A few days ago:
Jack O’ Lantern and Boomerang were ecstatic, they’d escaped from two Avengers, with their prize and were on the way to a big pay day. The two mercenaries couldn’t wait to celebrate, a rowdy night on the town with their pockets full of cash, this was the reason they’d gotten into their illegitimate business.
A few miles from Warren Worthington III a.k.a. the Angel’s penthouse apartment, where the mercenaries had just stolen a certain painting, the two men now touched down, Jack O’ Lantern nimbly flipping off of his glider disc while Boomerang hit ground softly thanks to his boot jets.
In a vacant alley they changed into civilian clothes, they bought a case to hold the painting and then traveled up two blocks, entering a late night office building, where their employer had told them to meet him.
“C’mon, let’s trade this off for cash and get our asses out of here and downtown,” Boomerang said.
“I agree with you there, what was our employer’s name?”
“Never gave us a name, bloke just told us to call him ‘Mr. M,’ he probably thinks it gives him mystique. Really it’s just dumb, but so long as he’s got our money….”
“That’s all I care about too,” Jack O’ Lantern finished, the two laughed and went inside.
‘Mr. M’ was waiting for them in his office: “Thank you for your assistance here, involving myself in the situation would have shown my proverbial hand too soon, I’m afraid, here is your money, boys, spend it wisely and don’t indulge in too many…sins,” he finished with a wink, his eye twinkling with an eerie red.
“Aye, I’ll be a good altar boy, thanks for the business, ‘Mr. M,’” Jack replied.
“I’m sure you will,” ‘Mr. M’ spoke in an assuring tone, the two mercenaries left, and a second later, ‘Mr. M’ vanished in a sulphurous cloud.
Mephisto’s realm, two days ago:
“You are quite right. Now tell me, has your family any connections in Russia?”
“A few with the Russian mob, I’ve been there several times on…business, know the area well, lots of favors to call in,” Joseph Manfredi, Blackwing, answered
“I have a few tasks for you, first there is an American scientist over there, you must find her, she’s working on some xenobiology project, and the Russians have captured an alien superbeing and have contracted some outside consultants. This woman, Alice Nugent is gifted in bio-chemistry and most of their related fields. You will bring her a package; inside it will contain a gift to her which she will find most interesting and instructions for both of you. I cannot do this myself; I have other business to attend to. A portal will take you from my realm to where you need to be whenever you are ready to depart. I suggest you be ready soon.
Avenger’s Mansion:
The Mandarin came down on the Avengers like lightening. Fast, furious and energized, something in his eye told the Avengers this man meant business in a way he never had before.
In a flash, James Rhodes was up in the air, ensconced in a sheathe of the otherworldly power prism energies at his command. He captured the Mandarin in a bubble of the energy, only to have an omni-directional blast from the Mandarin’s Impact-beam ring shatter the bubble.
Warbird took to the air as did the Vision, the ethereal synthezoid floated through the air, the blasts of the Mandarin not able to affect his immaterial form. The Mandarin smiles a hellish smile as he sees the Vision float towards him, his White Light ring flashes, and energy swirling about the synthezoid as the gravity in his vicinity increases. Though to become intangible the Vision shunts his mass, he still has a small bit of mass remaining, an infinitesimal amount, but it serves enough for the Mandarin to increase it and shunt the intangible man deep into the earth.
Seeing this, Warbird unleashes a torrent of energy blasts at the villain, only to have her effort made futile, as the photonic blasts approached, the Mandarin simply opened a darkforce aperture using his Black Light ring, and the blast entered the darkforce and dissipated harmlessly.
“How do we beat him?” Warbird asks, flying up high and coming down, firing away and charging up her strength, only to be thwarted again, with his ten fearsome powers truly put to the test, the Mandarin seems unbeatable.
Sheathed in energy, Rhodes flew in up close to try a more physical approach. He attempted a punch but it glanced off the Mandarin with no affect thanks to his vortex beam ring.
