Chapter 11.

GREENWICH VILLAGE,

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK,

EARTH-28918 (11 MON. EARLIER)

"The Hyssta colonies on Earth-82633 were wiped out by something called the Phoenix Force," reported Mesmero. "As were their colonies on Earth-200506 and Earth-200508."

"All of them?!" exclaimed Karma.

"Fried to a crisp."

"Which is exactly what we plan on doing to you!"

The somewhat distorted voice uttering this threat belonged to one of three tall robotic figures that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The red-cloaked figure in bluish-gray armor, standing in the middle, was Tony 'Mechmage' Stark from Earth-9810. To his left was Blade the Vampire Slayer, from Earth-83234, wearing a suit of red-and-silver armor that had earned him the nickname 'Silver Sunturion'. While to his right was Bova of Mt. Wundagore (also from Earth-83234) wearing a suit of all-red armor that had earned her the nickname 'Crimson Dyna-moo'!

Mechamage had been alerted to the danger posed by the dimension-hopping vampirized mutants from Earth-9240. Eventually tracking them down to the Bleeker Street brownstone of this Earth's recently deceased Stephen Strange. The messenger in question had been Fastforward from Earth-200506. And it was the latter who now ran out from behind the armored trio with a hypodermic needle full of Asgardian vaccine from Earth-8545. Vaccine that he now injected, at super-speed, into the neck of the techno-organically infected Wiz Kid! Almost simultaneously, Vulcan 'mini-guns' mounted on Silver Sunturion's shoulders riddled Mesmero with ice bullets made from holy water. While Crimson Dyna-moo reduced Bessie the Hellcow to ashes using high-pressure streams of magnesium-ignited holy water. When they subsequently tried to double-team Karma, they were prevented from doing so by the vampirized Hulk. Requiring Mechamage to intervene more directly.

As the verdant vampire lunged at him, Mechmage activated a beam from the circular disk in the center of his chest plate. A beam that instantly ensnared the Hulk within a bubble-shaped variant of the impenetrable Shield of the Seraphim. While simultaneously filling that bubble with size-altering Pym particles! As a result?

The Hulk, quite literally, shrank from sight.

Unfortunately, during even that brief interval, Karma managed to affect her escape with the aid of chrono-physicist Kerwin Kronus. The latter (still enthralled to his captors through post-hypnotic commands instilled by Mesmero) had developed a suit of exo-skeletal armor equipped with a modified version of his original time machine's circuitry. Thereby allowing for teleportation across, and to, other space/time continua.

"Blast it!" yelled Blade. "We were so close."

"I'm afraid I must beg to differ," replied a new, but unmistakably female voice.

Bova gasped. "You?! I remember you. You're. . ."

"...Madam Hydra," interrupted the newcomer. "At your disservice."

Whereupon the latter gave a curt nod to her left. Prompting the green-clad bodyguard to activate a strange, rectangular device. One that made the armored trio fade from view almost immediately!

LATIMER LABS, NEW YORK CITY,

EARTH-774 (6:05 PM/EST)

"There!" exclaimed Dr. Jimenez. "The chrono-spatial coordinates are all set. Now, all we have to do is wait. Assuming, of course, your hunch is correct."

"Oh, they'll test it, all right," declared Yankee Girl. "My brother will insist on it."

"I know I would," affirmed the still shrunken webslinger. "If I were in his shoes. As long as we have to wait, though, maybe Dr. Heisler could take me someplace where she could un-shrink me?"

Garganta smiled down at him and nodded. Just as she started to reach for him, however, an electronic hum suddenly arose from the Time Triangle.

"You were right!" exclaimed Colt. "Someone's remotely activated it."

"From almost six hours in the future," Dr. Jimenez added, as he checked the chrono-spatial indicators.

"Then, re-enlarging you will have to wait," said Colt.

Whereupon the Weapons Mistress removed Little Spidey from her left shoulder and handed him over to Synesthesia.

"Image is coalescing," muttered Jimenez. "Portal is stabilizing. Now! Now! Now!"

The platinum-blonde superheroine and her diminutive passenger needed no further urging than that. They jumped through the portal. . . and into the future!

Whereupon they were immediately followed by Colt! And as soon as all three were on the other side of the chrono-spatial portal, Synesthesia used her powers to temporarily re-enlarge Spider-man. Thereby allowing him to sling his webbing at Turner D. Century! Enshrouding the latter in an adhesive net with the left-hand stream, while the right-hand stream snatched away his umbrella. At the same time, Colt quickly drew her twin Encoms and pointed them at the Tinkerer, keeping him suitably covered.

"What about it, Spidey?" asked the Weapons Mistress. "Think you can reverse the polarity on that gizmo?"

"I think so. Yankee Girl? If you'd be so kind as to set Mrs. Parker on the floor next to you?"

Yankee Girl nodded and complied. Two seconds later, May Parker was struck by another pencil-thin beam of light from the tip of the 'umbrella'. And, as hoped, she was restored to her normal height. Whereupon her disguised nephew returned the firing mechanism back to its first setting... before aiming the 'umbrella' at its owner and his accomplice.

"I ought to shrink you two just to make turning you over to the cops a whole lot easier!" growled the wall-crawler: "But, that might be seen as an illegal attempt to 'reduce' your civil rights!"

"I only did it to help him!" exclaimed Century, tilting his head towards the Tinkerer. "To change history so that his son never died."

To which the Tinkerer responded... by laughing upward at the ceiling.

"You reactionary idiot! I only fed you that story about preventing World War I to humor you. My real goal was to find out why my son was killed- -and replaced- -by a shape-changing alien from outer space!"

To be continued