LOSING BATTLE

By Wesley Overhults

Earth-1212

“Remind me again why we’re putting up with these idiots.”

None of the Exiles had a reply for Daredevil. They were too embroiled in the heat of battle. Their attacks were more intense this time, almost as if they had extra motivation for winning this fight. It wasn’t just another mission this time. The Timebroker’s words from moments before still rang in their ears. The only thing standing in their way was the Legion of Losers. Even now, the motley crew of super-criminals found themselves on the receiving end of a humiliating beating courtesy of the reality-hopping heroes.

“You heard what the Timebroker said,” replied Sandman after clocking Boomerang across the jaw with a hammer made of hardened sand. “We finish this mission and one of us goes home.”

Daredevil couldn’t say anything at the moment. He weaved through Blizzard’s icy blasts, stunning the cryonic criminal with a d-disc to his skull. He looked over to watch Sister Grimm use her magical abilities to nullify Spot’s teleportation powers before Husk knocked him out cold. The Kentucky-born Exile turned and buried her fist into Man-Ape’s gut as he tried to pounce on her. Daredevil felt someone’s foot across his jaw and then ducked as a glob of slime flew through the air. He clipped Toad’s knee with one of his batons and then kicked him in the face. His mind wasn’t on the fight though. His mind was on what the Timebroker told the team moments ago.

Ten minutes ago

“What the hell are you doing here?”

The Exiles looked at the Timebroker as he casually looked at his watch and then up at his time-tossed charges. He grinned at the fact that they were right on time. Time was such a funny thing when you didn’t feel its effects, when you were above it. Time as these pitiful humans knew it was a construct of their race’s own design. They used it to keep themselves sane, to bring order to their chaotic universes. The Timebroker, however, knew about true order.

“I’ve been monitoring your progress,” he responded to Daredevil’s question. “I have some delightful news for you.”

“The only thing that would make me happy is getting off this merry-go-round and going home,” declared Daredevil.

“Really, Mr. Gallo?” inquired Timebroker. “I thought you had found something worth sticking around for. Perhaps I was wrong. In any case, you’re mostly right. All you have to do is complete the mission on this world and one of you will be going home.”

“For real?” asked Wasp skeptically.

“He’s lying,” decided Daredevil. “It’s all a trick.”

“What’s our mission?” inquired Sandman.

“No tricks, no games, it’s a very simple assignment,” explained Timebroker. “A few blocks from here is the Chase Manhattan Bank. In a few minutes, the Legion of Losers will try to rob it. Your mission is to stop them. You’ll have the whole night to do whatever you like after that. At the end of the night, one of you will return to your home reality.”

“Who is it?” asked Goblin.

“Where’s the fun in telling you now?” asked Timebroker in return before looking at his watch again and then fading out of existence. “Time’s ticking away, kids. Better get to work.”

Now

The Exiles looked around and were surprised to find the battle was over. None of them had been very focused on the task at hand. All of them were thinking about who would leave the team once the night was over. The six heroes looked at one another skeptically. They had grown close over the course of their time together. For better or worse, they were a team because they were all stuck in the same situation. Yet over time, they began to think of each other as teammates instead of people stuck on the same sinking ship together. Now one of them would get off that sinking ship while the other five had to gut it out on the hope that it would lead them back home as well.

“It’s been a good ride,” admitted Sandman, looking to all of his teammates. “Whatever happens, I wanted all of you to know that.”

“Ya’ll were good people,” said Husk. “Ah’ll miss ya.”

“Wait, we don’t know who’s going home,” said Wasp. “You shouldn’t just assume it’s you. It could be any of us.”

“Ya don’t wanna go home?” asked Husk skeptically.

“No, I’m not saying that,” corrected Wasp. “I just . . . ugh, I don’t know. I like you guys but it’s just . . .”

“Home is hard to ignore,” agreed Goblin. “It’s been a great odyssey but I don’t think any of us want to do this forever.”

“I don’t want to go home,” stated Daredevil, looking to Sister Grimm. “It wouldn’t be right knowing that you’re risking your life without me.”

“You can’t throw away your home for me,” replied Sister Grimm. “If you’re willing to stick it out for me then I’m willing to do the same thing for you. The same goes for any of you guys. You guys are the only family I have right now and I don’t want to lose you.”

The Exiles looked at each other again. Could they ever go back to their lives as they knew them? Could they ever just return to their old lives and forget about the rest of their teammates? All of them pondered these questions and one look at each other told them they others were thinking the same thing.

