Excalibur

BLACK AIR RISING

Part VI: Destiny’s Children

By David Wheatley

Pete Wisdom and Adam Destine stood in the realm of Hypertime and looked across the infinite number of worlds and timelines, searching for the one they were after. The Batman had told them what to look for and now all they needed to do was find it.

“Needle in a bloody haystack springs to mind,” said Pete as he watched one reality where a man was bitten by a radioactive bat. It was one of a hundred they had seen as they walked through the kaleidoscope of Kingdoms that came before them. The thing with this place was there were no hard and fast rules of physics so that they could walk up and down without any real problems, even though it was as if they were walking in a straight line. It seemed at times as if they were on some kind of treadmill they could direct with their minds.

However after the first hour or so, it had become second nature to them. Pete began to feel the craving again and he reached for the small packet in his jacket pocket. He opened it, pulled out a small stick and put the packet back. Then he lit up a cigarette.

“Do you mind?” asked Adam as Pete blew smoke past his face.

“Sorry,” he said then had a though. “Hey, what’s your problem? You’re immortal aren’t you?”

“True, but I don’t like your brand,” answered Adam, stopping suddenly. “Got it,” he said and Pete looked around to see what his companion had seen.

“Bingo,” said Pete with a smile and dropped his cigarette to the floor and stepped on it to put it out. They could see the Kingdom above them, where Batman and Captain America had joined forces. If Batman was right then they could use that Kingdom as a portal to the Hypertime variants of their reality and try and find their way home.

Pete adjusted the armband that would bring them back in to Hypertime and they walked up and in to the Kingdom window as they their journey home began.

Scicluna smiled, because she could smile. She was God and Mistress of all she surveyed and she surveyed everything in the universe. This reality was hers to command. She would manage the universe, while Black Air managed the planet Earth, preparing humanity for their destiny as masters of the universe. Once this reality was dominated by humanity – under the control of Black Air – they could expand their horizons to other realities, conquering other universes, spreading Black Air throughout every aspect of creation.

It had been a long hard road to achieve this glorious ascendancy. Once they had set their sights on the world, they had gathered information, bargained for existence and manipulated events. It had been easy enough to do, for the United Kingdom had been fouled by corruption for many, many years. The creation of Captain Britain, guided by the hands of Merlyn and Roma had shown how dark and dangerous things truly were.

Sir James Jaspers had seized on this and become a reality warp that few remembered. In truth even less remembered Jaspers. This had led to an imbalance in the world and the creation of the warpies. The RCX had been formed to take care of the aberrations, and had eventually formed in to the Weird Happenings Organisation. It was around this time that the Adversary had taken on Roma, and the Omniverse had been shaken to its very foundations with the conflict, and eventually Excalibur rose from the debris. Excalibur – their very presence had been vital to the way that things had turned out for Black Air. Could Roma have been aware of what she had done when she had instigated the formation of the team? ‘Impossible,’ thought Scicluna and smiled as her new powers granted her mastery over what had gone before and she watched the past events unfolding.

Excalibur had formed an alliance with WHO and each had assisted the other in many operations, allowing WHO to keep a database on the heroes and makes notes as to how they operated. This had all been thrown in the air with the coming of Necrom and the death of Alysande Stuart, the leader of WHO. She had been framed by Nigel Orpington-Smythe and soon after killed by Jamie Braddock. Her death had lead to the destruction of WHO, and the group were taken over by Orpington Smythe. His reach exceeded his grasp as he took on Excalibur and lost.

WHO were in disarray and it allowed Scicluna and the superiors in Black Air to stage a proper take-over of them. The old ways were abandoned and Black Air’s regime was darker, more malevolent than the user-friendly atmosphere that had once gone with the occult. Black Air were not there as crisis management, they were there to control things so that it went their way. Excalibur was beset by personal problems to notice what was happening until it was too late, and the first meeting between them was filled with tension. It was then they supplied the team with Pete Wisdom.

Scicluna sighed as she thought of him. They thought they could control him and they were wrong so they used him to get to Excalibur, knowing he would provide the team with cynicism and distrust. He had betrayed them and joined Excalibur, however his betrayal had been foreseen as they had known from his profile how he would react to Kitty Pryde and eventually how she would react to him, but not before Excalibur had thwarted Black Air’s attempts at controlling the demon under London. They had thought that with the Onslaught business they would have been too busy, but they had misjudged the timing of his appearance by a few days and they had been defeated. They were down, but not out, even with the third incarnation of WHO being created. They worked in the shadows now, plotting revenge and working towards a scheme so elaborate it was almost impossible to comprehend.

