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Worlds at War

As soon as he'd vanished, the air behind the car began to ripple and distort in a very familiar manner. As the time machine materialised right beside them, the League noted that Hartdegen, who was sitting in the main seat, was holding a small grey cylinder in his lap, about half the height of a man and nearly as wide. It had a skull and crossbones on one side, with one word written underneath in red: DANGER.

"That's it?" Skinner asked, looking at the cylinder as Hartdegen finally solidified. The former teacher groaned and passed the cylinder over to Frank before getting out of the chair himself.

"Don't start criticising me, Skinner," he said, sounding slightly aggravated. "It took ages for the scientists there to be persuaded to create a bomb that released the cold, and then there was the problems with finding everything they needed. So just knock it off, OK?"

Skinner gulped; Hartdegen may have been only human, but he was still a very dangerous man to be on the wrong side of.

"Check," he squeaked.

"Right," Hartdegen said. He turned back towards Sawyer. "They did their best, but unfortunately the bomb can only be activated one of two ways. One is by a timer- as in, it will go off after a certain length of time."

"I see," Sawyer said. "Well, that won't work- we can't guarantee we'll get the Martians there in time. The other?"

Hartdegen sighed. "Someone sets it off manually. I'm sorry, but this kind of bomb was designed with the idea of being used to take out enemy agents in their headquarters. Nobody ever anticipated designing one for this kind of situation; the only other bomb they had was one that was designed to be dropped from the air, and, well..." he shrugged sheepishly.

"Yeah, I know," Sawyer replied. "Mina may be able to fly at night, but there's no guarantee we can wait until her bats are at full strength." Then a thought occurred to him, and he glanced over at Mina. "Is that accurate?"

"Yes," Mina replied. "As things currently stand, my bats could lift me up for a while, but not high enough to drop anything effectively. Anyway, I doubt they could carry me and a bomb."

"Right then," Sawyer replied, glancing around at the others. "We need to find some way to lure the Martians to wherever we plant the bomb, and then set it off. Did you find any news on how many ships are around right now while you were away?" he asked Hartdegen.

"I checked some records in my spare time," Hartdegen replied. "The theory people have in the future is that the Martians were sending an advance party to check out the situation on Earth before they took it over completely; they only ever sent about eight ships to Earth. And that number's including the two we've already destroyed."

"So, just six left to stop," Skinner reflected. "Well, that ain't so bad."

"It isn't brilliant either, Skinner," Sawyer commented. "Even assuming we can lure the Martians into one location, who's going to set off the bomb? I mean, the cold may defeat the Martians, but whoever's right beside is going to be in a spot of bother."

"I'll do it," Logan said. The League looked at him, and Logan shrugged. "Well, why not? My increased healing should shake the cold off in a few minutes; I don't recall spending a single day sick since I gained my powers."

"Worth a shot," Sawyer shrugged. Then he looked around at the others. "OK guys, let's get ready."

"What's the plan?" Skinner asked.

"First; pick a good area to plant the bomb," Sawyer replied.

"The fields where we had our first fight with them?" Jekyll suggested.

"Perfect. Near enough that we can get there quickly, but not so near that innocents may get hurt." Sawyer nodded at Jekyll as thanks before continuing. "Second; find the Martians. Terry, Frank, Mina, Jekyll, Hartdegen, Skinner; you guys see what you can do about luring five of the Martians to the field; Nemo and I will handle the sixth. Logan, you'll be at the field to set off the bomb. Skinner, Hartdegen, find something fast to use as transport; Nemo and I will have the car, and everyone else is pretty fast by themselves, but you'll be in trouble. Everyone good with that?"

*****

The majority of the League nodded, but Frank looked uncertain.

"A problem, Frank?" Sawyer asked, looking over at the monster.

"Just one or two, really," Frank replied. "I get how we're going to lure the Martians into the field, but how do we make them stay there once we've left?"

"That task is easy enough," Nemo put in before Sawyer could reply. "I have several guns loaded in the back of my automobile still. We can surround the field and use them to keep the Martians inside it until Mr Logan can unleash the virus. Now, the second one?"