Not reluctant solely on his alien rings, the Mandarin unleashed a flurry of blows on Jim Rhodes. Rhodes was not an unaccomplished fighter himself, but the devastating intensity of the hits paralyzed him for a minute, the Mandarin lowered himself down, taking advantage of the 3D fighting environment, floating in the air combatants often forget that, with his fist squarely in Jim Rhodes’ stomach, the Mandarin fires off his powerful disintegrator beam ring.
Jim Rhodes went flying several miles.
“You will come with me,” The Mandarin ordered, gesturing grandly to the exhausted Ghost Rider.
“I don’t think so,” Warbird replied, flying around again and coming for the Mandarin.
“No,” the Mandarin said back wryly, with his White light ring he made another gesture, this time at Warbird, emitting a beam of electromagnetic energy, a modulating laser, changing frequency and power too often for Carol to adapt and absorb the energy. Then he unleashed upon her his Electro blast, then the Flame and Ice blast, adding to that a blast of sonic vibrations from his Impact beam ring, the varying energies overwhelmed Warbird and she dropped from the sky unconscious.
“The Avengers aren’t done yet!” Angel roared as he flew in, wings beat rapidly as he dove like a falcon going for the kill.
“These others who attacked had respectable abilities, you boy can only fly, how sad,” the Mandarin readies to destroy Warren, only to have the Black Cat sneak up behind him, stealthy as her namesake, and with a great leap, the energy blade from Angel’s sword, borrowed from the Black Knight’s old equipment locker, extends and Felicia skewered the Mandarin on it. Despite his rings and powers, physically he was still just a man, and the energy blade disrupted his neurons and nervous system rendering him painfully unconscious.
Warren gave a mirthful smirk to the unconscious Mandarin as he landed next to him.
Jahannam, now:
Iblis had been watching and waiting. Ahpuch, Mephisto, Pluto and Hela were all, though not together, plotting and scheming to make a bid for the upper world, the mortal realm.
Iblis kept watching, the many Hell Kings scurried all over, trying, in vain, to achieve something or other, more souls, domination, revenge, it didn’t matter to Iblis.
Iblis simply wanted to get back to God, Allah. He’d been cruelly cast out, simply because he loved Allah so much. It was unfair.
The jinn heaved a sigh as he frowned. The most high and beloved had no want for him, but all Iblis felt was love for the one who’d spurned him. The worst punishment of all.
Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Now:
Scott Washington felt good about life. He’d had a hard one thus far, but his symbiote, the Hybrid, had helped him turn his life around. Once an angry, frightened paraplegic, Scott was now happy, courageous, he had a zest for life and could walk.
Scott had promised to bring his family, his mother and brother, out of Bedford-Stuyvesant, but that all fell apart. He was fired from his job as an armored Guardsman at a secret testing facility when he let the alien symbiote get away. After that his brother was killed and he was crippled in a gang hit. Desperate, dispirited and broke, life had seemed bleak.
But with the help of the New Warriors, specifically his friend and hero Justice, Scott Washington embraced the symbiote, it was good natured and helpful and allowed Scott to attain the greatness he deserved. As the super-hero Hybrid, he’d turned Bedford-Stuyvesant around, crime dropped, better jobs moved into the area, his mother quit her two jobs in favor of one good paying job and Scott had a good gig as a guard at a group of corporate buildings owned by the Taylor Foundation.
A lot had been lost along the way, but now…life wasn’t half bad. Then he heard a loud crashing noise a few buildings over and leapt into action.
Jim Rhodes landed hard. Far away from where he’d been hit, Rhodes now found himself in a dirty nondescript alley; the Mandarin’s powerful disintegrator beam would have unbound all his molecules and atoms and left him a pile of ash if not for the power prism.
The prism kept off the detrimental affects, but Rhodes still got hit hard, the sheer impact of the disintegrator beam at close range sent him flying.
Rhodes felt weird, something other than the ordinary I-just-got-blown-miles-away-and-landed-on-my-ass feeling. Parts of his skin felt like they were burning, he pulled up his sleeves and noted the Mandalas, tattoo like markings that indicated him as an Eidolon Warwear pilot. They were glowing and he felt something inside him sparking.
Rhodes looked up, perched on a fire escape above him, a red and brown costumed character, with tendrils protruding from its back and large white eyes observing the bewildered hero.
