Chapter 5: “New New Avengers Reassembled!” Part 2
Wolverine was having a hard time grasping the situation at hand.
“This makes no flamin’ sense. You tellin’ me that these four are powerful enough to capture all of these Heroes and Martial Artists in such a short amount of time?” Nick Fury always ready with an answer informed, “We have no doubt that these are very powerful enemies but that wasn’t the only factor. Unlike some of the Martial Artists, many of the capes are New York residents and were captured during the earthquake Apocalypse created in the city. They quickly teleported from area to area taking Heroes down one by one. In other cases like taking down the Avengers they had help.”
After this lengthy response he displayed an image of ten hooded warriors who much like the horseman you couldn’t tell who they were. Their hoods were all blue with red hieroglyphics. All of them were about the same height give or take except for one towards the center who looked to be extremely tall and wide. Hunching down in front of them was an eleventh warrior, who seemed to be a large man as well. His cloak was bright red and had several large nine inch spikes randomly sticking out from all sides.
“These are Apocalypse’s Dark Riders, soldiers that do his bidding and also aided in taking down many of the Super-Heroes. You see the one in the Red Cloak? He’s been transformed into a Hound, someone who can track down heroes with powers. We have some theories as to who the Four Horseman are and some of these masked warriors but at this point it’s still speculation. We believe that some of them may have been brainwashed to follow Apocalypse, but we are not certain of that either.”
“Brainwashed?” Chun-Li thought back to her fight with Rogue when she absorbed Killer Bee’s mind and instantly became a servant of Vega. (Goes down in Chapter 8 of my X-Men vs. SF Fic) “Could Shadowloo… still be working with Apocalypse?” The young Interpol agent asked the Special Agent. “While we know that Apocalypse has brainwashed soldiers to follow his orders in the past, him working with members of Shadowloo is a definite possibility.”
Ken blurted out, “Hang on a second, just how do you know all of these people are being held hostage?” “Two reasons. First of all, there’s a spy on Apocalypse’s side sneaking us Intel. Of course for the Informant to avoid capture, the information S.H.I.E.L.D. receives is limited. Second of all, we know all of this due to D.T.N.Y., a highly advanced computer program that utilizes alien technology we’ve acquired from the Skrull and Kree races. The egghead scientists under our payroll would spend two weeks explaining it to you but to some things up it can predict the future with a 99.9% accuracy rate.”
“Wait a second, the Skrulls, the Kree, they are real? I thought they were just conspiracy theories! So Aliens exist,” questioned Sakura. “…No comment…” responded Fury who for a second forgot there were civilians in the room who didn’t know that aliens were in fact real. But at this point it was way too late to convince anyone in the room otherwise. “Wow, Aliens are real that’s so freaking cool! Tell us about Area 51! You’re secrets safe with me!” Sakura pulled out her little light green camera. “If you have any Alien bodies lying around how 'bout you let me take some pictures for my personal scrap book?”
Obviously Nick couldn’t speak anymore on that subject. “Moving along…”
“Okay, you’re taking the word of E.T.'s personal computer. That’s just stupid,” Ken interjected. “Well, it did predict that you seven bozos would be the last ones remaining when we arrived at the Amazon Rain Forest.” Everyone in the room was a bit stunned except for Captain America and Wolverine who remained skeptical.
“D.T.N.Y. huh? And what does that stand for bub?” “That information is classified.” Logan took a whiff in the air and snarled. He suspected that something was up but he wasn’t really sure. Quite some time ago Wolverine was an assassin for S.H.I.E.L.D. and he knew from experience they couldn’t always be trusted.
“D.T.N.Y. has also laid out a plan on how all of you are gonna take down Apocalypse. According to it you guys are the best hope we got. Cyclops, Wolverine, you may recall this machine.”
When they saw the hologram of a the huge metallic cylinder the X-Men recognized it right away. “The Island Smasher! Of course! Magneto used that machine to destroy Varkino in the Soviet Union by causing earthquakes and raising volcanoes in that city! That machine tapped right into the Earth’s gravitational pull on the center of the Earth and reshaped the globe by destroying several islands and raising others,” remembered Cyclops. “But when Kitty Pryde destroyed the Magnetic Memory Cores of its computer panel by phasing through it she ruined a lifetime of work, data that was next to impossible to replace. How is it that Apocalypse can use this machine?”
