- Miu and I surprisingly didn't do anything last night. Ironiclly I think we might have had we not confessed we loved each other. I wanted to tell Miu that I loved her ever since we got to LA but I wasn't entirely sure how she'd react.

Today we drove to San Francisco to spend the last day of the break. We had just eaten lunch at a pizzaria when we noticed a crowd forming outside of an electronics store window where the TVs were displayed. We joined them to see what was so interesting. When I saw it my heart nearly stopped.

Reshef's face was on the screen, "Greetings, citizens of Earth. My name is Reshef, I am responsible for depowering most of your mutant population several months ago.* I have returned to Earth to rule over you. This is not an invasion by any means, simply a fresh start and a chance for your broken world to be healed. I have the technology to do so. In 24 hours I wish to have responses from your world leaders surrendering all control of your countries to me. If not, I will be have to do so by force. Send any superhumans you want, I have an army made of up of the best warriors from across the universe. It's your choice. Surrender peacefully or cause your entire a tremendous amount of greed. Until then I will be waiting at your Statue of Liberty."

* - Reshef depowers the mutant population using a sample of Jason's DNA in Aracnor Part 3: Powerless

"No..." I muttered. "This can't be happening. IT CAN'T!"

"He caused M-Day?" Nico was astonished.

"Yeah. He's the most powerful thing I've ever seen... I have to get back to New York. I have to stop this!" I tried to explain the thousands of thoughts that were flowing through my head at once. Reshef was back and he had his entire army. How large could his army be? Could he be defeated? Does he have a weakness? How fast can I get to New York? Was he watching us this whole time, waiting for an opportunity when the heroes were most divided to attack? Is Rachel still with him?** Is she going along with this or is she still on our side? A lot of these questions I didn't want to know the answers to, mainly because I had a feeling about what the answers were, and I didn't like them.

** - Rachel joins Reshef at the end of Aracnor Part 3: Powerless

All of these thoughts continued to run through my head we headed back to LA. It was night by the time we got back and I was panicing. The Initiative was probrably going to send a team to fight him, but it won't work. He's too strong, his army's too strong. Fighting Reshef head on is suicide, yet I still feel the need to get to New York to stop him right now.

I opened my drawer and threw out everything until I found my costume. I turned around to leave with it but nearly bumped into Miu on the way out.

"Don't go Jason..." she sobbed.

"I have to. It's my faullt that M-Day happened, and I'm one of the few people in the world who knows what we're dealing with. I'm gonna be back. I don't know long this will take but, one day I'll be back;" I tried to reassure Miu.

"What if you die?" she cried. "What if you die and I never see you again! I love you! I'm not losing you! I can't!"

"You aren't losing me Miu, I'll be back. You know I will," I tried to hold myself together and reassure Miu that everything would be alright. I couldn't stand seeing Miu cry and the fact that I wasn't entirely sure of myself with this one.

"You went to war all summer. You're not coming back anytime soon from this. And we both know you can die... We love each other... I can't lose you yet... Please Jason..." Miu buried her face in my chest.

"I don't have a choice Miu... I have to do this as much as as I want to stay with you..." I sobbed to Miu.

"We just started getting close again... don't leave me yet. I need you to love me," Miu went on.

"I do love you, Miu. More than anything else in the world that's why I need to do this, for you;" I tried to explain.

"Not like that Jason. I need you to LOVE ME. Just once... just for tonight..." Miu looked up into my eyes.

I wiped the tears from her face knowing exactly what she meant, "Okay. I'll love you tonight. And I promise you that tonight isn't going to be the only time... I'll be back."

The next morning I held Miu in my arms in bed while we were trying to find a way to keep our perfect night from inevitably ending. Deep down I know this is what we both wanted our first time together to be like but the problem with it was that we didn't want it to end because we knew I would be gone if it ended.

"Remember how we met?" I asked Miu as I ran my hand through her hair.

"How could I not? You saved me from a Sentinel when I was walking home from my friend's house... I was so scared and then you came along and I felt safe," Miu smiled. "I knew you'd always protect me."

"I love you so much," I whispered to Miu.

"I love you too, more than anything else," Miu replied.