Symbiote! Kill! A voice from inside Rhodes exclaimed. Or at least that’s what it seemed like at first. Something inside his head, other than himself. He shook his head and craned his neck again to look up at the strange costumed man above him.
“You okay there, sir?” the costumed man asked, genuine concern in his voice, tinted with a slight edge of suspicion. He flipped and stuck to the wall across from him in the alleyway, and slowly crawled down it like a spider.
“Yeah…I think so…I hope so,” Rhodes said, he concentrated for a second and was levitated into the air by the power prism, then set back down on his feet. He felt nauseous, his mind reeling about, sick and beleaguered. He was visibly unwell and unsettled.
“You’re one of the Avengers, aren’t you?”
“Yes, part of the new team…who are you?”
“Name’s Hybrid,” Scott Washington, the man inside the symbiotic costume answered.
“I should probably get going now, I don’t know if you know who he is, but this villain the Mandarin sent me flying, where are we?”
“Brooklyn, Bedford-Stuyvesant specifically, need any help getting out, or with the badguy?”
“Should be okay, thanks though, see you around,” Rhodes said.
“Sure,” Hybrid answered, puzzled by the odd encounter. The man, a veteran hero supposedly, was rattled by him and Hybrid wanted to know why. One of the tendrils on his back whipped around and a shot out a line of symbiotic mass, akin to Spider-Man’s webbing. It pulled Hybrid along and launched him into the air. He had some investigating to do.
Unaware of Hybrid’s actions, Jim Rhodes flew off, but he was still startled, something inside him recognized that man...or that thing, his costume moved like it was alive! He didn’t know what it was, like something inside his head. Maybe it was nothing, Rhodes had heard of the dangerous criminals Venom and Carnage, he’d even been there on Battleworld when Spider-Man had received his symbiote costume, though no one at the time knew how it would eventually spawn two of Spider-Man’s deadliest enemies.
That must have been it, unconscious recognition; this one seemed to be a good guy though. Rhodes decided he’d check up on him later, he made a note to remember this area of town as he flew back to Manhattan.
Little did Jim Rhodes know that inside his subconscious mindscape, two powerful alien entities were battling for dominance.
Russia, two days ago:
The terrible secret of Alice Nugent was that deep beneath it all she was a horrible person. From behind a lead-reinforced wall, using mechanical appendages to do her work, she prodded at the bound alien before her.
Looking at him, one would not say he was an alien, no, he does appear human, quite handsome too in fact, but he remains dangerously otherworldly. Zhib-Ran, he said his name was, before collapsing due to exhaustion.
The alien appeared miraculously over Russia and fell, he’d spoken of an incredibly taxing journey and several Russian soldiers brought him, he wound up in an underground secret base in Moscow. One of the Russian scientists had used a computer to run facial recognition software on the man; he was identified as Mark Milton, a.k.a. Hyperion. Using all their resources they found he was vulnerable to aragonite radiation, which they continually pulse in at small amounts to keep him weakened.
Alice Nugent and several other scientists were called in to help, given large amounts of money and told to keep quiet.
Alice Nugent craved power. She had her own company; she was wealthy, brilliant, one of the foremost biochemists in the world. But all of that was to achieve one end, power. Superpower to be exact. She’d watched for years as brightly costumed men and women flitted about in the air, or in the streets, or on the television and lived life without the rules that constrained everyone else. She used her scientific talents and brilliant mind to create her company, she even hired Hank Pym, an Avenger, to work for her, hoping to use some of his research to fashion powers for herself. Hoping to use her biochemistry talents to remap her body and its abilities, she now finds herself hoping some of the alien’s physiology can be duplicated into her own being.
A portal opened behind her, she saw flickering lights reflecting on the wall in front of her and swiftly turned to see a man in a fine suit walk through.
“My name is Joseph Manfredi and my…employer has need of you,” he said.
Alice smiled, she viewed everything that happened to her as a chance to study and better herself…as a chance to gain power.
Asgard, now:
“Quetzalcoatl, will thou help me?”
“I have a keen mind to, what do you need?”