“These new machines are not as strong as that other one Cyclops. For one, we know that this time there are two machines at different points of the globe. And both of these machines are more dependent on being controlled by someone with Magnetic Powers.”
“Magnetic Powers… could it be that Magneto is still alive?” Ryu wanted to know. “Like I said before. Our enemies tend to return from the grave again and again. I suspect Magneto is controlling one machine and my brother Havok’s fiance, Polaris is controlling the other one. She must have been brainwashed by Apocalypse to do his bidding,” deduced Cyclops.
Two more holographic images appeared before the group, one of a Black Aztec Pyramid rising from the Earth in the middle of a jungle, another at the center of a city. Soon huge Magnetic semi spheres of energy covered both not unlike Magneto’s Force Field. Some time elapses as fighter jets were shown trying to penetrate these Force Fields but it was pointless.
“These two Pyramids rose in The Savage Land and in Madripoor, we believe that this is where the Island Smashers are located. This ends our presentation so you yahoos follow me.”
In another room they witnessed a black cylinder on the ground with large pink circular lights above it. Also around the room where plenty of scientists wearing white lab coats typing away at their respective computer panels.
Sakura complained “Another round floor panel? Don’t tell me we need more costume changes…”
“Hey what gives? This is our Teleporter from the X-Mansion! Last time we used it me, Cyke, Gambit, Psylocke and Beast went to Magneto’s Avalon Base to take him down a notch. You goin’ through our garbage Nick?” “Wolverine, it’s all yet another prediction of D.T.N.Y. that you had a machine like this, and we need to follow through with the plan D.T.N.Y. laid out, even if there is only a 43.5% chance of success but that’s the best percentage we got.”
Sakura’s thoughts were going wild. “First Aliens and now Star Trek Teleporting machines! Wow, what’s next - Dinosaurs roaming the Earth?”
“…To continue, with this machine we want to teleport two of you into the Aztec Pyramid in The Savage Land, another two into the one in Madripoor. Once inside you’re to destroy the computer panels that control the machines inside. Be on your guard. Chances are Horseman and Dark Riders are lying in wait. Scenarios we ran of sending S.H.I.E.L.D. agents through D.T.N.Y. all ended in failure, you’re our last and final hope. If you fail the governments of the world are prepared to detonate both bases with Nuclear Missiles and no one wants to start World War III.”
“Also as laid out by D.T.N.Y., these teams of two will be combinations of Super Heroes and Street Fighters.”
“Heroes and Street Fighters all right! Me and Captain America representing the U. S. of A oh yeah! I read all of your comic books growing up Captain, you’re the greatest hero in the world and I’d love to work with you,” Ken exclaimed with glee. Captain America grinned at Ken’s comments because under his civilian guise as Steve Rogers he used to create the Captain America comic books based on his own adventures. Cyclops stepped in, “I think it’s best if we keep the same teams we were paired off in the last mission. That means you and Wolverine, Ken.” “Darn it, stuck with the old man again.” “I’m not exactly doin’ a River dance either bub,” Logan said with a smile. “What do you say Ryu? Want to team up once again?” “I’d be honored Cyclops!”
Nick Fury declared “Then it’s settled. Ryu and Cyclops will head off to The Savage Land and Captain America with Chun-Li will go to Madripoor.” “Eeeh? One eye, are you listening to us? What about all this talk about pairing me up with Wolverine?” “Calm down, rich boy. We have yet a third mission for you two. As a back up plan Apocalypse has taken over Cape Citadel, a Military Base and he now has access to Nuclear weapons. There’s also a huge Force field surrounding that area. We’re teleporting you two in there to take control of that base. If all else fails and we have to go Nuclear to take the Pyramids out Apocalypse sitting on that much ammo won’t make things pretty.”