Soon Pryde and Wisdom broke up, and Wisdom’s rejection led to his departure which caused a hole in the team, had altered Pryde’s way of thinking and the group was weakened, eventually leading to their disbanding at the marriage of Brian Braddock and Meggan. The X-Men went home, the Braddocks settled down and the ‘sword’ was sheathed. It had all worked out exactly as Black Air had planned, only much better.

This led to their assault on Muir Isle, the first time Black Air had operated in the open and from then on events were under their control. From the Warwolves as a test of the new team to the death of Inspector Dai Thomas at the hands of a mad cultist – who happened to be an ex-Black Air employee though that was curiously missing from his records – to deprive them of a link to the law enforcement agencies – they had arranged it all.

The team had then been attacked by Sat-Yr-Nine and Black Air had ensured that things happened from then on so that they were not disturbed. It had almost been for nothing, for Excalibur once again had interfered but this time they were too late, and now they were dead.

With the Infinity Gauntlet on her hand, there were none that could stop her now; even the dread Tri-Judge was powerless to stop them. Such a conflict between the two forces would lay waste to everything, starting a chain reaction that would unravel all that exists, and so it was avoided. The Powers That Be would not allow it and would not take a hand in the way of things either. Finally, Black Air was supreme.

Then, all of a sudden, she felt a disturbance coming from the Gauntlet, and her powers wavered for a moment. Her cosmic senses refocused and she could see where the problems were coming from. Black Air was under attack from a select group of Excalibur members.

“I’ll deal with this personally,” she said.

“We think not,” echoed a voice from the ether that only her and her dominance of the Gauntlet was suddenly under siege, from what could only be Excalibur again. Reality battled against the mind for control of the power infinite and Scicluna had a fight on her hands.

On Earth, Captain Britain, Walter, Sam and Kylun were returned to their bodies. The return to reality was a jarring sensation from the serenity that had been Soul World. Their bodies had been unceremoniously dumped in the street, but dumped in the street outside Black Air Command, or Buckingham Palace, as they knew it.

“I think we’d better get their attention,” said Brian, as he reached down to the floor and ripped up the street. The slab of tarmac-coated concrete was then hurled at the palace, where it smashed in to it with the force of a ton of plastic explosive.

“That should do it,” said Kylun as sirens went up, fires blazed and the forces of Black Air were on alert.

“Remember,” said Brian, “exploit every opportunity and give no quarter. We don’t have the luxury of heroic morals here.” Kylun and Walter nodded as they had done plenty of killings in their time, however the fourth member of the group was not as certain.

“I’m not comfortable with killing,” said Sam, with a shiver as her body was coated in the metallic ectoplasm.

“Neither am I,” said Brian, seeing the faces of the lives he had taken before flash through his mind. “And I can’t make it any easier either. We’re at war here, and those we kill today will be restored if we win.”

“And if we don’t win, it won’t matter,” said Kylun, readying his swords. “Here they come.”

The Black Air commandos were stunned to see these four raised from the dead and for a moment they hesitated, just as Brian had hoped they would. The four of them were vastly outnumbered here, so they needed every chance they could get and they leapt in to the fray. Fists and blades flashed in every direction, cutting a path through the enemy. Black Air were not ill trained, having defeated plenty of super-heroic opposition before but none of them could have prepared for the ferocity of the attack unleashed upon them.

More than a survival instinct drove each of the fighters in front of them; they were driven by the need to save the universe, the need to be useful where their own physical abilities were useless on the larger scale. They needed to do something that meant the war was won and their desire to thwart their own impotence was matched by their passion for fighting. All that Black Air had was the desire to survive. Their power and status had given them the feeling of invincibility, fuelled by the confidence and power of the universe’s new God.

As Excalibur and Clan Destine began to rampage through them, they soon began to realise that their God was no longer with them.

Adam Warlock watched from Soul World as everything began to take shape. Brian and his team had engaged Black Air to keep them from aiding Scicluna. Elisabeth and the telepaths had taken control of the mind gem to do battle with Scicluna for control of the Infinity Gauntlet and he was going to aid them in their efforts. Of the remainder of the heroes he had gathered, Meggan remained.

