"Summers! How in the hell did you survive that?!" The man shouted out as he pounded onto his fists.

"I'm a lot tougher than you give me credit for, Blob." Cyclops retorted, before blasting out optic blasts from his eyes towards Blob, who was amazingly able to dodge them despite his poultry build.

Blob then proceeded to charge towards the five superheroes, but Hal merely smirked and created a gigantic baseball bat, with which he bashed Blob, sending the young rogue flying a few feet away.

"You know, kid, with us on your side, the Brotherhood will be less of a hassle." Hal said as Blob groaned.

"Yeah, yeah.." Cyclops replied, and it was then that Blob quickly got back up and charged towards the group once more.

Hal chuckled. "I love it when these goons don't learn!" He shouted before creating a wrecking ball and swinging it towards Blob.

Carol narrowed her eyes and shot out her energy blasts towards the goliath of a man, and Barry began running circles around Blob. Blob looked around as the Flash went at super-speed, and he yelled angrily as he tried to look for an opportunity to deck Barry – but he couldn't because of Barry's speed. Finally, Barry zoomed towards Blob and punched him right in the stomach. Due to his velocity, Blob was sent flying several feet away once more.

"Save yourself any more pain and just stay down." Carol exclaimed as Blob groaned.

Cap had not been able to contribute much to the battle against Blob, and now that he had been taken down, Cap felt it was the time to ask what the hell was going on. "Alright, I'm still completely in the dark about all of this. What is your deal, Cyclops? They told me you were a mutant, but I don't know what that means. And is 'Blob' a mutant, too? I just want to know what all of this is about."

Cyclops sneered. "Has he really not heard of us? Alright then. We mutants are people who were born with superpowers and special abilities, and people hate us for it."

Cap scratched his head. "…Huh. Never heard of that one before. Also, people like us just fine…"

"It's prejudice, Cap. It never makes sense." Barry replied. "Though more accurately, people are split on mutants..."

Cyclops just sneered. "Look, I don't have time to give a history lesson!" He angrily barked out. "We and the Brotherhood are mutants. We're good, they're bad. There, done!"

Cap could see that Hal was getting frustrated with the kid, and though he didn't want to admit it, the Super Soldier was getting pretty annoyed with Cyclops as well. Cap could concede to the point that he had more pressing matters on his hands and couldn't take the time to explain everything…but it was just his attitude. Cap sighed in frustration. He wanted to call him out, but he held back. He had no idea how high the stakes were, and he would rather find that out first.

Then, an African-American lady with pure white hair and pupiless eyes came flying towards the four before any of them could move out. She donned a sleeveless all-black outfit, with a red chestpiece bearing 'M' on it and a yellow belt. But what really made Cap's eyes widen was the arrival of a green dinosaur. It was a Deinonychus, though Cap did not recognize it as such due to having been frozen before its discovery. He prepared himself to combat the creature, assuming that this beast would attack him.

It came to his surprise, then, when the creature morphed into a light green-furred lad, one with big green eyes and whose hair was a dark shade of green than the rest of his coating. He wore a black outfit purple on his chest and shoes, the former bearing a small 'M' on the top right side, and he came running towards the five with a cheery look on his face.

"Oh my God, Sc-Cyclops!" He boasted with a grin on his face. "You ran into the Vanguard?! Holy shit!" He immediately darted towards Captain America. "I just gotta say, it's so cool to actually meet you guys in person. I'm Garr Logan, or Changeling, and I can – "

"Focus, Changeling." The lady said in a stern voice, and Changeling stood quiet immediately after.

Cyclops looked at Changeling for a moment before looking up at the lady, who was still levitating up in the air. "We got any trace of Magneto, Storm?"

Storm shook her head. "Negative, Cyclops. Elasti-Girl and I are beginning to think that Magneto is distracting us while he orchestrates his scheme from an unknown location."

Changeling looked up at Storm with a flabbergasted look on his face. "Oh come on, Storm! Are you seriously just not going to acknowledge the Vanguard of Justice?!"

Storm let out a chuckle, one that Cap could only see, as he was too far away to hear it. "Of course not. It is an honor to be among you, Vanguardians."

"Pleasure's all ours." Carol said with a smile on her face. "We'll help you take down Magneto if so needed."

Cap put his hands up in the air, frustrated. "Well, wait. Who's Magneto?"

"No time to explain, Captain!" Cyclops replied with the same loud tone he had been using the entire time. "M-Force, move out! And don't knock out any more members of the Brotherhood! We need to get information on Magneto, stat!"