We went on for the next hour or so before I told Miu I needed to get dressed and leave. It was probrably the most difficult thing I'd done in my life. We planned on leaving in 2 groups. One would be the group that was planning on fighting Reshef: Molly, Nico, Karolina, and Victor would leave with Miu in the van to bring her back home. Chase, Old Lace, and Xavin would come with me, first to the X-Mansion to see what the X-Men were planning on doing and then, depending on them, going after Reshef.

While we were on the way the 24 hour time period ran up and Iron Man had went to the Statue of Liberty with some of the Avengers to fight Reshef. I had high doubts that this would go over well.

"You have a USB port on here? I want a recording of this for later," I explained. Chase pointed to one and I stuck a flashdrive I had in it and started to record the footage.

*Statue of Liberty*

"I'm assuming that you Avengers aren't here to surrender your country," Reshef grinned impishly.
"How right you are," Ms Marvel replied.
"Pity..." Reshef turned his back and started walking away.
"What the hell? Don't walk away from us!" She-Hulk called at him.
A portal opened at that second and Ruin emerged with an alien I didn't reconize. Reshef walked through it and disappeared.
"This is gonna be fun," the alien I didn't reconize replied. He looked like a giant furball with hands and feet. I was worried, I knew Reshef wouldn't allow something weak to join him. It must've been dangerous.
"One question," Ruin grasped a blaster on her left thigh.
The Avengers were all ready to attack.
"Where's Aracnor? I've been dying to see him ever since I found he was repowered. After all, I was the one who had the honor of taking his powers in the first place. They sure did come in handy," Ruin spoke calmy. The fact that she drew her gun and shot Wonderman went nearly unnoticed. Wonderman had almost no time to avoid the attack, and he didn't. The blast got him in the shoulder.
"Avengers Assemble!" Iron Man called. Iron Man shot a repulsor blast at Ruin but she dodged it easily. She was just as fast as the last time I fought her. Xion(the furball) wasted no time in hurling Wonderman against the base of the statue. She-Hulk punched Ruin in the face but had Sentry thrown at her by Xion. Ruin drew a new weapon. This time it was a sword of some kind. I couldn't tell what the blade was made out of but it looked hot. She flicked her wrist behind her and sliced off Ms Marvel's hand. She screamed out in pain but didn't bleed.
"You monster!" Wonderman turned to his ionic form and went for Ruin. She ducked and stabbed it through his abdomen, splitting him in two as he flew forward.
Next Xion used everyone's distraction as a chance to tear off Sentry's legs. He then proceeded to eat him. Everyone was so distracted that Ares didn't notice Ruin sneak up behind him and slice his head off.
Luckily the attack ended here. Reshef emerged from the portal once again. "Ruin, Xion, please cease," he ordered calmly.
He walked towards the group of beaten Avengers. Iron Man and She-Hulk still seemed to have some fight in them but Ms. Marvel was in no condition to fight and the two who could knew they'd lose.
"It's a pity you didn't surrender. Now I'll have to take this whole planet by force." Reshef turned towards the camera, "Citizens of Earth. Remember this day. Now, my forces will be targeting Camp Hammond, The Baxter Building, Thunderbolts Mountain, and anywhere else you superheroes may be hiding. You have the choice to surrender, I'll spare your lives. I'm sparing Iron Man, She-Hulk, and Ms Marvel just to show you how merciful I can be. Those of you who choose not to give up willingly may not live. You never know. Farewell."

"Crap..." I muttered.

"How'd they do that? They tore the Avengers apart like they were tissue paper," Chase was astonished.

"Are we really planning on fighting them?" Xavin asked.

"Unless you have a better idea," I replied.

At this point I thought things had hit their low for the day, but I was wrong. We got to the X-Mansion but it wasn't there. All that was left were ruins. Did Reshef attack here already? We landed anyway and looked around until we found one of the entrances to the subbasement which was undamaged luckily. I brought up the video we had of our fight against Reshef from months ago then saved a copy to my flash drive.

"You fought him already, what can he do?" Xavin asked as we re-entered the Leapfrog and started to head to the city to try and help, if possible.

"Well he's strong, fast, can fly, absorb powers and send them back stronger, and disable powers temporarily. Psychic attacks seemed to work on him though," I explained.

"So we're out of luck?" Chase asked.

"Kinda," I replied. "This thing have a stealth mode?"