Once they had defeated Scicluna there would be an imbalance in reality and the two mindsets of the mind and soul would conflict and interact, sending the Gauntlet out of control and they would not be able to restore things. Meggan had to step in and assert her control over reality and restore things to normal. She was the only one with the powers to do so. Except for this, there would be a price that only he and she knew of.

“Meggan,” he said, his hand running through her hair, sensing her doubts about the coming test. “Are you ready for what must be done?”

“Yes,” she said, steadying herself. She had said her goodbye to Brian, even though he did not know it. “Will it hurt?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “It will not be easy though. These things seldom are.”

“What will become of me?”

“I do not know that either,” said Adam. “However there is no other way. The choice is simple – we do this or we do not, and to not is unacceptable.”

“If we do not, then I will die,” said Meggan and Adam nodded.

“Your body is on the cusp now. It cannot die while your soul and body are separated, but it may die on your return to physical form. I cannot tell how long you have.”

“Join the battle,” said Meggan. “I will do this.”

“I can’t believe you did that,” asked Adam Destine, as he and Pete reappeared in the Hypertime vortex.

“What?” asked Pete, with a grin.

“You told the Batman we were ‘just passing through and his cave needed better security’. Why?”

“It seemed the right thing to do at the time. The looks on their faces, though. None of them knew where to look, or what to say. Captain America looked very confused, as if he’d only just arrived himself.”

“You certainly didn’t have to wave as we teleported out, though.”

“Now I thought that was cute and look at this place.” Adam looked about. The images they saw now were familiar ones – people and places that they both recognised. The journey home was becoming easier. “Adam, we’ve done it.”

“Not quite,” reminded the other. “There are an infinite number of possibilities here and we have to be certain which reality is ours.”

“You really are a killjoy, you know that?” sighed Pete as he looked at the various worlds. “Let’s get walking and see what we can find.”

“Peter?” said Adam after they’d been walking for fifteen minutes.

“Yes?” asked Pete.

“How will we know which is ours and which isn’t?”

“Blind luck,” said Pete, irritably. He didn’t like to think in those terms.

“Ah,” said Adam

“You also realise,” said Adam after they’d been walking for another twenty minutes or so, “that Black Air might have altered thing so we could walk right past the correct Kingdom and never even know it.”

“Thanks for that,” said Pete. Then he stopped as Adam’s words echoed in his mind and he recognised someone. “Look at that,” he said. “That’s Brian. Fighting demons. That sounds like a Black Air deal.”

“Perhaps,” said Adam, uncertain. The sword and amulet were not something which he attributed Brian Braddock, however there was a familiarity to him,

“Wanna try it? Blind luck and all that.”

“Nothing to lose,” agreed Adam and they went through the window, in to the Kingdom.

“Braddock!” called Threadgold, who had come out to see his warriors being slapped about like schoolgirls. There was one man in charge here – Captain Britain and he knew if he could take him out, the others would fall. “You’re finished.”

“I haven’t even started,” said Brian. The last time they’d tangled Brian had been caught by surprise and had come off worst. This time he was ready. The bio suit that gave Threadgold enhanced strength, flight and all the gifts Brian had naturally was a work of art, but the costume that Brian wore was the original. He was Captain Britain and for the first time since he’d regained his powers and his title, he was about to prove what that meant.

Threadgold came at him, his warriors parting like he was Moses at the Red Sea. He flew towards him like a bullet. Brian stood his ground using his natural powers and the force field of the suit to firm himself up. Threadgold hit him and bounced off the force field, and though it threw Brian back he didn’t fall, just left marks in the ground.

“Impossible,” said Threadgold as he picked himself up from the floor.

“As you well know, nothing is impossible,” smiled Brian, and reached out with his left arm, and his fingers flicked up towards his palm, beckoning Threadgold towards him. The man was a brawler but a skilled one. Pete had briefed them on him after he’d quit Black Air. His fighting skills were good and he was strong anyway, but Brian was stronger. The only things Threadgold had were that he was fast and a strategist, except at close quarters like this and going on instinct as such battles often did; they were not going to be enough.

He ran towards him and punched out at Brian, hitting at the force field, not Brian. It sent Brian backwards and to the floor, but before he could land, he’d twisted in mid-air and was back to his feet.

“Good shot,” he said, thinking he’d gotten overconfident then and that he wouldn’t make mistake again and the two men got in close and began to slug it out with each other, Brian manipulating the force field so that Threadgold couldn’t do the same trick again.