“We’ve got all night,” reminded Sandman. “Use the time for whatever you want. Spend some time with the people who matter or just get your affairs in order. It’ll probably be the last time one of us sees everyone else.”

She shouldn’t be doing this. Kate Bishop felt the familiar itch. Her palms were sweaty and her stomach tied itself in knots. She stood on the roof of a warehouse that was currently the host of a rave. Wasp knew this wasn’t just your normal kind of rave. It wasn’t tabs of ecstasy those kids were passing around down there. The lights flashing from the building weren’t from any machine. It was a secret everyone kept that at some raves you could score MGH. Wasp always heard them called “cape parties”, parties where kids would pass around MGH pills and pop them like Pez. Someone always got hurt at a cape party but the risk and the thrill kept everyone coming back.

She shouldn’t be here. She had kicked that habit a long time ago but everything was changing. Sure, she could pretend she was busting the place up but in her heart she knew that was only half the reason. She wondered at times why she became a hero. Was it to honor the name of her childhood idol? Was it to atone for the sins of her past? Was it because she missed getting that adrenaline rush and this was a more acceptable way of attaining it? They were all valid questions, too valid for Wasp to simply ignore. So she stood paralyzed with indecision as she thought about what she should do. The bass from the stereos below thumped on and on, drowning out the small voice of Kate’s conscience as it tried to tell her to walk away.

“I dropped acid last time I went to one of these things.”

Wasp flicked her eyes in the direction of her ghoulish teammate and then squeezed them shut. She hated letting people see her this way because it was the worst side of her. Yet maybe if anyone had a right to see the monster reborn in her, it was him. After all, he was partially to blame for the relapse she was begging to go through.

“Never figured you for the type,” she admitted as Goblin floated over to her side.

“Rich kids have too much time on their hands,” he told her.

“Idle hands make for the Devil’s work,” she chided, feeling her hunger subside for the moment. “Harry, it’s been nice meeting you. I . . . I hope you’re the one that leaves so you can see Liz again.”

“I appreciate the sentiment but that’s not why I’m here right now,” he explained. “I have a feeling you’re about to do something that you’ll regret.”

The sad truth about life was that everyone was addicted to something. Some people chose to accept that and make peace with it, some to deny it and rebel against it, but everyone was addicted to something. Everyone was looking for something to fill the gaping hole in their lives. If you were lucky enough, you found solace in the love of someone special. If you weren’t so lucky, you found it in a variety of harmful things.

“Don’t,” she warned him and he could tell she wasn’t the kind of girl to make idle threats. “Please don’t pretend that you understand.”

“You know about my father,” he reminded her. “My father was addicted to causing others pain and misery. I’m addicted to putting on this costume and drinking this formula in order to avenge the name he tarnished. We’re all addicted to something, Kate.”

“So who says what I’m going to do is a mistake?” she asked him, half hoping that he would give her the right answer that she desperately needed to hear.

“I’m not the one to talk about putting dangerous chemicals in your body,” he told her. “I know it would seem very hypocritical of me to do so but the truth, Kate, is that if you go down there and pop some pills then all your hard work goes down the drain.”

“And if it already did when you made me drink that formula?” questioned Wasp.

“I did what I had to do to save a friend’s life,” reminded Goblin. “Don’t go gently into that night, Kate. It’s not a pretty place and both of us know it.”

“When you were in college, did you ever hear about Plato’s cave allegory?” asked Wasp.

“I know the story,” he confirmed.

“I feel like that guy sometimes,” she confessed. “I know going back into the cave will eat me alive but part of me wants that life back. I thought if I threw everything I had into being a hero and doing the right thing then it would get easier but it didn’t. I thought if I just loved Billy enough, things would work out.”

“We’re all looking for ways to fill the hole,” said Goblin, gently touching Wasp’s shoulder and pulling her close. “This might be the last time we see each other, Kate. Do you really want our last memory to be that?”

“No,” she murmured as she wrapped her arms around him and let him hold her. “You’re right, Harry. I want a happier memory.”

She titled her head upwards and then kissed him through his costume’s mask. It only lasted a few seconds before he pulled away and once she saw his face, his real face, she wished she hadn’t done it at all. It felt good though and he was a good guy to kiss. Billy was always hesitant and nervous when he kissed her but Harry was something else. In another life, she would’ve been happy to be the one he pined for while he was prowling the dark alleys and the mean streets of the city.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized though the mistake was hers.

“No, I am,” she told him. “I just . . . I wanted to remember what it was like to kiss someone and mean it.”