“What will I be doing,” asked Sakura. “There are still two heroes that are missing and we are flying both you and Dan to America to help locate them, when all is said and done we will need their help to free all of the captive hostages once we locate them. Sakura, D.T.N.Y. says you’re vital to this mission, but I’m not sending child into harms way. You’re to aid locating a Super-Hero and then come right back. All though our sensors are not picking him up, we have it on good authority that he is still alive, somewhere in New York City.” “Awe man, grown ups have all the fun. And who am I supposed to look for anyway?” “You may have heard of him. His name is Spider-Man.” “SPI, SPI, SPIDER-MAN! No way, he rules! I just have to spar with him one time!” “Spider-Man? Isn’t he a criminal,” asked Ken. “You believe way too much in what you read in the papers rookie,” answered Wolverine. “Yeah Ken! He’s a Hero! Haven’t you heard his theme song? Spider-Man! Spider-Man! Does whatever a Spider can…”
"Ahem… as for you Dan, we need help finding another hero. He’s called The Hulk. Hulk and S.H.I.E.L.D. have had a few run-ins in the past and we haven’t always been on good terms. Perhaps being approached by a civilian might entice him to help us if we need his assistance later on. “Don’t worry sir!” saluted Dan. “If Hulk doesn’t want to help save the world I will convince him with my bulging biceps!” Dan flexed and yelled, “OYAJIIIIIII!” “Okay, now I KNOW that Hulk is a criminal. I don’t think sending Dan after The Hulk is a good idea…” “Not to worry Ken Masters. He’s in the phase of what we call… Professor Hulk. He has all of the intelligence of a scientist and all of the brawn of the jolly green giant. He’s not a villainous monster that’s running around destroying cities anymore. Unfortunately, General Thunderbolt Ross will always try to track him down with a Military Unit and try to destroy him. Let’s just say the two have a personal grudge. Hulk just foiled another one of their attempts and is on the move in the Arizona Dessert.” “No problem! The power of Saikyo Ryu shall prevail! YA WOO YAHOO!”
A scientist with a small gun that worked almost like a needle used in a hospital said “This will only hurt for a second.” He poked Cyclops in the neck with the device. Since the leader of the X-Men felt no malice emanating from the scientist he didn’t move a muscle. Soon he went on to poke the necks of Ryu, Captain America, Wolverine, Ken and Chun-Li.
“We’ve upgraded your Teleporter just a bit. You’ve been injected with a small microchip that in 48 hours will dissolve and turn into healthy nutrients for your body. In the meantime once you’ve arrived at your destinations and your missions have been completed all you have to do is press down on the injected area and say a specific word to teleport right back here. Any person that you are touching at the time will be teleported along with you.”
Captain America finally spoke, “It was my responsibility to choose the specific word. It had to be something that was quite rare, just in case you were struck in the neck and said word slipped out from someone in the area it might accidentally send you back here and we don’t want that.” “So what’s the magic word, is it pretty please,” joked Chun-Li. “No. It’s BAMF!” “Cute soldier boy, really cute,” commented Wolverine. Captain America let out a chuckle. He knew that each of them were about to depart on dangerous missions and they could use a bit of levity. ‘BAMF’ is the noise that former X-Men and current leader of Excalibur Nightcrawler makes whenever he uses his Mutant power to teleport. Nightcrawler is also one of Wolverine’s best friends and among the captured heroes. Preparations were made as Captain America explained ‘BAMF’ to the Street Fighters.
Moments later Captain America, Cyclops, Ryu, Wolverine, Chun-Li and Ken were standing on the circular platform. Sakura took a quick picture of all six standing there. Nick of course grabbed her camera, exposed the roll of film to light and gave it back to her. She sighed for a bit and waved the heroes good bye. Dan gave the group a huge thumbs up as they teleported away. Little did the six heroes know that they were in for the fight of their lives. Even Dan and Sakura were in for quite a bit of a struggle before this adventure was over and done with.
Info Bytes: The Blue and Red on the hooded outfits of the Dark Riders are the same colors that the Dark Riders wore in the Apocalypse vs. Dracula limited series that wrapped not too long ago. The outfit is very different though, it was similar to the red and blue outfit Wolverine wore when he was a Horseman of Apocalypse for a brief time.
The red hooded one with the spikes sticking out, AKA ‘The Hound’ is a shout out to Rachel Summers. In the future where she is from she was turned into a Hound used to find Mutants, given a tight red leather outfit with spikes. So Apocalypse created his own Hound too.