Meanwhile, the others were taking out the commando’s with ease. Kylun’s blades were not killing people but they were taking people out of the game with the shock of feeling a sword pass thought their limbs. It was a psychosomatic response, and Kylun was replicating the sounds of limbs falling off in precise detail. Those two details made them think it was real when it was not and the enemies fell quickly.

Walter was having a ball, there were dozens of warriors piling on to him and he was knocking them about like ten pins. His sister Sam was a little more reserved in her actions but she was inflicting some very harsh wounds with her two pronged claws, and her armoured body protected her quite well from the blows of her enemies. They were uncoordinated enemies, caught by surprise with no clear leadership with Threadgold battling Captain Britain.

As more and more of the warriors caught sight of the battle between the two leaders they stopped fighting and soon everyone’s eyes were on the main event. It was clear to both sides that whomever won the battle had won the war.

“Well, wasn’t that one,” said Adam as he and Pete returned to Hypertime

“Nice to meet myself though,” said Pete. “I keep doing that.”

“Huh?” asked Adam, with surprise.

“Never mind,” said Pete. “Hey. Look at that one. That’s Forge.”

“Where?” asked Adam, not seeing Forge anywhere. He’d met him when he’d met the X-Men, and there was no sign of him.

“Trust me,” said Wisdom. “And if I’m wrong we can always leave.” He pressed the button and headed towards one of the windows.

“Pete!” cried Adam and raced after him, and they went through the window and they arrived in another reality.

“Forge!” cried Pete and Forge turned to see them. It wasn’t the Forge in the traditional sense, but one from a time known as the Age of Apocalypse. This was one was similar but not the same and Pete could see that now. However they had to try

“That’s Forge?” asked Adam, wondering what kind of hell Pete had dragged him in to. “He doesn’t look as I remember him.” Pete sighed.

“He’s similar to the Forge from Nate Grey’s world. A telekinetic tosser who tried it on with Excalibur at one point.”

“My name is Forge, but I do not know of you, or this Nate Grey of whom you speak.” Pete knew that had confirmed it. This wasn’t the Age of Apocalypse. This was some other time where some supreme super being had done things in a similar vein.

“Wrong world again,” he sighed. “I hate this alternate reality stuff. It never makes sense.”

“Sorry to have disturbed you,” said Adam and took hold of Pete’s arm. Then Pete pressed the button on the armband and they vanished in a flash as quickly as they came.

“Damn,” said Pete as they watched the Kingdom as Forge pondered what he had seen then turned to a book of some sort. “That didn’t work.”

“He’s a magician,” said Adam as he watched. “That’s the Book of Vishanti, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Who cares?” said Pete, as he lit up another cigarette. “Let’s find another one.”

Scicluna was having serious difficulties. She had been holding her own against the combined power of the telepaths and their control of the mind gem but it had distracted her and when the soul gem had joined in the rebellion, her grasp on the Infinite had ended and now she was involved in a battle for control. Her plan was simple, to twist reality to ensure that the effects of the other two would not work against her, using the power gem to reinforce her control, but she was not gaining any real ground and at best this was a stalemate.

The sentience behind the power of the combined gems had been fragmented in to three separate parts of which she had the reality and power gems. In the second corner of the triangle the psions were there and they seemingly had gained control of the space gem as well for the mind was not restrained by the confines of the physical. In the third corner there was another presence she knew had to be Adam Warlock, because he was the only person it could be. He had the aid of the time gem for the soul was immortal and not restrained by the confines of time.

Scicluna had arguably the two most powerful gems, but against the other four she was having difficulty gaining an upper hand. Then she had an idea and shifted reality to another plane of existence, combining the physical, the astral and the metaphysical in one sector of space. The combination of the three realms meant that they were not fighting on a cosmic level but an actual one. Their playgrounds were now hers and she knew she had taken the right course of action.

The stalemate had been broken.

“Is this the one?” said Pete. The two of them had split up and gone in search of other realms and Adam thought he ad found one, but he needed Pete’s help. Adam explained it was a reality containing Logan and Elektra. They had kissed and parted in the time it had taken for Pete to get back and now she was waiting for him at the airport. Why the Kingdom showed them her and not him, neither knew but Adam was wondering if these two could be them.

“She doesn’t look pregnant though,” said Pete. “And what is with the look?”

“So what do you think then?” suggested Adam. “I’ve not seen them in a while, but after what you just said I don’t think it’s them.”