“I have Liz,” said Goblin.

“Yeah,” agreed Wasp, looking forlornly at the rave going on below her. They both stood there in silence as the craving within her intensified.

“What’s that?” He fingered the piece of string around her neck and pulled it upwards, revealing the trinket tied to the end of it. “I thought after getting the Tallus, you’d have enough jewelry for one lifetime.”

Johnny Gallo ran his fingers along the tiny piece of hardened plastic that was the guitar pick before looking back up to meet Nico’s gaze. They went out to dinner, blowing the last of their share of the money she had conjured up so many missions ago. They couldn’t keep track of time in days, weeks, or months anymore. They had to use missions and the moments in between them to keep time. It still wasn’t enough. It would never be enough but now they had to realize that this insanity could be over for one of them.

“From our first date,” she whispered before playfully kissing him on the lips.

She kept it as an heirloom, something to help her remember simpler times and simpler lives. She had never met anyone quite like Johnny Gallo but she honestly couldn’t imagine her life without him. He meant what he said earlier, meant what he said about forsaking his home reality just to stay with her and keep her out of danger. She didn’t know if she would do that for him. She liked to think that she would because she loved him but no one ever really knew what they would do until they were faced with it. Never seeing her friends again, never learning crazy meditation techniques from Wong, never having a stable place to call home? Would she give all that up for him? Would she become a runaway again for him, this time running from one reality and life to another with him by her side? Maybe, maybe not. She didn’t know but the choice wasn’t exactly hers to make nor was it his. Their fates, as always, were in the hands of much bigger and scarier forces.

“Cute,” he breathed, his lips trailing along her neck and pushing her against the wall of the alley. “We need to find a better place for this.”

She inhaled sharply as his lips found a particularly sensitive spot on her neck and mercilessly toyed with it. Her eyes half closed and she took a deep breath before finally regaining some semblance of her senses. He grinned at her devilishly and watched her cheeks flush even in the sparse illumination of the streetlights. He was, after all, The Man Without Fear. Didn’t that entitle him to live recklessly?

“And what exactly would ‘this’ be?” she inquired coyly.

“I kinda planned on taking you to bed tonight,” he confessed.

“No money,” she reminded him. “I don’t think the people at whatever hotel we choose would take too kindly to that.”

“You’re magic,” he countered, his fingers trailing down her chest. “We can figure something out.”

“I thought I was supposed to be the bad one,” she murmured. “I think being in love with you is corrupting me.”

He laughed before kissing her again and then taking her by the hand. He pulled her into his arms and fired his grappling hook into the air, nodding as it hooked itself on the cornice of a building. They were about to swing off into the night to find a place together but both of them felt that feeling, that weird tingle that irrevocably changed their entire lives forever. They were about to teleport and both of them knew it.

“Guess the universe just hates us,” said Daredevil as he pulled her close and looked into her eyes.

“Par for the course,” she joked before kissing him on the lips.

Neither of them wanted to say it or even think it but they both knew it could be the last time they ever kissed one another. They chose to ignore that risk and continued to kiss even as they disappeared from existence.

She didn’t have to come with him to do this. Realistically though, there was no other place for her to spend the night. Besides, if this was going to be her last mission as part of this pack of lunatics mistakenly called a team then she wanted to see it through to the end. Sure, that notion would satisfy her ego for the moment.

“Cops gave ya a funny look when ya handed these clowns over to ’em,” mentioned Husk. “Bet yer a criminal here.”

“Seems like I am everywhere else,” said Sandman, looking around the police station at the members of the NYPD who were giving him shifty glances and furtive looks. He expected one of them to put the cuffs on him at any moment but cops in this town had seen too many weird things to disbelieve a story about alternate realities.

“Ah got the opposite problem it seems,” admitted Paige. “Anything ya’d like ta say before one o’ us takes tha plunge?”

He looked at her as they both sat on the bench in the bullpen of the station and awaited word that the Legion of Losers were secure for the time being. Out of all of the Exiles, Husk hadn’t particularly clicked with anyone. She had a bit of an arrogant streak in her and Sandman could only guess it came from her “teacher” Emma Frost. Truthfully, Sandman had never interacted with any member of the Hellfire Club even when he was a criminal. They ran in a supposedly higher circle than he ever did.

“You’re a good person to have in a fight,” he admitted. “You’re not the easiest person to get along with but you watch our backs even if you don’t always like it. It’s been good having you on the team, Paige. Anything you wanna share with me?”

“What’s it like bein’ a crook?” she asked him.

