SUPERNOVA

Part XII: The Unmasking

By Ryan Krupienski and Dino Pollard

Pain shoots through the body of Tony Stark. He tries to move, but finds himself pinned to the ground by the powers of Graviton. His armor feels like it weighs tons, and the sensation that is coursing through his body is a familiar one. He knows from past experience it could very well be the beginnings of a heart attack.

“Let him go!” exclaims Warbird from her cell. “Look at him, he’s not a threat to you!”

“You’re right, he’s not,” says Graviton. Then, he begins to smirk as he says, “But I was one of those kids who liked to fry ants with a magnifying glass.”

Graviton’s attention turns to one of the cells as he hears the sound of pounding. He leaves Iron Man limp on the ground and slowly hovers over to the source of the noise. He sees Captain America, shield in hand, trying to break the door to his cell down, and Graviton laughs. With a flick of his wrist, Captain America is slammed against the back wall of the cell.

“Now that was amusing,” says Graviton. “Trying to save one of your precious Avengers, Rogers?”

“Leave him alone,” says Captain America in a defiant tone. “You want someone to push around, then I’m your man.”

“Don’t you have somewhere else to be, Graviton?” asks Giant-Man. “What good are you doing here?”

“Haven’t you learned yet, Pym?” asks Graviton as he begins to increase the gravitational pull on Hank Pym’s body. “I’m having far more fun torturing you Avengers.”

While Graviton is distracted by Captain America and Giant-Man, Warbird watches Tony Stark fight for his life. From her cell, she calls out to Tony, trying to make sure he’s okay. A voice silences her.

“Don’t draw attention to him,” says the Black Widow from her cell.

“Natasha, he’s dying!” exclaims Warbird.

“Take a closer look at his armor, Carol,” says the Black Widow. Warbird watches the armor, and notices the faint flickering of the LED lights around the armor.

“No…” says Warbird. “Tony, you need the armor’s life support.”

Iron Man gives no reply. Instead, with Graviton’s powers diverted elsewhere, he finds the strength to lift his arm. He directs his palm at Warbird’s cell. She notices the circular device on the palm begin to glow, and she steps away from the cell right as Iron Man fires off a repulsor blast. The door flies open once the blast strikes it. In an instant, Warbird is out of the cell and flies at Graviton. She uses all her strength as she rams into him at full speed. The force of the blow sends Graviton flying through one of the walls of the makeshift dungeon the Avengers are in. With him out of the picture, she quickly frees her teammates and then rushes to Iron Man’s side.

“Carol, what’s the status?” asks Captain America.

“Oh God…” mutters Carol. “He’s having trouble breathing.”

“Fan out!” exclaims the Wasp. She immediately shrinks down to wasp-size and flies through the air, easily dodging the Constrictor’s coils. She reverses her path and flies towards him, this time unleashing her sting blasts at the villain. It grabs his attention, and he attempts to swat her with his coils, but she moves too quickly for him.

“Hey buddy.”

Constrictor’s attention turns to Ant-Man, perched on a bug, mere inches from his face. If Constrictor could see beneath Ant-Man’s helmet, he would find a smile on Scott Lang’s face.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I brought some friends to the party,” says Ant-Man. Constrictor looks down at his legs to see thousands of ants coming towards him.

Suddenly, the Rhino goes flying past Constrictor, Ant-Man, and Wasp. As he gets to his feet, he sees She-Hulk approaching. She stops a few feet in front of him and cracks her knuckles.

“Aww, c’mon,” she says. “Don’t tell me you’re already done playing.”

The Rhino grunts and charges into her. She-Hulk grabs his horn and spins him around. With her own strength combined with his momentum, she’s able to throw him quite a distance, effectively separating him from the battle. The ground begins to shake all around her and she barely has time to act as the ground rises up and crashes down all around her head. Avalanche just smiles.

The Living Laser moves quickly across the battlefield, and in this form, he’s basically immune to any sort of physical attacks. Magical attacks, however, such as those performed by the Scarlet Witch, are a different story. Wanda manipulates the probability fields around him, increasing the chances that he turns into a human form. Once he does, all it takes is a simple incantation that encloses him in magical bonds, preventing him from moving or changing back to his energy form.

She glances over at the Vision, who phases through the Eel, and solidifies just enough in order to damage the suit’s circuitry. Although he cannot be touched when he is intangible, the Vision finds that his cape is still vulnerable to the powers of the Gypsy Moth. And although she cannot strangle him with it, she can bind him with it. Vision struggles, but the force of the Gypsy Moth’s powers are too great.

