THE END
You know, these super hero gatherings have always reminded me of movie premieres. I mean, when I'm watching those things on TV, I spend most of the time trying to spot the movie stars that I recognize. These meeting are the same. I probably I shouldn't be spending my time spotting the heroes I know, and should pay closer attention to what the guy at the head of the room has to say, but what can I say... my attention span isn't what it should be. So I take my spot at the meeting, hanging upside down on web-line, like I always do at these little shindigs, and begin to play my "name the hero" game. Frankly, I have no idea who most of these people are... maybe I'm at the wrong meeting? Wait... I know those kids. I met them a couple weeks back, during my trip to Los Angeles. The trip that max out our credit cards, left our saving account close to empty, and had me sleeping on the couch for the past week. That's the stretchy skin kid, and that girl there has one of the grossest powers in existence. She actually rips off her skin! There's their friend, the chap with the British accent, and a cascade of energy for a mouth. They brought a few other kids with them, along with a very angry looking Irish man, and a blond lady who's clothing leaves very little to the imagination. Of course, I know Daredevil, and Nate Grey, as well as the main speaker... Professor Xavier. A bouncing ball of energy at the far side of the room, tells me that the New Warriors have arrived. I wonder who called them? There's a few other people here I have never met. Not the biggest collection of heroes, nor the most powerful... that's when I remember. How could I forget them? Excusing myself, I head out across the town, as fast as my webs can take me. I hope, they don't head off to save the world without me. I hate when they do that.
Maybe this wasn't such a great idea after all. I just found out, that the Thunderbolts don't like people who sneak into their headquarters, unannounced like I just did. I did it all the time with the Fantastic Four, but I guess I'm learning that these heroes, aren't the FF. Now that I think about it, the FF treated me very much like these people are now, the first time I broke into their headquarters, and offered to join their team. I guess I'll never learn. What I don't get, is why is my spider-sense still going off. I mean I've explain to them why I was here, and I said I was sorry for breaking into their place at four in the morning. Shouldn't we be racing off to save the day, like good little super-heroes. Did I just here one of them say, let's kill him... as in kill me? I can't hear what their saying to well out there, cause this sonic cage, that Songbird lady has me trapped in is making a very loud, and annoying buzzing noise. My spider sense stops dead when their newest member (Jolt is her name I think), walks into the room. Their little discussion stops, and half a minute later, my cage disappears. They've made their decision it would appear. They'll be joining the party. After the necessary introductions are made, that Techno guy hands what appear to be head-sets to his fellow team-mates, before donning one himself. When I ask what they are, they claim they're for communications, but I know better. I seen them before. It would appear these heroes don't like telepaths running around in their heads, cause those head-sets are very similar to the devices worn by guards at the Vault to protect themselves from telepathic probes, from the inmates. It would appear the Thunderbolts have secrets, they don't want to share, and if I make it back from this latest adventure alive, I'll have to pay them a closer look.
We're going to New Mexico! Well, at least I'm excited about it. Maybe I'll get to see me one of them U.F.O.'s, they always have flying around there, and crashing there, on occasion. I have no idea where Professor X, got these two planes, that we're flying to New Mexico in, but I don't really need to know that, do I? I do know that defiantly got on the wrong plane. I should've got on the other plane. They probably have a party going on over on the other plane. They have the New Warriors, and those Gen X kids over on the other plane. Those are fun people to be around. I just had to ride on the grown up plane, now didn't I? The plane I'm on now, is full of the grimmest bunch of people I've ever seen. All I'm getting for my little jokes here is dead silence, or dirty looks. That Irish fellow, Banshee, threaten to toss me out of the plane, a couple minutes ago, if I didn't sit down, and shut up. So, here I sit, very quietly I might add. Daredevil fell asleep the minute he sat down in his seat, so talking to him for the trip is out. I get a few more dirty looks when I ask about an in flight movie. I'm bored... next time I go to save the world, I'm bringing a book to read.