Cyclops ran off. "Everyone, update me on your situation!" He said through an ear comm.

Cap couldn't help but over hear Carol and Hal.

"Hal, I won't stop you if you want to punch that little asshole in the face." She whispered towards the Lantern.

Hal smirked. "That is very good to hear."

Cap honestly couldn't blame Hal for wanting to deck Cyclops, but he couldn't really worry about that at the moment. He just wanted to know who the hell Magneto was.

"So wait, am I just going to be left in the dark about this Magneto dude? I want to know what's going on!"

"Magneto is the leader of the Brotherhood." Changeling answered, and though Cap had already managed to deduce that, he was glad to see that Changeling was more polite than Cyclops. "And he can control all magnets and stuff like that."

Now that was news to Cap, and was definitely not something he had seen before. "Thanks."

Hal held his hand up, a green energy emitting from his hand. "Alright, I'm bored and my ring finger's itching."

Hal would not have to wait for another chance to fight, for the fight came to them. Some form of creature came charging towards them, and it was…unlike anything Cap had ever seen before. Even Hal, Barry, and Carol looked stunned by the sight of the creature, and Cap simply had no idea what to make of the damn thing. The right side of its face was that of a man looking to be in his late fifties to early sixties, but that was the only thing that looked remotely human about this abomination. It had blue clothing on the right side of its torso, but then the right arm looked very much like a tree branch, as did its right leg. The left side of the creature was a purple Tyrannosaurus, even right down to the left side of its face, which made for a very jarring sight indeed. And finally, it's left arm was composed entirely of diamonds.

Cap had not seen anything like this beast since awakening, and he sure as hell had not seen this kind of thing back in the war.

"We'll take care of this dude! Go find Magneto!" Barry told Storm and Changeling. Storm nodded and flew away, while Changeling let out an 'aww' and turned into a Deinonychus again and ran off.

Cap breathed heavily. "What…what on Earth is that thing?!"

"That would be Dr. Sven Larson, Cap." Barry answered.

"And why does he look like that at all?!"

"He can shapeshift his body into various animals, plants and minerals."

"Yeah, that…partly explains why he looks like that."

Hal flew up in the air and blasted green energy towards Larson, to which the beast roared in agony. Carol blasted yellow energy at Larson three times, and Barry began circling his arms around. Initially, Cap didn't know what he was doing, but then he saw wind funnels being created out of Barry's arms, and they blew the aberrant man away. Cap grunted and launched his shield towards Larson, intending him to impale the creature in his organic leg. It worked, and Larson roared in pain.

"Hey guys, I was thinking this guy could be named something like Animal-Vegetable-Mineral-Man." Barry said while Larson remained down.

Hal shrugged. "Weird name, but this a weird dude, so it fits, I guess."

Cap thought it was quite fitting, and he still couldn't quite get over how strange 'Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man' looked. Animal-Vegetable-Mineral-Man let out a ghastly roar and grabbed Barry with his diamond hand, repeatedly bashing him into the ground.

"Now, now, Dr. Larson! Barry is not a toy!" Carol shouted before flying fast towards the beast and punching him hard enough in the face to send him flying a couple dozen feet, letting go of Barry in the process.

Barry groaned and got up. "I just gave him a supervillain name."

"Barry, you're great overall…but not with naming supervillains."

Barry rolled his eyes. "Sure thing, Carol."

"It's just too long."

Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man roared and morphed his tree hand into a wooden fist, then grabbed Cap and threw him towards the Vanguard Tower, not too far from where Cyclops had first crashed down.

Hal shook his head. "Alright, Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man. I'm done playing around."

He created a machine gun and began opening fire on Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, but while the creature roared in agony, he was not falling dead to the ground. Hal gritted his teeth and created a giant boulder, with which he smacked the creature down to the ground. He then morphed his right hand into an anaconda's head, and lunged towards Hal.

Hal yelled in pain when the anaconda head sank its teeth into his leg. The Tyrannosaur part of Larson's head let out a deafening roar, and before Carol, Cap, or Barry could think to do anything, Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man began to grow immensely in size. The human part of his face let out a sadisitic grin.

"You think you're the one who's done playing around, Green Lantern?" His grin morphed into a smirk as the snake head began to extend its body out. "That's cute, because the fun has only just begun."