The Falcon flies around, avoiding the Dreadknight. Although the Falcon has mobility and is able to move at a faster speed than Dreadknight, he has no protection against the cold controlled by Blizzard.

On the ground, the Jack of Hearts finds himself surrounded by the Armadillo, Grey Gargoyle, Plantman, Hydro-Man, Sandman, and Boomerang. The villains all begin to slowly close in on him.

“I bet you think this is gonna be an easy battle, huh?” says the Jack of Hearts. “And y’know something? You’re right, it will be.”

Jack of Hearts begins to glow brightly as he unleashes a discharge of Zero Energy. When the smoke clears, he is the only one left standing.

“…Just not for you.”

Not far away, Black Panther searches the field, attending to the wounded. He suddenly sees a projection, but shakes it from his mind quickly enough. The image appears again, and this time, he spins on his heel and hurls an energy dagger at the Black Mamba. He looks back at the projection and watches as the Darkforce entity dissipates.

“Nice try, Mamba,” he says.

The Black Panther is about to assist his fellow Avengers, but the new arrival on the scene catches his eye. He draws an energy dagger as he begins to approach the man responsible for the death of his father.

Klaw.

Giant-Man kneels down over the body of Iron Man, and Warbird stands and steps back to give her teammate room to work.

“We need to get his armor back online,” says Giant-Man. “The life support systems are pretty much the only hope we have to save his life.”

“Can you do it?” asks Captain America.

“God I hope so…” replies Giant-Man.

“Ugh… you think this is over?”

Warbird stands and takes point as Graviton reenters the room, somewhat shaken.

“By the way, nice hit,” says Graviton.

“Oh that?” asks Warbird as she cracks her knuckles. “I was just getting warmed up.”

“So you mean you might actually put up a challenge this time?” asks Graviton.

Captain America says nothing, just hurls his shield at Graviton. Graviton extends his hand, and the shield simply flies past him.

“Oops, missed,” says Graviton.

The shield ricochets against the back wall and slams into Graviton’s back before returning to Captain America’s hand.

“Not really,” says Captain America. He takes a step forward, but falls to the ground instantly. Warbird flies foward, and fires an energy blast. Graviton dodges it, and suddenly, Warbird slams up against the ceiling. Graviton hovers there, forcing Captain America on the ground and Warbird on the ceiling. He moves closer to Giant-Man and Iron Man, intending to finish what he started.

A cable suddenly wraps around Graviton’s throat and pulls him back. The Black Widow pulls her Widow’s Line tighter around his neck. Just as Graviton is about to use his powers on Natasha Romanov, she paralyzes him with her gauntlets and he falls unconscious in her arms.

“Next time keep an eye on all the combatants, darling,” she says. “Henry?”

“I’ve got some of the systems working,” says Giant-Man. “He’s conscious and breathing, but he needs medical attention.”

Avalanche increases the pressure of the earth on She-Hulk, intending to suffocate or crush the physical powerhouse of the Avengers, whichever comes first. But then the ground beneath him begins to quake, something he isn’t responsible for. The ground buckles and throws him off. All the ground covering She-Hulk is moved away. Avalanche watches this and gets up to find that the source is the mutant called Rictor.

Dozens of glowing energy orbs of some sort begin to surround the battlefield and explode shortly after, signaling the arrival of Meltdown. Proudstar is the next to enter, using his speed and strength to keep several of the Masters off-balance, while at the same time, helping what Avengers he can. Airborne assaults come in the form of Sunspot and Siryn, combining their respective solar and sonic abilities in a duet of force that helps to disable the flying Masters of Evil.

At the center of the attack on the Masters is Cannonball, the current leader of X-Force. He rockets through the air, kept free of harm by the forcefield that surrounds his body. The Wasp quickly flies over to him in her small form, and hitches a ride on him.

“Cannonball, right?” she asks.

“That’s right, ma’am,” he replies. “An’ since I don’t see Captain America on the field, I guess that makes you defacto leader, eh?”

“Pretty much,” says the Wasp. “What’s X-Factor doing here anyway?”

“Actually, we’re X-Force,” he says. “X-Factor’s the government guys.”

“Sorry, it’s getting hard to keep track of all these different X-groups,” says the Wasp.

“Tell me about it, I’ve them all written down somewhere,” says Cannonball. “Anyway, there’s more going on here than just the Masters of Evil.”

“Like what?” asks Wasp.

“Let’s save that for after we’ve kicked the crap outta these guys,” replies Cannonball.