"How do we prevent ourselves from succumbing to the virus? Surely we can't guarantee the wind won't blow it towards us, or that the blast radius is small enough to not hurt us."

"Well, I anticipated that little problem," Hartdegen replied, as he reached into his pocket and pulled out nine small masks. They appeared to be built to fit over the faces of each member of the League. "Gas masks," he said, passing one out to each League member baring Logan. "I'd recommend putting them on just before Logan unleashes the virus; that way, they won't be able to anticipate what we're planning before it's too late."

"Excellent," Sawyer said to Nemo and Hartdegen, grinning at his friends. As the former agent looked around at his teammates, he felt unshakeably proud at being a member of this team. On impulse, he held his right hand out in front of him. It was quickly joined by the hands of Mina and Skinner, with Jekyll following up shortly after. Eventually, the hands of all nine members of the League were on top of each other. Sawyer looked around at all the others, and he whispered a brief statement to himself, a statement that was fast becoming his motto. "The game is on."

"And the Martians had better watch out!" Skinner put in.

"Quite," Mina groaned slightly, rolling her eyes at Skinner. Then the League separated and headed towards Nemo's car, ready to find the Martians.

*****

"Dear God..." Nemo whispered to himself, as the League drove through the streets of London, following the train of destruction that the Martians had left behind them. The buildings around them had been utterly devastated by the rampaging aliens, lying around the League in piles that were barely a third of the size they had been when they were intact. They hadn't seen any human bodies yet, but Nemo, for one, was of the opinion that it was only a matter of time.

Then, Hartdegen called out to him to stop. Even as Nemo braked the car, he somehow knew that the former teacher had found. When the League had all gotten out of the car, Nemo saw that his worse fears had been confirmed.

It was a human body, lying face down in the battered rubble that must have once been its home when it was alive. As Skinner turned it over, Nemo saw that it was a young man, barely older than Agent Sawyer, and looking remarkably pale...

"Oh my god..." Mina said, stepping back from the corpse in horror.

"What's wrong?" Logan asked, glancing back at the vampire.

"I've seen enough corpses after I've fed from them to know when a body is missing blood," Mina whispered. "And this body definitely has nothing in its veins."

"Oh god..." Sawyer whispered, looking back at the body. "The Martians' handiwork?"

"Definitely," Terry stated. "I detect traces of Martian technology around this body. They re definitely responsible for the absence of his bodily fluids."

The League looked around at each other, their faces bearing expressions of horror at this statement. Any doubts they had about fighting the Martians were washed away at the discovery of this nightmare.

"Let's go," Sawyer stated simply, cocking his Winchester and heading back to the car, followed closely by the others.

*****

A few minutes later, Terry was running through the streets of London, following a long chain of destruction that the Martians had left behind them. The League had been following the one large trail the Martians had left, but it had eventually split up into six other trails, and each League member had each picked their own. Most of the League, Terry included, were tracking the Martians under their own power, but Sawyer and Nemo were following theirs in Nemo's car, and Skinner and Hartdegen were using a couple of horses they'd managed to acquire from stables near where the paths had split. The horses were shaken, but they wouldn't collapse any time soon.

Terry was feeling as sure as a machine could feel that, with his current weaponry and his own raw power, he had a eight-six point two chance of attracting the attention of the aliens, and the general plan had a sixty- four point seven chance of success without any casualties for the League themselves; not the best chances, but better than it could have been.

There it was. The Martian ship was directly in front of him, firing its heat ray at an old house on the London docks. Based on what he'd heard from the League, Terry estimated a seventy-nine point one chance that the house it was destroying was the house of the immortal who had betrayed the League, Mr Dorian Gray, currently abandoned and uninhabited.

Pulling out his gun, Terry aimed it at the Martian ship. It was a high- powered laser cannon Hartdegen had acquired for Terry on one his trips to the future; it wouldn't do much damage to something with a hull as hard as the Martian's ship was, but it would attract the Martian's attention.