“My son, Thor on a mission wound up, unbeknownst to him, in Hel, waylaid by Hela he was taken captive, and now, two comrades of his, the mortal-turned-Asgardian Red Norvell, and Zeus’ son Hercules have found themselves similarly bound. Hela thinks I do not know this, but I do, and much more. She, Hades and Mephisto are planning something, and Ahphuch, your cousin and nemesis has something planned as well. I can feel his taint on their plan. I have sent Hugin and Munin far abroad and they have brought these findings to me.”
“Ahphuch has acted similarly before.”
“I am aware, that is why I sought your aid.”
“I shall be honored to help, Odin.”
Russia, yesterday:
Joseph Manfredi, the costumed criminal Blackwing, smiled as he felt the air on his face. Mephisto’s plans were working out even better than the demon king could have planned, he thought.
Zhib-Ran, the alien, was freed by Nugent, the alien had come from the Microverse through an arduous journey as his world was destroyed and had decided to band with Nugent and Blackwing to help with Mephisto’s plans.
Inside the package Mephisto had Blackwing give to Dr. Nugent was a list of men and women who were to act as the demon’s mortal shock troops against the Avengers; so far they still needed to recruit the Atlantean U-Man, Speed Demon, the alien Super-Skrull, and a mysterious Inhuman…the daughter of Maximus the Mad. Using portals from Mephisto, gathering this group was easy, and each had some debt to the demon, a trifle here or there. Little favors Mephisto had done for them, often in some hidden guise, and now he was collecting on those favors. He needed a force to rival and overcome the Avengers who were on his tail thanks to that inconvenience the Ghost Rider.
Mephisto’s Realm, Two days ago:
Johnny Blaze hated hell. What he hated worse was that there was no one to blame for his being there but himself. He’d lived a good life, all considered, but that one deal with the devil fixed his post mortem fate and he wound up in the fiery depths.
Johnny’s career had petered out, he went from the flaming skull visaged Ghost Rider to occult investigator going simply by his surname Blaze. Then a few months ago, off the radar completely, in a bar fight not his fault, he took a blow to the back of the head.
With the old Johnny Blaze luck in play, it dropped him like a lead weight, dead before he hit the floor.
Though maybe it was fortuitous, had he been alive, no one would have been around to see the Hell Kings making their deal, and being back in Mephisto’s realm seemed to have reunited him with his Ghost Rider powers, whether it was Zarathos or Noble Kale or something else entirely, he didn’t know. Unlike with previous incarnations, he was in complete control when in Ghost Rider form, it seemed optimum.
Blaze had mapped out hell, when the demons slept he rode throughout the barren burning wastelands, memorizing the twisting labyrinthine routes. Alarmed by what he saw, Blaze broke out into a run, his features twisting and melting away into the Ghost Rider. In a great pyre his bike formed, molten metals and hellfire twisting and converging to form his metallic steed.
Johnny hoped on and sped away. Descending had been easy, but Johnny now found that it was a long, hard path up and out of hell. Demons came down on him, looking to disrupt the Ghost Rider, the devilish rider with a heart of gold. He fought them, lashing about as he kept speeding out of hell.
Mephisto gave a laugh. He knew what the Rider was doing, and he laughed. Foolish Johnny.
Washington, D.C., now:
Jim Hammond’s communications card beeped in his pocket at the most inopportune time. With his lips pressed firmly against those of the Russian beauty Darkstar. His arms were wrapped around her, they were atop a skyscraper in Washington D.C. and quite involved in their intimate movement.
“Govno,” Darkstar muttered. Her eyes flashed with anger. “You’d best answer it, da?”
“Yes, unfortunately,” Jim winked at her.
“Hammond here, what’s up?”
“We just beat down the Mandarin again; he came a’callin after Ghost Rider who’s here asking for our help. Some big stir-up in the Netherworlds going on. The Avengers are assembling,” Felicia said, as the other Avengers were preparing for whatever was coming, she’d been given the duties of getting everyone together.
“Thanks, Cat, we’ll be back soon.”
“Sure thing, Jim. You may want to clean the lipstick off your face first, you dog, you,” Felicia winked and signed off.