“Well, I’ve been thinking that Excalibur and your kids should have saved reality by now so I say we go for it. Who knows what kind of time difference there is between worlds?”

“Blind luck?”

“Yup.” Adam shrugged his shoulders and they entered the Kingdom.

“Excuse me,” said Pete tapping her woman they thought was Elektra on the shoulder. She was wearing her hair tied at the back, leaving her forehead bare. She also wore a pair of glasses, with what Pete could see to be simple glass in them. She also had a tan as if she’d been on holiday recently. At his touch she whipped around, her reflexes kicking in and there didn’t seem to be any doubt t Pete as to who she was and there was also a trace of recognition in here eyes but

“Yes?” she snapped and Adam guessed she was annoyed at being crept up on, especially as it would have seemed as if they walked right up to her.

“You are Elektra, aren’t you?” asked Pete, his curious tone belying the confidence in his eyes, as if he had seen a great many disguises in his time and he put his hands were in his trench coat pockets as he spoke.

“Have we met?” she asked. Her tone gave away that she may have seen them somewhere but she did not really know them.

“It isn’t her,” said Adam, with a weary tone in his voice. “I said it wasn’t.”

“Shaddup a second,” asked Pete, thinking it might be an alternate world somehow. “Sorry but I gotta ask – are you married to Logan?”

Elektra flushed slightly at the question. “No,” she said. “It’s too soon to even think about that.”

“Damn,” said the Pete as Adam shook his head and he accepted they’d blown it again. “Sorry to have troubled you, love.”

As they walked away, they were quite downhearted and Adam could see the despondence ran deeper in Pete, so he decided to make a quick joke.

“At least you didn’t ask if she was pregnant.” Pete looked him and smirked at that one, his spirits rose slightly and he and Adam held each other’s wrist as they went back in to Hypertime.

*FOOM!*

*FOOM!*

*FOOM!*

The blows resonated as shockwaves as Captain Britain and Threadgold slammed each other with their fists. It was becoming apparent that Threadgold was tiring, whereas Brian was just sweating. Both were bloodied and bruised, but they were still at it for the sake of their own beliefs.

“Give it up,” said Brian. “You can’t win. You won’t win.”

“Wanna bet?” said Threadgold as he backed off and his hand wrested on back of the neck where the headpiece met the costume. “I just set this thing to overload. We’ll die, but so will you and most of London. Scicluna will just as easily resurrect me. The powers of the Infinity Gauntlet will keep me alive long after the rest of the world has gone the way of the dodo.”

“Bollocks,” said Brian and used his force field to expand out and deck Threadgold who fell to the floor.

“Why didn’t you do that before?” asked Kylun.

“I was having fun,” said Brian, apologetically. “Pass me one of your swords and get the rest of these troops.” Kylun did so and began to round up the Black Air members, who were not in the mood for a fight. Their leader had been prepared to sacrifice them and though they would have been brought back to life, it had shown them how little he cared.

Brian knelt by the man and looked at the suit. He could hear it humming as it began to absorb too much energy and the overload began. If he had the time he could undo it and stop the explosion as he had done extensive work on his own suit but this wasn’t going to happen. He lifted the sword and sliced the suit in two, knowing if it wasn’t working it wouldn’t absorb the energy, or have the capacity to overload.

The only problem was that Threadgold was an evil bastard and the magics in the sword to protect the innocent did not work. As the suit was split in two so was the wearer. Brian closed his eyes after the deed was done and turned away. It was not the ending he’d wished for, but it had been necessary. They’d done their part and Black Air had been defeated here. The world would start to die without them, this was true, but then again once Scicluna fell, reality would return to normal and they would all be fine and his thoughts swiftly turned to Meggan and he looked over at her body and he could see she was dying.

Meggan noticed that she was watching the battle. Scicluna had combined Soul World with the astral plane and the actual reality. Everything was going exactly as Adam Warlock had planned. Scicluna seemed to have the upper hand with things like this though and she was driving them back, slowly regaining her dominance over the other gems, as her world now encompassed theirs.

Meggan watched and waited for her opening, seeing things as the Alshra. Her efforts in finding a way to stop Logan’s healing factor from killing him whenever it kicked in had shown her ways to use the Alshra in ways she had never known and the time was coming

However there was something that none of them had predicted. Granted they had thought the other would defeat Black Air, but not that Threadgold would die and his death hit Scicluna hard. The shockwave hit her and threw her. The battle had distracted her from her duties as God and her people had paid the price. The psychics and Adam hit her hard, using the feelings of Black Air and her own feelings against her, made all the more potent by the combination of realms.