And, after all, that was what was required right now.

Quickly, Terry launched off five shots at the Martian ship, each one striking the exact same place on the hull. It didn't break the hull, but it did make it buckle a great deal. The Martian ship turned around to look at Terry. He felt it start to scan him, but he wasn't prepared to give it that chance; he fired off one final shot at where he thought the scanner was located, and then turned and ran back along the road.

Behind him, he heard the clanking of the Martian ship's legs as it tore on after him. Quickly measuring the space of time between each clank and taking it into account along with the length of the legs, Terry estimated a seventy-three point five percent chance that he would be able to lure the Martians to the field they had in mind without it catching him or getting off a shot at him.

If that wasn't accurate, he had a problem. He couldn't allow himself to get destroyed; his termination would serve no purpose, and would leave Tom Sawyer and Mina Harker more vulnerable to any danger that may strike them.

His mission was to protect them.

He could not allow himself to be terminated until, at the very earliest, they had their children, or his mission would fail.

*****

Meanwhile, in another part of town, Mina was ducking and weaving through the air as the Martian ship fired its heat ray at her while chasing her through the streets.

She'd managed to track it down fairly quickly; the sun was at low ebb, and her bats had been summoned to her almost at once. Once she was airborne, finding the Martian ship hadn't been a problem; the problem was getting away from it. The heat ray possessed by this ship was far more powerful than the previous few she had seen, and they hadn't exactly been weak ones. Her bats were doing a good job protecting her, but she wasn't sure how much longer they could last.

How much longer do I have to go? Mina thought to herself as she glanced ahead. She saw that she was almost out of London, and after that it wouldn't take long to reach the field where Logan was waiting.

She just had to hope her bats would last.

*****

"Dammit!" Hyde grunted, as he narrowly avoided losing his balance while running along the rooftops. Glancing back, he saw that the Martian ship was still behind him, but it was far too near to him for his liking, and he didn't dare jump down and fight it. For once, he was in agreement with Henry; that would be a very stupid thing to do. He preferred running along the roofs of London's houses to get away from it; it was riskier, given that he had a large chance of loosing his balance and falling off the roof, but at least he was further out of range from the Martian's weapons up here.

This is the only way I'm going to stay ahead, Hyde thought to himself, as he grabbed at a nearby chimney and tore it off the roof. Turning back, he threw it at the Martian ship with all his strength, causing a slight dent in the ship. It didn't do much more than knock it back a few metres, but it bought Hyde the time he sorely needed.

As he continued to run, Hyde noticed that the edge of the city was rapidly getting nearer, and he'd soon be forced to get back down to the Martian's level.

Desperately, he began to pick up his speed, finally managing to put a bit more distance between him and the Martian. Then, as Hyde reached the edge of the city, he leapt off the rooftops, and landed in the vast countryside.

He was getting there. He knew it.

He just hoped he'd live to see the end.

*****

Why did I agree to this? Oh yes; I'm trying to atone for what I've done, Frank thought to himself, as he desperately pounded through the trees to get away from the Martian ship behind him.

He was still aiming for the field that the League had agreed on, but what would happen when he got there wasn't the most prevalent of topics in his mind right now. Is atonement really worth all this effort? Frank asked himself, as he tried to increase his speed. I really need to see if I can think of something better.

However, that would have to wait until another day; right now, Frank was more concerned with the fact that he was getting tired. He may have been capable of matching Terry in a fight, but he wasn't all that far ahead of a normal human in terms of speed.

Fortunately, it appeared that what he had was enough for him to keep the Martian ship on its toes, or whatever it had instead of toes. Looking around, he noticed with some relief that this area was familiar to him as the location where the League had encountered their first Martian.

He was almost there.

He just hoped that the rest of them were there too.

*****

"Bloody hell!" Skinner yelled, as he clutched onto his horse's neck so tightly that the horse almost choked, narrowly avoiding the heat ray the Martians had fired at his head. "That was too close!" he called over to Hartdegen, who was a few feet away on his other side, riding an identical horse.