He looked at her quizzically for a few moments, trying to figure out why exactly she would ask him that question. She simply stared at him and waited for his response. For once, she wasn’t interested in cutting him down. She generally wanted to know because apparently she was one too or at least she was headed down that road. She remembered seeing another version of her brother and talking to him. He told her that Emma Frost wasn’t to be trusted and lately she was starting to think that maybe he was right. Emma always treated her students as tools that she could sharpen and then use for her own ends. Paige didn’t fault Emma for the education the older woman had given her. God knows public schooling couldn’t give her the same education as the Academy and there was no way she could afford college with her family’s economic status. No, the education wasn’t what concerned Paige. It was all the other stuff she had learned from Frost over the years.

“Pay sucks, you’re always getting beaten up by Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four, and it’s murder on your social life,” he finally replied. “What, you thinking about doing some moonlighting on us?”

“Momma and Daddy always raised me ta do tha right thing,” she explained. “At school, Miss Frost tells us that we’re better than everyone else ’cause we’re mutants. That means it’s right ta do whatever we want and take whatever we need.”

“Being a criminal isn’t the glamorous world you think it is,” he cautioned her. “You see some gangster movies and you think it’s all exciting but really it sucks. The only reason I became a crook was because I was pissed off at the world and because I wanted to meet my dad. He ran out on me and Mom when I was a kid. I thought maybe if I became like him, I would get to meet him.”

“Mah Daddy died in a mine collapse,” she confessed. “A lot o’ times, Ah wish he was here but Ah dunno. Somethin’ tells me he wouldn’t like what his little girl’s been up to these past couple o’ years.”

“Everybody’s on one side of the line for one reason or the other,” said Sandman. “Whatever side you pick, Paige, make sure it’s because you want to be there. Don’t do something for Frost or even for your dad. Do it because you think it’s the right thing to do.”

“The guy in the Dalmatian suit wants to talk to you,” said one of the police officers as he approached the two Exiles. “Both of you.”

The officer led the two Exiles into the interrogation room where The Spot sat in a chair with his hands cuffed to the table in front of him thanks to some high-tech manacles. Sandman had encountered Spot once before and couldn’t say he was impressed with the man in the polka dots. The Spot had formidable powers, that was true, but he never seemed to possess the drive or determination to reach the upper echelons of villainy. Sandman knew what it was like when you’d rather knock over banks than conquer the world. He couldn’t fault Spot for just wanting to make a quick buck but at the same time he knew he couldn’t condone it either.

“You wanted us here,” reminded Sandman. “Talk.”

“They told me it was all for the greater good,” mumbled Spot, listlessly staring at the floor. “They told me I could go back once the work was done.”

“Looks like somebody’s lost it,” commented Husk. “We’re wastin’ time listenin’ ta this crap.”

“That girl had on a very nice bracelet,” said Spot, his head suddenly snapping upwards and his eyes figuratively boring holes into the Exiles. “Pretty, little charms. I remember it differently. It was a watch for me.”

“You know about the Timebroker?” asked Sandman in disbelief.

“Time broken,” muttered Spot. “Lost in time, couldn’t find my way not even to Spotworld. They came to me and showed me the way. They showed me the path.”

“Who are they?” demanded Sandman.

“They destroy,” continued Spot. “Only one world, they said. Only one path, only one way. Tried to run from them, couldn’t run far enough. They always come.”

“Something’s wrong,” realized Sandman.

“Ya think?” asked Husk sarcastically.

“No, something’s really wrong,” repeated Sandman. “I think we’re about to . . .”

Both Sandman and Husk began to glow before they suddenly disappeared. The Spot blinked quizzically and then let out an audible gasp at the person that replaced the two Exiles. The Timebroker adjusted his tie and casually took a seat across from Spot.

“Jonathan Ohn of Earth-1015,” greeted the Timebroker. “We’ve been looking for you a long time, Mr. Ohn. You’re looking a little worse for wear I’m afraid. I hope it didn’t have anything to do with us.”

“Please,” whimpered Spot. “I wasn’t going to tell. I wasn’t going to, honest.”

“You would sooner or later,” stated Timebroker. “I don’t know how you managed to get that Tallus off your wrist but it was lucky for you that you did. If you hadn’t, we would’ve found you sooner. I want you to know that what happens now is for your own good. We can’t have you running around letting everyone know about our existence, even if no one would believe a lunatic like you.”

