The New Exiles
By The Uncanny R-Man And Agent-G
Shout Outs-
Ruby631: Well they weren't really important for the plot just to give the character a little more history and background. Maybe later I'll bring it up again, plus there were three women in total Mary, a mutant that got killed by a Sentinel and the last one he never loved.Thanks to: Damn-my-name-was-taken
Chapter 4: Meet August-Manhattan-
The mutant travelers found themselves on top of a building in Manhattan. They looked around but there was no Guardian in sight. "Guess he's still busy with Vincent's world." Morph says to everyone.
Heather noticed Vincent looking across the city taking in every sight and sound, a look of pure amazement and awe on his face. "Vincent, are you alright?" She asks him.
"It's beautiful." He said to himself. "I nearly forgot what it was like, and for a guy with a photographic memory that says something." He looked around at the streets below. "The people here are just having normal lives, no one's afraid of what's flying in the air, there's no fighting for survival, it's all like it was before the Sentinels." The sight before him was like looking at heaven for him, ever since the Sentinels started their attacks and then when his home city was nothing more then ruins he wondered if he would ever live long enough to see a sight like this, he was overjoyed but it was short lived.
"Hey man where's your stuff?" Morph pointed out.
Vincent looked down and saw his sword and bag were missing. "What the Hell?" He shouted out. "Where did they go?" He was getting pissed now, that was the only personal items he had left in the world and he didn't want to lose them.
A beeping noise from Blink's PADD sounded. She took it out and looked at it with a confused expression. "It says; all unregistered items have been sent to HQ storage."
"What does that mean?" Heather asked just as confused.
"Whatever it means I better get that stuff back." Vincent said angrily. Little did they know that their arrival in this world was noticed.
Elsewhere-
In a dark room far away, which was only lit by many candles lighting the area, beyond their light only darkness was seen. There was a rug with a strange design on the floor in the center was a circle of white powder and various artifacts that glowed and a glowing portal was above it. In this room stood two people, a man and a woman, watched them through a mystical portal. The man was middle aged with graying temples in a long red robe and blue silk puffy shirt all stylized out of something from a fantasy book. The woman was in her mid twenties and had long blond hair with blue eyes. She wore a red full body suit that clung to her frame showing off all her curves and with a purple cloak. They were Dr. Strange and Amanda Sefton, two of the world's most powerful magic users.
"Are these the ones foretold that would help?" Amanda asked the older man looking at the Exiles through the magic viewing portal. It was said long ago that in a time of darkness when a witch would make an unholy alliance with a man of evil, a man of metal they would bring death and horror to the world. It was also said that visitors not of this Earth yet of Earth would come to their aid and help them. 'Well that was the abridged version.' Amanda thought. 'The real one goes on and on and is a lot more boring, not to mention written in Latin.'
Dr. Strange nodded. "Yes I believe so."
Dr Strange and Amanda look up from the portal as they heard the footsteps of others approach them. "Is it almost time?" One person asks, a young redheaded woman dressed in red gypsy garb.
"Yeah, what's the what, Doc?" Her blonde companion asks, she was the youngest of them in her early twenties and in a blue and black uniform reminisant of the Fantastic Four but without the number four symbol. "I'm itching to give Doom a good ass kicking after what he did to my parents." She said angrily, she had watched Doom kill her parents and the rest of her family right before her eyes and had sworn to avenge them all.
"Ah, Wanda, Valeria." Dr Strange says. "I'm glad that you are here. It is indeed time, if the prophecy is correct, these new arrivals are the only ones that can help us." He looked to Valeria and hoped she would keep her powers and especially her anger in line. She was close to losing herself and he didn't want her to fall to the dark arts to avenge her loss. He saw much promise in her and he didn't want to lose such a pupil to the dark forces of magic. They already had enough to deal with Selene and Doom.
"I think that we'd better get to them straight away." Amanda says looking at them with concern. "They're about to bump into some unwanted visitors."
Manhattan-
The Exiles are walking through the streets of Manhattan. This reality's Manhattan is quite different from each of their own realities. There are no angry mobs of mutant hating bigots after them for a start.
"I don't know why." Morph says looking around the city. "But I've got a freaky feeling about this place."
"Why so negative, Morph?" Heather asks. "It doesn't seem so bad to me."