"Agreed," Hartdegen replied, as he tugged on his reins and turned the horse towards the intended field. Skinner snapped out of his near-death terror long enough to grab his reins and turn the horse as well; the horses may not have been as fast as Nemo's car, but they did the job well enough.

Groaning, Skinner reached up to his head to ensure that his hat was still on, and was relieved to find that it was. The last thing he needed was to have to get a new hat; he liked this one a lot.

"Nearly there," he whispered into the horse's ear to calm it down. God knows it probably needed it; after all, he was nervous, and he actually knew what was going on here.

*****

"Duck!" Sawyer yelled at Nemo, as the car tore under a thick branch sticking out in front of the car. They'd abandoned the road a long time ago, and right now Sawyer was weaving through a forest in the hope of doing some damage to the Martians before they were even infected with the virus.

Right now, however, it didn't appear to be working; the ship was still right behind the car, and all that the drive had achieved was giving their car's paintwork a few scratches. Nemo wasn't too happy about that, but he was prepared to ignore it for a good cause.

Glancing back, he saw that the Martian ship was still chasing them, but appeared a little confused, as though it was having trouble finding them.

Fortunately, that was easily remedied. Reaching to his side, Nemo pulled out a small but powerful pistol of his invention and fired it at the Martian ship. The bullets ricocheted off the ship's hull into the trees, but that was all right; all Nemo had been trying to do was get the attention of the aliens once again.

"Hang on tight, Nemo; we're nearly there!" Sawyer yelled back at his friend, as they trees vanished from around them and they began to drive through a field.

Glancing back, Nemo saw that Sawyer was correct; the field they had chosen to be the scene of the Martian's destruction was only a few more metres away.

"Get ready," he whispered to the young American, as the car moved ever closer to the fence around the field. Then, as the car broke the fence, Nemo cried out, "NOW!"

*****

Instantly, the two of them leapt out of the car, diving to the side. It drove onward crashing into the fence on the other side of the field. The Martian ship followed on afterwards, heading for the centre of the field...

Then, to the great relief of Sawyer and Nemo, they saw the other League members come charging into the field, followed by the other five Martian ships. Once their targets were in the field, each League member used their own unique way of leaving the field; Mina flew out, Hartdegen and Skinner galloped out on their horses, and Terry, Frank and Hyde just rapidly doubled back.

They were out.

This is it! Sawyer thought, as he raised his hand to his mouth and bellowed out the instructions that decided the fate of the world.

"Logan, NOW!"

At that, a pile of dirt that lay in the centre of the field got up and shook itself down. It was Logan, clutching the bomb and covered in clumps of dirt and grass that Mina's bats had torn up before they left him.

Dusting the grass off himself, Logan looked around at the Martians, grinning at them with a vaguely animalistic grin.

"You wanted to conquer the Earth?" he asked, cocking his head at them. "Well," he continued, as he raised his left arm and his claws burst out of it, "See if you can handle its smallest inhabitants!"

And he slashed the canister open. Instantly a thin green gas began pouring out of the canister, and it spread through the air towards the Martians.

"Quick!" Sawyer yelled, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his gas mask. The rest of the League did the same, although Hyde cut it incredibly close by running over to Terry to retrieve his mask; he'd been unable to have it on him due to his pockets being incapable of holding anything, as well as the fact that they could never stay intact during his transformation.

As soon as the masks were on, the League turned back to watch the scene in front of them. The gas had spread rapidly from the germ bomb after Logan had cracked it, and it had reached the Martians already. The ships were staggering around, looking like they were humans with a bad headache that left them unable to keep their balance. Logan was still in the centre of the field, looking like what he was; plagued by an extremely bad cold. However, he was still standing, albeit with one knee on the ground, and looking around at the Martians with a mad grin on his face.

"You're... dead,... suckers..." he panted, as the Martians finally stopped staggering and collapsed onto the ground.