The air in the room suddenly came alive. A wind whipped through it and Spot’s body became as stiff as steel. His manacles sparked with electricity, indicating that Spot was trying to use his powers. His body began to implode. A portal had opened up inside Spot’s body and it was sucking him in from the inside. The Timebroker simply watched as Spot soundlessly screamed in pain before his own power sucked him into one of his warp portals from the inside. The Timebroker calmly stood up from his seat as the portal closed in on itself once its sordid work was finished. He looked at the window where he knew the police would be looking back at him. In the span of less than a second, the Timebroker was gone and no one even knew he was there at all. The police would never realize where Spot went or how he escaped their custody. They wouldn’t even remember the Exiles being at the station. Time had corrected itself and it was marching on relentlessly.

The Middle of Nowhere

All of the Exiles looked at each other and then took in their surroundings. They were back in the same conference room they were in when the Timebroker first approached them and gave them his ultimatum. All of them knew what it was time for. It was the moment of truth. One of them was going home.

“Worst timing ever,” mumbled Daredevil, grinning at Sister Grimm and squeezing her hand.

“What happened with the cops?” asked Wasp, looking at Sandman and Husk and noticing that both of them looked confused.

“We were talking with Spot,” explained Sandman. “The guy was seriously out of his mind but he might’ve actually been trying to warn us. He kept talking about ‘they’ and that ‘they’ were coming. I think he used to be one of us.”

“So there were others that got screwed like us?” asked Daredevil skeptically. “Does anybody else find that oddly comforting?”

“Yeah and not really,” answered Sandman. “Spot was one of us but he somehow got away. I was about to get more out of him until the teleportation kicked in.”

“I’m afraid this little conspiracy is nothing more than the ramblings of a psychotic madman,” stated the Timebroker, appearing out of nowhere though at this point all the Exiles were used to it. “Now, I think it’s time for one of you to go home.”

“Give it to us straight,” ordered Sandman. “Which one of us is it?”

The room fell silent for a few moments, all the Exiles looking to each other to see if they could determine who was the one. The Timebroker grinned slightly and then fate took its course. The Tallus disappeared from Sister Grimm’s wrist and reappeared on Sandman’s arm, taking the form of a gauntlet instead of a charm bracelet. All eyes turned to Nico, particularly Daredevil’s.

“No,” stated Daredevil emphatically. “Take me instead. Let her stay and take me instead.”

“You know that’s not how it works,” reminded Timebroker. “Her personal timeline has corrected itself but yours is still broken. It’s time for her to go.”

“It’s okay,” assured Nico, a lump forming in her throat as she looked at Daredevil. “We’ll find each other.”

“Actually, no you won’t,” corrected Timebroker. “When you return to your own reality, you will enter at the exact moment in time that you left. Unfortunately, all memories of your time with the Exiles will be erased since they never really happened. You have thirty seconds to say goodbye. I would make it quick.”

“No!” cried Daredevil, glaring hatefully at the Timebroker. “I won’t let you take her.”

“Johnny, please just listen,” said Sister Grimm as she closed the distance between them and put his hands in hers. “I won’t forget you. We will find each other again. Please just remember me. I won’t forget you.”

She kissed him and squeezed his hands. He savored the taste of her lips on his even as she faded out of existence. His fingers curled around the guitar pick she had placed in his hands. She was gone, a million realities away and she didn’t even remember him. She was gone, totally and completely gone.

“What’s the matter, Mr. Gallo?” inquired the Timebroker. “I thought they called you The Man Without Fear. Were you afraid of losing her?”

Daredevil spun towards this creature, this thing, that had taken the girl he loved away from him. His legs tensed for only a second before propelling him towards the Timebroker with frightening speed. The Timebroker didn’t seem fazed in the slightest and Daredevil simply faded away before he could ever get even a finger on the Timebroker.

“You’re playing a dangerous game. We cannot overextend our hand like this.”

The venerable voice echoed off the walls of the empty room, seemingly coming from everywhere all at once. The Timebroker smirked while looking at his watch as if that was where the voice was coming from.

“I know what I’m doing,” stated Timebroker confidently. “I still keep my focus on the path. There will only be one. There will be order.”

“See that you do,” ordered the voice. “The path is more important than your petty vendetta against those who wronged you.”

“I know,” assured the Timebroker through gritted teeth. “You will have what you want and I will get what I want. There will be order.”

The voice didn’t answer his declaration. The Timebroker took the silence as confirmation that the owner of the voice was satisfied with his work. That work was only beginning though. There was so much left to do but there was so much time on his hands.

Next Issue: The End comes for the Exiles.