My spider sense warned me about the impending attack, a couple of seconds before it hit. The passenger compartment of the plane was torn to pieces by dozens of super heated plasma blasts. My heighten agility saved my life, barely. Daredevil, wasn't so lucky. One of the deadly blasts caught him square in the chest... he never had a chance! Even from my perch on the ceiling of the plane I can tell he's dead. They killed him! I don't even know who they, are. I do know that the attack came from outside the plane, and it's not too hard to get outside, due to the fact that everything inside the plane, is being sucked out the dozens of holes the now litter the planes hull. I launch myself off the roof, and seconds later I find myself outside. Only sheer luck keeps me from being cut in two by the planes wing, as screams by inches below my head. That's when gravity takes a hold of me, and I plummet toward the ground, miles below. Why, did I do this again? The half a dozen man sized sentinels bearing down on me, do a very good job reminding me. As do their plasma bolts, that burn their way in a deadly arch toward me. My screaming spider sense tells me what I already know. I'm about to die! I'm sorry Mary Jane...
How many ways can a man die? The current total for the X-man calling himself Cannonball is one hundred, and sixty three. Each one of his deaths has given me extreme pleasure. The pain... the excruciating pain of each one of his deaths, is simply delicious. If certain tasks on the outside world didn't require my attention, I doubt I would ever leave this room. Discovering this young man couldn't die... that he was an immortal, was of the fringe benefits of my vendetta against the X-men. His return to life after his death at the hands of Scott Summers was a surprise to say the least. After coming back to life, this young man had almost escaped from my clutches. Luckily, he did not. The forces of Operation Zero Tolerance managed to kill the young man once again before he made it ten miles out from the base. Now, this young man is my greatest source of entertainment. Right now, I'm drinking in his waves of pain, as a deadly virus races though his system. He'll be dead once again within the hour, and return to life, a few minutes after his death, and the cycle can start once again. Wait! He's here! I've waited a long time for this, a very long time.
"I've been waiting for you... I don't like waiting." toned Bastion, as he turned from the dying Cannonball to face Apocalypse.
"Until now your actions, did not warrant my presence. They do now! Your actions pose a threat to me, and my mission. You will stop them, or die!" threatened Apocalypse.
"Your threats have little sway over my actions. I answer to no one save myself. I will never serve another... especially you. You will meet the same fate as the rest of this doomed world. You will only get this one warning. Leave now, before what little respect I once had for you is forgotten." said Bastion as he turns his back on the towering Apocalypse.
"You are a insolent child who needs to be taught his proper place." stated Apocalypse.
"I once feared you... I once worshipped the ground you walked on. Now I see you for what you truly are... an old relic, who's time for glory, and power has long past him by. A pale shadow of a once great man. You will fall as easily as the others." claimed Bastion, without looking back at the advancing Apocalypse.
"Bold words. Easily spoken, and just as easily proven false. Pray that I grant you a quick death foolish mortal, for that is the only mercy I am willing to show you!" thundered Apocalypse, before two of the most powerful forces on Earth met.
Hey, how about that? I'm not dead... at least not yet. I managed to snag a passing mini-sentinel with a web-line, seconds before I would of been sliced and diced a dozen ways by those plasma blasts of theirs. There's thousands of these mini-sentinels in the air... they out number us heroes, about 50 to 1. They're making good use of this advantage, the heroes that made it out of the fireballs that both planes became, still alive, are being cut down like so much cannon-fodder. We're losing badly... my spider sense is the only reason I'm still alive. I hear a crashing thud far below me, and see a twenty meter tall Atlas slam into the desert floor with a huge smoking hole in his chest. My spider sense screams causing me to let go of the web-line, and drop toward the ground, as the space where I would've been, becomes a blazing inferno of energy. Somebody's shooting huge energy blasts into this battle. A flash of light, tells me that those energy blasts are coming from a complex about a quarter mile to the north-west. I survive the half a mile fall to the desert floor using a combination of web parachutes, to slow my fall, and a web cushion to help lessen my impact with the ground. I have to shut these mini sentinels down... and that complex looked like the best shot I have a doing this. Maybe they have a central command center, or something along those lines. As I leap from sand dune to sand dune, toward the buildings in the distance, I look back in time to see that a few hundred mini-sentinels have left the battle above, and are making their way toward me. I must be doing something right to get so much attention focused on little old me. Now I know how rock stars feel... except they have an army of teenage girls chasing them, instead of an army of mutant hunting killer robots. Lucky me.