Reality wavered and Meggan managed to reach out taking hold of the threads of order, ignoring the boundaries time and space thanks to her friends so she could connect to her body. She made it shift in shape, shrink down and vanish in a twinkling. She could hear the gasp from Brian as her body disappeared and she knew that he thought she had died. Though she knew it was cruel she also knew she could not tell him what had really happened, not would she get the chance. Her body and soul merged and she was whole again and she knew she did not have long.

In her true form she could see the Alshra much better and she could see Scicluna and herself as the only proper beings on the plane, the only two of them that could affect the Alshra and she attacked straight away. Her savagery frightened her but she knew it was a natural instinct to survive, enhanced by her empathy and the fact she was dying.

“I won’t let you have it!” said Scicluna as the two women grappled with each other for control of reality.

“You do not have a choice in this,” said Meggan. “You have usurped this place, this aspect of the natural order. You have neither the right nor the true power. That is my birthright alone and I will not allow you to commit these acts against my world, my friends.”

“Foolish cow, I have broken the rules that bind reality to achieve this! Your rights have been revoked.”

“No,” said Meggan. “They have not.” There was sadness in her voice. “My true birthright comes now.” Meggan felt her physical body die and break down in to nothingness, leaving her trapped within the Alshra and she suddenly merged with it, becoming one with it. Scicluna screamed as Meggan invaded her body and twisted reality so that she and Scicluna were one. Their minds touched and Scicluna realised that Meggan was more than anyone had ever suspected – Meggan was a fragment of the infinite herself.

Her twisting of reality, her elementalism, her empathy, all of it combined to make her one of the pieces of infinity given human form, an avatar of the forces of creation. That was why she and Rachel Summers had connected and merged so. Rachel had been the host of the Phoenix force which was a part of creation and the two avatars had met and seen each other as they truly were, neither of them understanding why. Now the truth was revealed and Scicluna’s mind evaporated at the sheer power, as the spells that had been cast were broken.

The body of Scicluna fell to the floor, and her command over the Gauntlet was broken and the Gems were in conflict with each other. The psions broke their hold on the astral realm and released the mind gem but the powers still raged.

“How do we stop this?” said Betsy as Warlock appeared at her side.

“The merging of realities means that the Gauntlet is raging out of control. This is where Meggan makes her sacrifice.”

“Sacrifice?” asked Psylocke

“What do you mean?” demanded Mastermind.

“Watch,” said Warlock, sadly. The orange reality gem began to sparkle and shine as it rose in to the air, breaking away from the Infinity Gauntlet. The power radiated from it.

“Is that Meggan?” asked Kay, looking at the event in wonder and Adam nodded.

“To save the world this is the only way,” he said. “To restore everything to what it was, she has to absorb this reality and it will take every erg of power from the gems in their disunited state. It will become her, she will become it and she can take it with her.”

“Oh my,” said Psylocke, realising the type of bargain being made here. It was similar to one that she had undertaken when she had trapped the Shadow King within her mind. Except that once reality was restored to normal there would be no way back for her and a tear strolled down her cheek.

The remaining gems began to lift off of the Gauntlet as the One reached out to the Five, creating harmony between the gems, Meggan’s strength of will keeping them together as long as she could, knowing that the power would fade as things began to return to normal. Then the three forms of reality separated and the assembled heroes were back on Earth. The Infinity Gems hovered in the air as the false reality began to shatter like cheap glass and everything was made over and all was as it had been.

Threadgold opened his eyes. He remembered everything that had happened to the moment of his death and he looked up from where he had lay. He had no troops, no help, no nothing.

“What happened?” he demanded but everyone ignored him, except the police guards outside the Royal residence who hauled him to his feet, and Threadgold knew if he tried to run they would shoot him. He died once this day already and he wasn’t looking to do so again.

Adam reached out his hand and the Infinity Gems landed in his hand and for a moment he was touched by the infinite but the feeling faded away as the proper order took form. He remembered this reality, he knew that once he had been God and he knew he had been stripped of the mantle. There were rules in place that prevented the Infinity Gems being used in unison and though they had their own abilities, they would never again give anyone godhood.

“Where’s Meggan?” asked Brian, worried for his wife and Betsy looked at him.