And yeah, Apocalypse has brainwashed people in the past. The big one a little prior to this point in time was founding X-Men member Angel who he turned into Archangel and made him into his Horseman of Death. But Apoc working with Shadowloo who may have better methods of doing this isn’t out of the question in this story mwahahahaha…
That bit is true about Captain America actually drawing his own comics in the Marvel Universe ha ha!
You know, as I was doing my Marvel Research I found it kind of funny how in the 80s and 90s they never seemed to actually name machines in comics. The ‘Costume Changer’ in Secret Wars never got a name and neither did the other devices in comics I’m using, just found that to be amusing.
The first piece of machinery, the Island Smasher was never actually called that, I figured that it would be a name that the X-Men would log it under in their files to give it a name. I thought of Island Raiser as it did raise the Island that Magneto turned into a base, but Smasher sounded more threatening to me lol! Kitty Pryde finished off the machine just like Cyclops said. Magneto used this device to destroy Varkino in Uncanny X-Men issue #150. It’s also the same story where he sinks the Russian Leningrad Submarine which was referenced in the X-Men vs. Street Fighter fan fic. This is one of the greatest X-Men versus Magneto stories ever written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Dave Cockrum, Josef Rubenstein and Bob Wiack way back in 1981. RIP Dave Cockrum thanks for all the great memories! I made sure to give your favorite X-Men character a nod in this story Nightcrawler at least. 
The second piece of machinery, the Teleporter, also not given a name was used by the X-Men in issue #25 back in 1994 as part of the Fatal Attractions storyline. To clear something up, in that story the six who teleported to Avalon were not the people that Wolverine mentioned in the fic. In that story it was Wolverine, Gambit, Jean Grey, Professor X, Quicksilver and Rogue. The team I mentioned was only of five, Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit, Psylocke and Beast are the team that used the teleporter in the Capcom side scroller video game X-Men Mutant Apocalypse. Well OF COURSE the other X-Men video game by Capcom has to tie into this one lol! So essentially, X-Men #1-3 by Claremont and Jim Lee still occur where they fight Magneto on Asteroid M there (The X-Men Children of the Atom video game ending is covered here heh heh) and in this world there is a separate story where these five teleport to Magneto’s base later and prior to X-Men vs. SF. Actually, Capcom’s side scroller game was a combo of X-Men 1-3 and the Fatal Attractions story, so this works out well. Plus, there are a few other reasons why I made this switch to the Capcom version but I can’t go into all of that yet…
Just to point out, Sakura can reference Star Trek as a TV show because that Star Trek and X-Men crossover comic never happened, in any reality, ever… work with me here lol!
Spider-Man’s name was dropped so he fits loosely at the very beginning of Maximum Carnage and / or moments prior, more details on that when he has a physical appearance. During this time he is married to Mary Jane. Also at this point in time there are clones of his birth parents running around and he thinks they are his parents come back to life but I’m not gonna mention that in the story ha ha ha!
Since Hulk’s name was mentioned, when exactly does he fit… it’s kind of an amalgam of a few things. It’s kind of like if the 90s cartoon advanced a bit just to the point in the comics where he’s Professor Hulk. He’s Hulk 24/7 during this time. His role very loosely falls right about the time he was a member of the Pantheon, but the Pantheon is way too complex to get into this story so it won’t be mentioned in the actual story. I’m, not too sure if Ross was um… dead or alive at this time but I figure him going after the Hulk is pretty common and known by just about by everybody, referenced in all cartoons and his live action movie. Which brings us to Betty… I’m gonna have to read some more comics around this point in his life to figure out if they were married and / or separated at this time. Hey you know, I love ya Peter David but he really put Hulk through a lot of changes during the 90s making it difficult to actually place stuff and figure out when things happen when you are missing a whole bunch of issues in your runs… to the comic book back bins Robin!
Next Up: FINALLY SOME FIGHTS! Captain America and Chun-Li meet up against the Horseman of War and a bunch of surprises. Like before, if you guessed some of the identities of hooded characters, please keep it to yourself as soon the unveiling shall commence! See you back here in two months and I’m hoping after I take care of a few things during these two months so I can update this monthly. Sayanara, Happy Easter and take care!