"Have you got any idea what we're doing in this reality Blink?" Vincent asked her.
Blink takes her PADD out of its pouch and takes a look at it. "All it says is; 'gather and rescue'." Blink replies.
'Jeez." Morph mutters. "Cryptic much? That thing's more annoying than the Tallus!"
"The what-us?" Vincent asks.
"Long story, buddy." Morph replies. The group is about to round a corner when a burst of static come from a speaker above their heads.
"Attention people of New Latveria, Lord Doom and Lady Selene are about to make their monthly inspection."
A shiver of shock runs through the assembled Exiles. "New Latveria?" Morph asks. "What kind of stupid ass name is that?"
"The kind of name that a city would have if Dr Doom ruled America." Blink replies. "Or so the PADD says."
"Dr. Who?" Vincent asks.
"Not Who, Doom." Heather replies then turns to Blink. "How did Doom come to rule America, Blink?"
She was looking through the information that was showing up. "The PADD says that some immortal sorceress called Selene released Doom from Hell after he was trapped there by the Fantastic 4. They joined forces to wreak revenge on the heroes of this reality." Blink replies. "Most of them are dead by now, the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Avengers...they're all dead."
"Oh great." Morph groans. "A freaking reality where Doom rules the world, wonderful."
"I'm still none the wiser." Vincent pipes up. "Care to tell the new guy who this Doom is so he can go about peeing his pants too?"
"Dr Doom's only one of the most evil tyrants ever!" Morph replies looking at him with an astonished look on his face. "Didn't you have the Fantastic 4 in your reality?"
"I don't think so." Vincent replies shrugging slightly. "I think they were killed by the Sentinels years ago, if they existed at all."
The group turns around as they hear the sound of mechanical trumpets blaring. They watch as a cavalcade of robots and demons walk down the street. They duck into a nearby alley do avoid detection. After a short while Doom, in his ever-present suit of armor and green hooded cloak, and Selene, clad in her black leather bustier and flowing cloak, appear on a hover platform flanked by more bodyguards and soldiers.
Everybody holds their breath as the cavalcade passes slowly by. Up on the hover platform there is Selene and Dr. Doom on matching thrones. Next to them a strange man in a suit stands and cocks his head to the left as if he's listening to something. He scans the crowd and sees the Exiles. 'This is no good.' He thinks to himself
He turns to Selene. "Forgive my interruption but you should be warned."
Selene turns her cold red eyes to him. "Warned about what?" She asks coldly.
The man in the suit nods to the Exiles. "That group is here to pose a threat to you. My masters gave you the power to resurrect Doom in exchange for you dealing with all those heroes." What he didn't say was that when they finished dealing with the last of the heroes his masters would then take over and dispose of them.
Selene turns and whispers to Doom. Doom turns and points straight at our heroes. "Seize those mutants!" He booms.
"Looks like its time for action." Morph sighs.
Our
heroes leap to action as a squad of Doombots and demons storm the
alley. Blink throws her teleportation lances, transporting her enemies
away. Morph's arms change into orange rock, not unlike The Thing's.
"To rip-off a close buddy of mine." He says. "IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!" He then smashes several Doombots to pieces.
"Morph, lookout!" Heather, in her Sasquatch form, yells.
Morph
turns around just in time to see two flying demons swoop towards them.
Before he can defend himself however, Heather's furry white fists
knocks the demons away, smashing them against a car.
Vincent
however, is having the time of his life blasting a gang of demons with
his energy blasts. "Is this a normal day at the office for you guys?"
He asks with a feral grin on his face while fighting.
"Oh this is nothing." Morph replies. "This is only a good day!"
Our
heroes battle on bravely but no matter how many demons or Doombots they
destroy, even more appear in their place. Just when the day seems lost,
the demons and Doombots are disintegrated when a portal appears in the
air. A man in a yellow cloak and three women step out.
"Come with me if you wish to live." Dr Strange says.
"You don't need to ask us twice, buddy." Morph replies.
Our heroes step into the portal after Strange.
"Curse you Strange!" Doom yells from his hover platform.
Elsewhere-
Another magical portal appears and Dr Strange and our heroes step out.
"Not that we're ungrateful or anything." Vincent says. "But who are you and why did you bring us here?"
