeping in our basement had managed to escape. This would be unacceptable to the Pride if we didn't show to the ceremony without our virgin so we couldn't tell them we lost her and we knew you would be showing at any time," Stacey answered.
"That's when they contacted us and we came immediately. We figured we could set a trap for you all and still stay in graces with the Pride. Amongst the group we had some great technology from the future we could utilize and at least one or two of you had to be sacrificial material," Victor smiled.
"What are you talking about?" Talon asked.
"Guys, move now," Iron Lad said as he finally realized the trap.
"Too late, we were bluffing but it was enough to delay you with along with our story. Now the grid has had time to power up and calculate," Janet said.
"Guys," Hulkling began to say when he saw Iron Lad fading away.
"With Iron Lad's technology it will be enough for both our families to take the six spots," Dale said as he and Victor's holographic image pushed a button on their end.
Archtress knew she did have long and yanked out her bow and pulled out a nanite created arrow and shot it at Iron Lad. As the arrow flew, a rope shot out the back and latched on to her bow connecting her to it. The arrow struck Iron Lad in the back as he popped out of site. Because the arrow was touching Iron Lad, the arrow, the string, the bow and Archtress were all yanked out of site along with him.
"Archtress!" Patriot called out as a sphere ignited around the rest of them, filling them with electricity before teleporting them all instantly.
"They arrived," Stacey said.
"Great, let's handle the sacrifice and ceremony and we can come back and deal with the other two later," Dale said as the holographic couples faced away leaving the Yorkes' yard empty.
Epilogue
"That was foolish," Iron Lad said as he returned the arrow to Archtress' quiver.
"I wasn't going to let you go alone," Archtress said as she placed her bow upon her back and looked around to see that they were in a cell of some kind with an energy field blocking their exit.
"What about the others?" Iron Lad asked.
"Well, they can protect themselves and if not, then we better get out of here and go find them," Archtress smirked as she moved to the energy field.
"No luck, I've tried doing a scan and there is some kind EMP field around us that keeps my powers and technology depowered. Technically, I am stuck in this form right now," Iron Lad said.
"I can't believe that these people are that evil and that they sacrifice humans and kill other people's families like mine. Do these kids realize that their parents are evil, murdering super villains?" Archtress asked as she turned on Iron Lad in anger trying to hold back her tears of frustration.
"It was hard to believe and painful to accept, but I've always suspected my parents were evil and now I have proof and that is why we are going to help you get out so you can help us stop them," came a voice from the other side of their cell.
Iron Lad and Archtress turned to see a chubby girl with black glasses and purple hair standing there glaring at them with a viscous looking dinosaur standing right next to her licking its chops while a slightly older boy with bond hair and weird looking metal gauntlets stood on the other side smiling very brightly at Archtress.
Next: Issue #36 – Rebirth of the Coven – Part Three & Young Avengers: The Pride – Part Three