"No."
"I'll take care of that," Xavin used her powers to turn the Leapfrog invisible for us.
"What about weapons?"
"No."
"Great... we're half-screwed if they track us somehow," I groaned as I turned on a computer and went to the New York scene, then the Camp Hammond one on another. The New York scene wasn't pretty. The Young Avengers, minus Cassie, were fighting Skrulls. The thing is that these had the powers of heroes. One of them had Wolverine's claws, Cyclop's optic blast, and Collosus's skin from what I could tell. The Young Avengers were barely able to handle themselves.
"The New York scene looks pretty bad. Time Square's got a Skrull problem, no offense Xavin," I explained.
"None taken. To be honest I'd like to join the quarrel there," Xavin replied.
Then I looked at the Camp Hammond scene. They didn't have as much of a problem when it came to numbers. The thing was they had Demise, Ruin, Xion, and some sort of shark type creature.
"Great... Camp Hammond's got the two from the news, the other guy I fought, and a shark," I announced.
Suddenly the Leapfrog was hit by something. A missle?
"What the hell was that? Aren't we invisible?" I yelled as I was thrown against the wall.
"We ARE!" Xavin replied.
"Well clearly they have something to see us with. Chase, open up the hatch, we're defenseless!" I commanded.
"What the hell?" he yelled back as he crawled to the controls, he needed to steer us straiight again.
"Just do it!" I told him. "I know what I'm doing!" I hopped out. We were under attack by some sort of bat creature.
The bat wasted no time in pinning me to the side of the Leapfrog. He punched me hard in the face. I kneed him in the gut in an attempt to get out of his grip but it didn't work. I managed to shoot a load of web into his eyes and he let go. He tried to fly away but I kicked off of the Leapfrog and tackled him in the sky.
"I was expecting more from Reshef," I taunted him as I punched him hard in the jaw.
"Be careful what you wish for," he replied as he shot an energy blast out of his mouth and at me. I started to fall but I shot a webline at his foot, he cut it.
I looked down and saw an open field, nothing for me grab. I was screwed. Even if I survived the fall it would take way too long for me to heal and still be able to fight him.
"Gotcha!" Xavin grabbed a hold of me. She had flown out to help.
"Thanks, I owe you one," I said.
I looked up and saw the bat was flying towards the Leapfrog. It opened its mouth and started to form a huge energy ball, he was going to kill Chase and Old Lace!
"No!" the two of us screamed simotaneously.
Xavin formed a forcefield around us, then another around the Leapfrog. The blast didn't do any damage.
"He's not stopping anytime soon, we need to stop him somehow," I pointed out.
Xavin's nose was bleeding from the stress of maintaing the force field around the Leapfrog. The bat shot another blast at it and Xavin looked ready to pass out but didn't. Problem was she let down the shield afterwards.
"Throw me Xavin, I'll finish this," I instructed as the bat prepared another blast, "HURRY!"
Xavin grabbed me and hurled me as strong as possible. The thing was Xavin didn't aim. I wasn't heading towards the bat, I was in the path of the bat's blast. That meant I needed to go for plan B which required perfect timing.
As I passed through the path of the blast I shot a webline at the Leapfrog, it snagged me back into the path of the blast. It hit me dead on, I was knocked through the wall of the Leapfrog and into Old Lace.
"Hey Chase, Old Lace... you meet the neighbors yet?" I asked as I tried to think of something to do now.
"Crap... the engine's out," Chase started hitting switches in an attempt to save us.
"We needa abandon ship then," I said.
"No! We're not leaving Leapfrog!" Chase protested as Old Lace growled(it seemed directed at me).
"We have to!" I yelled back.
"Just go! I'll be fine!" Chase yelled.
I made a parachute out of webbing and was getting ready to jump as well but I turned back to Chase, "Dude..."
"I'm not leaving," he told me.
I wasn't sure what to say so I nodded at him before I jumped. When I landed Xavin wasn't far behind me. We saw Leapfrog crash about 10 miles away from where we landed. The bat followed it.
"Chase..." Xavin said weakly.
*Half an hour later...* We landed near a forest so we thought it would be best if we hid there. We had a fire going.
"What now?" Xavin asked me.
"Not sure... Vic, we don't even know what happened in New York and Camp Hammond..."I pointed out.
"We'll find out eventually..." she told me.
"Yeah... well either way we need to be ready to stay on the run and out of sight. That bat was strong, and it was just one person. We have to be prepared for the worst," I explained.