"I
am Dr. Steven Strange." Strange replies then steps aside to gestures to
the others with him. "And these are my associates Wanda Maximoff, the
Scarlet Witch, Amanda Sefton and Valeria Richards. I saved you because
we are in dire need of your help."
"Which is what, exactly?" Blink asks.
Dr
Strange waves his arm in the air and another magical portal appears.
Through the portal they can see a black-haired woman in chains sitting
in a cell and in ruined black leather clothing. She looks like she
wasn't doing to well, she was a bit under fed and her appearance was
unkempt.
"We wish to enlist your help to rescue this woman." He says.
"Doesn't seem too bad." Morph sniffs. "A simple rescue mission is all."
"This
is no simple rescue mission." Amanda says sternly to him. "This woman
is being held captive in the demonic realm of Limbo." A collective
groan rises from the assembled Exiles at the thought of yet another
journey to the demonic netherworld.
"Once again I've come in
halfway through the movie." Vincent says getting a little frustrated at
the only one being left behind in the conversation. "What exactly is
this Limbo place?"
"Think Hell." Valeria replies. "And you won't be too far off."
"Great."
He mutters to himself. "I've just gone from an Earthly Hell, to a real
one all in one day." He figured if Father Michaels was here, the priest
that was in charge of the orphanage that he grew up in and had
basically raised Vince since he was seven would have something
spiritual to say about this.
"Okay." Blink says. "So we have to go and rescue this woman from Limbo, who exactly is she?"
Dr Strange chooses to answer the question. "She is... Selene's daughter, and her name is August."
Guardian had been working none stop. He would teleport himself to the largest group of people and offered them a better life, most of them gladly took it and there were a few people who were skeptical or just didn't believe him. It was trying at times but eventually he won them over.
He was in an underground parking lot and had just finished with sending the group to a new place. He opened a portal to New Haven, a safe place where the others on the other side will look after them and get them settled in.
He turned from the portal as it closed was walked on ready to find the others when an uneasy feeling came on him. He thought he sensed something with him but he didn't see anything, but if the thousands of years he'd been around had told him anything it was that the eyes didn't always see what's there. He stretched out his senses and he felt something.
It was a cloak of some kind...it wasn't technological...it wasn't some kind of power...it was...oh no. "Magic." He said right before a huge blast of fire hit him in the chest knocking him through one of the cement pillars holding the structure up.
Then one of the Triplets as they were called became visible. It was the red headed one and the glyphs he wore were glowing in an eerie red light. He walked over to Guardian and smirked. "Well this is a surprise...we did not expect one of your kind, strange I always thought Guardians were tougher then that." He looked down on the flaming body and went to kick it.
But a hand shot out and grabbed his foot. "We are." Came the cold replay and in one smooth motion Guardian stood up and whipped him around onto an abandoned car crushing it inward from the impact and then threw him into another pillar that was cracked.
The red headed sorcerer looked up and spat out blood as he watched Guardian walked over to him. "Now you're going to tell me you sent you to this world and you're going to do that now."
The man looked around for his brothers but he had told them to wait and he couldn't let this Guardian take any information if he did then his masters would punish him in ways that would make him wish for death. He looked up at Guardian coldly. "I think not." He concentrated and the glyphs started to glow even brighter. Guardian was about to ask what he was doing but he could feel the energy building up and knew what it was.
Outside the other two brothers watched as a giant fiery explosion ripped through the building's lower levels causing it to collapse in on itself. When the rubble had stopped falling both of the brothers landed on the ruins and looked around with the same coldness they always showed.
"He always was impulsive." The blonde said to the other.
"Yes he was. We should report this now." The white-haired one said and turned around, as did the brother.
"Do you think whoever it was down there survived?"
"Doubtful." The other brother told him but they both stopped as a rumbling was heard and they both looked at each other before turning their attention to the ruins. A black-gloved fist shot out of the ruins like it was defying the material. Then the rest of an arm came lose and the hand grabbed hold of the ground and a sudden small explosion of debris flew out everywhere sending dust all over the place.
The two brothers covered their face and when everything settled there was Guardian, his clothing ripped and singed but other wise unhurt except for the angry expression on his face. He pulled out his long broad sword and glared at the two of them. "Oh this isn't over yet."
TBC...NEXT UP CHAPTER 5: CHUTES AND LADERS