*****

As soon as the Martians fell, the gas began to drift up towards the sky, the disturbance the Martians caused upon impact only increasing its ascent. Then several bats flew in underneath the cloud, and began to flap it upwards.

Looking over at Mina, Sawyer saw that she had her eyes closed in concentration but was facing in the general direction of the cloud.

It wasn't the most sensible method of clearing a cloud of cold germs, but he couldn't deny it was working.

As the cloud finally rose high enough to allow even Hyde to go under it, the League walked into the field and headed towards Logan. He was looking a lot better than he had a couple of minutes ago, but his eyes were still running and his nose was red. Still, he grinned at the League as they approached him, and his entire appearance returned to normal as soon as they were within touching distance of him.

"That... was rough," he grunted at them, his voice still slightly hoarse.

"It looked it," Sawyer said, as he glanced around at the collapsed Martian ships. He indicated one of them to Hyde. "Tear it open, Edward. Let's just make sure they're dead."

Hyde nodded, walked over to the indicated ship, and placed his hands inside a fair sized crack that the crash to the ground had left in its side. Exerting his massive strength against the crack, Hyde pulled it apart, and the League found themselves staring at the bodies of several deceased Martians.

They were definitely deceased. Nothing could be in that shape and be alive, alien or not.

Hyde turned back to the others. "So, what do we do with the bodies?"

"Burn them," Nemo replied, indicating the other edge of the field where his car had crashed into the fence. "I have some incendiary bombs stored in the back of the car. We can use them to annihilate all evidence of the Martians."

"Perfect," Sawyer said. "Guys, get on with tearing holes in the other ships; the bombs should have more of an effect from the inside."

The League nodded, and then Frank, Mina, Hyde, Terry and Logan turned back to the ships, and began to tear the hulls apart. .

From the side, while Nemo went to pick up his bombs, Sawyer, Hartdegen and Skinner surveyed the destruction in front of them.

"We won," Hartdegen said, as thought it was just something he'd read somewhere. "We actually won. We won a big one. A very big one. One that could have annihilated us and everyone on the planet."

"Yeah," Skinner said, grinning. "And you know something? This feels great."

*****

A few minutes later, the League were watching the Martian ships as they began to burn up and dissolve into nothing, their position on a nearby hillside affording them an excellent view. Eventually, Mina broke the silence.

"Should we be worrying about other Martians?" she asked, looking around at the League in general.

"I doubt it," Terry replied. "Based on my scans of the ship, the Martians had a direct link to the rest of their species back on Mars. Now that we have defeated them, they know that Earth is not a planet they can safely conquer. They will not be returning."

"That's a relief," Skinner smiled. Then a thought occurred to him and he turned to face Logan and Frank. "So, now that this little fight's over, do you two want to join the League on a more permanent basis?"

Logan and Frank looked at each other for a couple of seconds. Then they turned back to the League and both replied at the same time.

"No."

Logan continued their explanation. "We like you guys, don't get me wrong on that, but, well... Frank and I, we're natural loners. You guys, it's like you were born for this team. Us, well... we weren't."

"Besides," Frank added, "Beyond extra muscle, what do we really bring to your team? It's not that we wouldn't be glad to be permanent teammates of yours, we just don't think we'd bring anything some others don't offer already."

"Oh," Hartdegen said simply. Then another thought occurred to him. "So, will you be leaving us for good now?"

"No," Frank replied assuringly. "Just give us something that lets us keep in contact with you, and call us when you really need backup. We'll be there for you."

"Well, that's something," Sawyer said, as he shook the hands of them both. "It's been a pleasure to meet you two."

"Likewise," Frank assured him, and Logan nodded in agreement.

Then the League turned their backs on the field and walked towards Nemo's car, which was waiting for them only a few feet away.

*****

The world was saved.

New friends had been gained.

A new threat had been vanquished.

Wonder what we'll be up against next? Sawyer asked himself, as he briefly stared up at the sky while standing beside the car, briefly lost in thought. Then, a tap on his arm by Mina bought him back to reality. He got into the car beside her, and the League left the country behind them.

It was time to go home.