Carol began blasting out yellow energy towards him, but all Larson did was keep that grin on his face as his snake arm began to constrict itself around Carol. Carol tried desperately to break free from his grip, but it was in vain, and he threw her into the Vanguard Tower. Green energy began emitting from Hal's ring again, but Larson's dinosaur leg morphed into a leg composed entirely of iron and steel, and began stomping on Hal, who could do little but grunt and yell.

"Man, this guy's a tough one…" Cap lamented to himself.

Barry overhead Cap and nodded. "Yeah…yeah he is."

Then they turned when they heard a groaning sound, and were shocked to see that Blob had gotten up. Blob looked at the two, and grinned as he began to charge towards them.

But then black energy was shot towards Blob, and he was sent back down to the ground. Barry and Cap turned around and looked up to see a man in a red outfit with a white v-shaped area on his chest, but what really got their attention was that his face was completely bandaged up, making Cap wonder just how on Earth this man was able to see at all.

Then the clouds began to darken, and they saw Storm returning to the scene – and this time, her eyes were glowing. Lighting roared away from the nimbostratus clouds, and Cap briefly spent a moment wondering if Thor had just arrived on the scene. It was to his surprise, then, that Storm waved her hand towards Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, with a bolt of lightning raining down towards him. Larson screamed in agony when the bolt struck him, and Hal used the opportunity to create a sledgehammer and bash Larson in the face with it.

Storm smirked, but then a yellow portal appeared out of nowhere behind her, and out of it emerged a bald, sharp-nosed man donned entirely in golden armor. He decked Storm in the face, and then created another portal. He exited out of that portal and then another portal appeared from right under Storm.

"Warp!" She shouted out, before attempting to conjure up more lighting. But she couldn't, for Warp decked her right in the face before she could do so. Warp punched her two more times and then kicked her in the stomach. Carol flew out from the Vanguard Tower and shot out energy blasts towards Warp, and Storm was now able to shoot out lighting towards Warp, sending her down to the ground.

By this point, Cap and Barry had begun attacking Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, with Barry punching him several times at super speed while Cap thrusted his shield into the beast's dinosaur leg. Cap was still thinking about why he was fighting – and where this Magneto was. Only more questions were raised when, out of the blue, he felt a punch to the stomach, and he turned around to see Changeling.

He was confused. He thought Changeling was one of the good guys. But Changeling didn't say anything. All he did was enlarge his right hand and deck Cap right in the face. Barry saw this and began zooming towards Changeling, but the green boy turned invisible, much to the speedster's confusion. Then he popped out of thin air and kicked Barry in the stomach.

'What is this guy's deal?" Cap thought. "Did he just suddenly decide to betray his team or what is going on here?"

'Sorry for invading your mind like this, Captain, but that's not really Changeling. That's a lady named Raven Darkholme, or Mystique. She's with the Brotherhood.'

Cap had absolutely no idea who that was – he could tell from the voice that it definitely wasn't J'onn – but he was at least glad to have the clarification. He decked the Changeling imposter in the face, and Barry repeatedly punched 'Mystique' in the chest multiple times, then delivered a neat uppercut to the face that sent her down to the ground. It was at this point that the lady revealed her true form, a blue-skinned lady with red hair and white tactical gear on. She groaned, and Cap prepared to knock her out, but then he remembered what Cyclops had said about getting information on Magneto and relented.

Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man finally collapsed to the ground, and a brunette in a red outfit with a white torso and strip under her neck walked up towards the group. She had to have been standing at least 20 feet tall. An average-sized redheaded female flew in front of her; this lady had on a lime green outfit, with yellow gloves and boots as well as…some sort of yellow symbol on her chest that Cap couldn't quite make out.

The redhead flew down towards Cap and Barry. "My name is Jean Grey. I am the one who entered into your minds. Sorry for doing so without your permission." She then pointed towards the giant lady. "And this is Rita Farr, but you may call her Elasti-Girl."

"No, I am not named after the Incredibles character, and no, I don't really want to change my name." Elasti-Girl added on.

Cap then looked at the man with the bandaged head, and pointed towards him. "So who's that guy?"

"That would be Negative Man." Elasti-Girl added on.

Then Cyclops and Changeling ran up towards the M-Force. "We get any information on Magneto?" Cyclops asked in a frustrated voice.

"Negative." Jean answered.

"Damnit!" Cyclops yelled in response. He then saw that Mystique was conscious and nearby, and walked up towards her, grabbing her by her shirt. "Alright, Raven…where's Magneto?"