An energy dagger flies from the Black Panther’s hand. Klaw disrupts it with a sonic blast from his weapon. The dagger was simply a distraction that allowed the Black Panther to get in close and deliver a swift kick to Klaw’s head. Klaw attempts to counter with his sonic weapon, but in these close quarters, he isn’t able to do much.

The Black Panther rams an energy dagger into the weapon. He then takes hold of it and crushes it. He grabs hold of Klaw’s arm and pulls hard, dislocating it, and then he breaks the arm. The Black Panther forces Klaw face-first on the ground and holds his foot on the villain’s head.

“I should kill you now, but I won’t,” says the Black Panther. “Where are the other Avengers?”

“I’m not talking,” says Klaw.

“Suit yourself,” says the Black Panther. He turns Klaw onto his back. The Black Panther then slams his foot on Klaw’s knee, shattering it.

“Where are the Avengers?” he repeats.

“I don’t know,” says Klaw in an obvious lie.

The Black Panther shatters the other knee, and Klaw cries out in agony.

“Would you like me to keep going?” he asks. Klaw lifts his head slightly and spits on the Black Panther’s boot.

“Do your worst.”

The Black Panther says nothing, just slams his fist against Klaw’s forehead. With Klaw out of commission, the Black Panther looks to see the Avengers and X-Force standing together among the defeated Masters. He leaves Klaw and walks over to them, and both teams turn to acknowledge his presence.

“Cannonball,” says the Black Panther with a nod. “What is X-Force doing here?”

“By now you’ve probably all heard the name Cassandra Nova Xavier, right?” asks Cannonball. Nods and mumbles of agreement come from the Avengers. “Basically, she’s full o’ shit.”

“Why am I not surprised?” asks the Wasp.

“She’s got the X-Men under her control, an’ the ones that have escaped, she’s branded as traitors, victims of some sort of psychic virus,” says Cannonball.

“Where do we all fit in?” asks the Falcon.

“Not sure exactly, but there’s gotta be some connection between Magneto’s sudden reemergence, the Masters of Evil attacking LA, and Cassandra’s recent activities,” says Sunspot.

“Cyclops had some reservations about Cassandra, and he kept X-Force in hiding and under the radar in case things went south,” says Cannonball.

“We were assigned to assist any other supergroups in case another Onslaught-type incident happened,” says Proudstar. “You guys were the first to be attacked, so we came to help you.”

“Six mutants are the back-up?” asks the Jack of Hearts. “The X-Men don’t put a lot of faith in numbers, do they?”

“We’ve never needed to,” replies Siryn.

“You guys are just that good, huh?” asks the Jack of Hearts with a roll of his eyes.

“And don’t you forget it, ‘Two-Face’,” replies Meltdown.

“Basically, it’s not a coincidence that we were lured away from New York and the X-Men’s activities,” says the Black Panther.

An invisible force of some sort strikes the Avengers and X-Force, and they tumble down. The Crimson Cowl stands nearby, seemingly having appeared out of nowhere. The fabric of her cowl encircles her as she faces off against the combined teams.

“Well, well, well, it seems I’ve underestimated your resources, Avengers,” she says.

The Avengers and X-Force are prepared to attack, but before they move in, the Cowl is hit by something from behind and falls to the ground. Warbird, followed by Captain America, Black Widow, and a full-grown Giant-Man holding Iron Man in his palm, approach from behind the Cowl. Captain America grabs the Crimson Cowl and lifts her up.

“Explain,” he says. “What was this all about?”

The Crimson Cowl just laughs in response to the question. Captain America throws her against the ground. He grabs her hood and pulls it away, revealing the face of Cassandra Nova Xavier.

“If only you knew…” she says. “But I suppose you’ll find out soon enough. Ta.”

Cassandra fades away suddenly, leaving the Avengers and X-Force alone on the battlefield. Captain America walks over to Cannonball.

“Sam, right?” he asks, extending his hand. “Scott told me about his little contingency plan. You came through.”

“Just doing our jobs, sir,” replies Cannonball, shaking Captain America’s hand.

“Where’s Cassandra gone now?” asks Captain America.

“She’s leading the X-Men to attack Genosha,” replies Rictor.

“Magneto,” says the Scarlet Witch. “If all this was arranged by Cassandra, then does that mean she’s also working with my father?”

“We’re not exactly sure what Magneto’s role in all this is,” says Siryn. “But there’s no evidence t’ suggest he’s doin’ what Cassandra says he’s doin’.”

“Cap, we should get moving,” says Giant-Man. “Tony still needs medical attention.”

“We’ll make a stop at the mansion,” says Captain America. “After that we head for Genosha. We’ve got a job to do.”

CONCLUDED IN SUPERNOVA: OMEGA!