Despite the fact that he had killed the man two times in the past minute... that he had held the man's still beating heart in his hand, Apocalypse knew that he wasn't going to win this battle. Apocalypse had thought he was beyond feeling pain... the loss of his lower right arm had been a painful reminder that this was not the case. He had watched as his arm had wasted away, when it had been aged over 800 years in a couple seconds. His opponent, Bastion had surround himself with a ten foot wide sphere, inside which time was racing forward at a phenomenal pace. A sphere that he had expanded to encompass the entire room a few seconds later. Apocalypse had saved himself by stepping out of synch with time itself before the effects of the rapid time flow could lay claim to his entire body, and not just his arm. Then Apocalypse had done something he hadn't done in his entire countless years on this planet. He had run from the battle, or at least he had tried to. Staying out of synch with time had a tremendous price. It consumed energy at a ferocious rate... the very energy that kept him alive all these years. The amount of time he could spend in this state was very limited, so when he found he could not escape the room... that the walls of this room held him inside, even when everything told him that such a thing was impossible in his current intangible state... Apocalypse knew this had all been a trap. It was then, that Apocalypse did another thing he hadn't done in hundreds of years. He feared for his life.
Thank you, Nate... you just pulled me out of the frying pan. My robotic fan club had been right on my heels until Nate had come out of nowhere, and took out a couple dozen of them with his first shot. Those telepathic blasts of his sure pack a wallop. I would go help the guy out against that mini army, but from the look of things, the kid is handling those sentinels just fine, all by his lonesome. Plus, his actions have put me in the free and clear, in order to make my way into the complex. I may be able to shut these robots down from inside the complex, or at least I can take out that gigantic plasma cannon they have firing into the battle, about every half a minute. After, vaulting over a ten foot high, chain-link fence I find myself under attack by half a dozen armed guards. It takes about ten seconds to make my way past that obstacle, and up on to the roof of a nearby building. From my rooftop vantage point, I spot the plasma cannon about a hundred yards, or so to my right. Thanks to a helping hand, from yours truly, a five ton chunk of rooftop plows it's way though the massive barrel of the plasma cannon, rendering it all but useless. Now to look for the control center to this place. Bounding my way from roof-top, to roof-top, I crash though a second story window of what appears to be the central building to this complex. As I make my way across the ceiling my spider sense goes crazy. It's never been this intense before... it feels like my head is going to split open. What ever is behind that huge steel door at the end of the hall, it looks like it's the source of this massive danger signal I'm getting. It could be a bomb, or something worse. I notice that the door starting to buckle outwards right before it explode into a million pieces.
It had only taken Apocalypse three seconds to make his way out of the room, after he returned to the accelerated time within the room. Those three seconds had been enough time to age Apocalypse well over a thousand years. He had a plan... he had to find the mutant child of Reed, and Susan Richards. He had programmed the computer to scan the globe for the child, and teleport Apocalypse to his current location, when it discovered where the child was. It would of worked, but as he stumbled out into the hallway, he knew he was dying... that his time to act on this plan was gone. That's when he saw the figure in the hallway, the hero that called himself Spider-man. He was his last chance to make this work. Apocalypse managed to get out three words before he died.
What stumbles out though the door, and collapses at my feet is not what I expected at all. It looks like this giant has been dead for hundreds of years, so when it grabs my arm I'm surprise to say the least. I can barely hear the words it whispers out before it crumbles into a pile of dust. It sounded like... find Franklin Richards. Why would he want me to find Franklin Richards? That's when I notice the flash cube lying in the pile of dust at my feet. Cautiously picking it up, I look it over, until I notice I'm not alone in this hallway. It's that Bastion guy, I've been trying to take his picture for the Daily Bugle, but the guy has been keeping himself pretty scarce the past few months. Either the guy doesn't see me, or he's ignoring me. The guy is talking to himself, while staring out the large picture window behind me. Yelling to himself is a better description. What a nut job. That's when he turns to me, and says "Turn around hero, and watch as your universe dies!" Like I said before, what a nut job. That's when I see the explosion on the horizon... that's when my spider sense explodes in my head. A second later I see the sky turn blood red, and the wall of white screaming it's way toward us, swallowing everything in it's path. The last thing I hear before the wall of white hits is Bastion's haunting laughter.
No heroes made a last minute save when the end of the Marvel universe occurred. The wall of white consumed the entire planet like an uncontrollable fire. Every living thing on the planet was obliterated in an instant. The heroes had fallen, and Bastion lived happily ever after.
THE END