“Brian,” she said, her voice faltering. “She’s gone.”

“No,” said Brian, starting to shake uncontrollably. “She… she can’t be.”

“Her body died and she became one with reality,” said Adam. “She touched the infinite and used her death to make things right. None of us could use the gems in their fractured state but her. To make things right, she made a sacrifice. There is no power left now to bring her back to life, and she knew this.”

“Meggan,” whispered Brian as he bowed his head. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Her spirit lives on in the reality gem,” said Adam as he gave it to Brian who grasped hold of it. There was a flash of light and Scicluna’s body altered, shrank in size and age until it became a baby girl.

“Meggan,” said Brian softly as he walked towards the child. “Thank you.”

“Brian?” asked Betsy.

“She spoke to me from the Gem,” he said, trancelike. “When she knew there was nothing left, she altered Scicluna’s body so that when she saw my genetic coding she could use it. The baby is made from the genetic coding of Meggan and myself. She’s my… our daughter.”

“Incredible,” said Kylun. “So what happens now?”

“I must reassemble the Infinity Watch,” said Adam. “The Gems will need protecting. They may not control the powers of the universe but they still have powers in their own right.”

“No,” said Psylocke, realising they had forgotten something. “The Shadow King! He’s escaped!”

“Never mind,” said Brian as he held his daughter in his arms. “He’ll show up again and this time you, Xavier and the others will be ready for him.”

“What about Pete?” said Martinique. “He’s still missing.”

“As is our Adam,” said Gracie. “Where are they?”

“They fell out of reality at the start of this thing,” said Kylun. “They could be anywhere.”

“We’ll find them,” said Brian. “With this.” He held up the reality gem. “Meggan will guide us.” Warlock nodded.

“Then luck to us all, in our respective quests.” Brian nodded and shook his hand and then Adam Warlock disappeared.

“Marti, Kylun” said Brian. “Take Jane back to the mansion.”

“Jane?” asked Kylun.

“The child,” said Martinique. “Alistaire will give us a ride home. You sure you want to do this alone?”

“It’s a simple search and rescue,” said Brian. “After what we’ve been through, how hard can it be?”

The Hypertime vortex shook as another violent quake hit the travellers.

“What the hell was that?” asked Pete.

“I don’t know,” said Adam. “But look at this.” Various Kingdoms were suddenly blinking out of existence and the vortex was crumbling under the strain.

“This can’t be good,” said Pete and he felt his arm getting warm. The quakes were making the hyperium energy that powered the device turn violent. “And neither can that.”

“Give me it,” said Adam. “If it explodes, I can take it better than you, being invulnerable and everything.”

“Hope you know what you’re doing,” said Pete as he took off the device and passed it over to Adam.

“So do I,” said his friend when another quake hit and Adam was thrown off balance and in to a kingdom window.

“Oh, for God’s sake,” said Pete as he watched it happen, and then he dived through after him. As he landed he heard and felt an explosion and then he noticed Adam was unconscious and fragments of the armband everywhere. “Oh, bugger.” They were trapped and he couldn’t tell if Adam was alive or dead.

“Good evening, Mr Wisdom” said a voice and Wisdom looked up, but the sun was setting on the horizon and shone in his eyes so he couldn’t see.

“Who are you?” said Pete, wondering in what context the man knew his name.

“Carrington. Michael Carrington. Welcome to Network.”

NEXT ISSUE: The story continues in Network at Marvel 2015, before coming back here for the 25th issue spectacular. There’s a dark force tearing through Hypertime, destroying Kingdoms and Excalibur team with Network to stop it before it destroys both realities.

Author’s Notes
This has been one hell of a run and I’ve enjoyed writing it. This has been my penultimate arc of Excalibur and the Network crossover is the conclusion to this run, in which I’ve done everything I wanted to do as well as fulfil a few items of my MX wish list..

For those of you who are interested this issue is the build up to the Marvel X/Marvel 2015 crossover and there are mini-crossovers with several other fanfic groups, and Pete and Adam do appear in their pages, or will at those where the issues aren’t up yet. The below is an information list as to where each section came from.

Captain Britain appears in Captain Britain #2 at Marvel: Dark Design.

Forge appears in The Flight #2 at The Age of Onslaught.

Wolverine and Elektra appear in Wolverine #10 at Marvel 2000.

Thanks for your time and get ready for my finale, because this game’s not over just yet. 🙂

David
21 March 2001

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