Circa 60 years ago:
“Jim, it’s so good to see you. I know we’ve had our differences but…in a way I feel as though I am your father.”
“I have often looked at you in the same light,” Jim Hammond, a young “Human” Torch replies to his creator, his father, Professor Phineas T. Horton.
“Thank you for letting me give you a check up, Jim, as a father of sorts, I do worry,”
“I know, and thank you.”
“I’m just going to take a sample of your ‘blood’ after the incident with Spitfire, I’m curious to take a look into it. I built you, sure, but there is more to you than I ever intended. Perhaps that is the way with all parents and progeny. You’re so much more than a machine. So much more than a man.”
“I think that would be a good idea, it is an interesting development.”
“You’ll feel a slight pinch; it’ll be over in a second, Jim.”
“What’s that over there, Professor?” Jim Hammond asked, pointing over to a table on the other side of the lab.
“Just an experiment I’ve been working on, playing with the properties of water, such a basic and plentiful material. I’d like to see if there’s a way to harden it, not like ice, to stop the molecules in it from moving without lowering temperature. The thought occurred to me in a dream, I think it could be useful if possible.”
Jim snapped his fingers and a small controlled flame sprouted in the air above his thumb.
“Well just keep it away from me, Professor; I’m not the biggest fan of water as you might guess.”
Washington, D.C., now:
“One last kiss for luck?” Darkstar queried of the man in front of her, Jim Hammond.
“Of course,” and with that, Jim leaned in for a kiss, her lips were warm and opened met his flawlessly with passion and life. He put his hand up, lovingly framing her picturesque face, her hand covered his and in due time their kiss was over, she smiled and held his hand to her face for another second.
As he pulled away her nails left a scratch on the back of his hand, just enough to draw blood.
“I am so sorry, Jim, I had my nails done for this party and am unused to the extra length on them, forgive me,” Laynia apologized.
“It’s no big deal, we’re superheroes, I’m sure we’ve both had worse than a little scratch.”
She grabbed her purse, pretending to fix her makeup with a compact, covertly she took a sample of the android’s blood from her nails and put it in a small tube for preservation, concentrating, she created a mini darkforce portal in her purse, she dropped the false compact into her purse and via the dimensional aperture, and it was whisked away.
Russia, now:
The secret bunker in Moscow was now the headquarters of a newly formed Squadron Sinister. Mephisto had, over the course of the past two days, used his devilish powers to coerce and bribe the various members of the group into his service, using Blackwing as his mouthpiece to give them a small recruitment speech; they’d then been teleported back to Russia.
Blackwing sat at the conference table where his new allies surrounded him.
So far Zhib-Ran and the alien powerhouse Hyperion had eagerly joined. It turned out he was a powerful tyrannical king from a world in the Microverse. His world had been destroyed due to affects emanating from the Earth. After engaging in an arduous macrosizing process, he was left drained, falling to the ground in Russia he was taken into custody.
Speed Demon was next, the speedster criminal James Sanders joined in a nanosecond, the job was a lucrative one and a chance to prove his skills. He’d also brought something even more important to the group, after seeing the new Hyperion; Sanders bestowed the name Squadron Sinister upon the group.
U-Man, the savage and cruel Atlantean Meranno was next, brutal strength paired with his keen mind and years of experience, he was a valuable asset.
The Super-Skrull was next; Blackwing had found him in the guise of Joshua Plague, stalking the earth in search for his fellow super-powered Skrull, and exile from the Skrull Empire, Paibok.
Next was the mysterious Inhuman powerhouse, Zarda Maximus. Mephisto had been keeping tabs on her since birth; she’d been shunned by Inhuman society and had thus left the sanctuary of the Inhumans as young woman when Attilan rested on the risen Atlantis. She was the illegitimate daughter of Maximus the Mad. Intelligent though with her father’s streak of craziness mixed with callous cruelty, whereas her father’s powers led to an enhanced mind, hers powered up her body. Strength and speed were a deadly combination, but in concert with the armor and weaponry she’d stolen from Attilan before leaving, she was a powerful woman.
Finally, the new Doctor Spectrum, Dr. Alice Nugent, part of the macrosizing machine that hurled Hyperion to the earth had come with him, a powerful crystal that Mephisto had been keeping tabs on. Mephisto had encountered other objects like it, when given the right jolt of energy, and correctly applied; it could be a powerful weapon. It was power, and as such, Alice Nugent wielded it with zest.
In a sulphurous puff, their boss, the devil-like being Mephisto appeared before them with his new mandate. Mephisto had brought them together; he’d manipulated these villains and many others to bring his plan to fruition.
“Good work, one and all, good work. Now, your true task begins. Dr. Nugent, you have the notes I gave to Blackwing to deliver, correct?” Mephisto queries.
“Yes, I do, one last component is needed, but we should be getting that anytime now, K’lrt is going to the Winter Guard base to take what we need. The timing was very fortuitous for all of this.”
“The Marvels of this earthly world have always been of some paltry interest to me, as a sort of lurid soap opera, entertaining. Yet now and then, something useful may be gleaned from all the offal. With Darkstar’s joining the Avengers along with Jim Hammond, I knew the time was right to set these plans into motion.”
“The sample will be yours within the hour, and the plan will continue,” the Super Skrull finished.
“Ah, good. Ready yourselves, Squadron. The Avengers are within our grasp now,” Mephisto laughed.
Jahannam, now:
Things were certainly speeding up, racing towards a glorious crescendo Iblis now set off on his journey to Pandemonium, the nexus of hell where no lord had power over another. Hela, Hades and Mephisto would be there soon. If Iblis’ calculations were correct, so would Ahpuch.
All would hasten his glorious return. To hear the eternal utterances of the high Luminary, the sweet symphony that was every divine syllable. Iblis embarked on the long, hard road to Pandemonium.
Avengers Mansion:
After gathering up Jack Frost, the three heroes, Darkstar, Human Torch and Jack returned to Avengers Mansion via a darkforce aperture. Momentarily taxing but not overly difficult, Darkstar steeled herself while she recovered and built up her energy again.
The Avengers sat around the library, an unconscious Mandarin lay in the middle of the floor, and Jarvis was handing Johnny Blaze a warm cup of coffee.
“Looks like we missed a party or two?” Hammond questioned his eyebrow arching as he turned his head to Warbird.
“Ugh…yes. Ghost Rider showed up, followed by Mandarin. Mephisto is up to something, not quite sure what yet though.”
Suddenly Blaze’s form erupted, flames engulfing him as he forcefully transformed into the Ghost Rider.
“I apologize, but I can sense…something evil is going on.”
As he finished his sentence, the mansion and the heroes were overcome with demons.
Russia:
K’lrt smirked as he walked up to the building that housed Russia’s superheroes the Winter Guard. Shape shifting for him was as natural as walking, but still on this backwards planet earth, it always came in useful, just as much and maybe even more so than his four other abilities.
He appeared to be a janitor who worked at the compound which housed the Winter Guard and some of Russia’s greatest resources and secrets. Incredible science experiments, dark files left over from the KGB and more could be found in there. He was looking for a couple samples in particular. The blood of the original Human Torch.
K’lrt strolled in, showing his name-badge, his identity stolen from a janitor abducted by his new team the Squadron half an hour ago.
Once inside, he went invisible and created an invisible force platform beneath him and started to mentally accelerate it to traverse the compound at great speed.
He found a ventilation duct and his malleable form comported into it, traveling through the duct into the science rooms, he located the lab with Jim Hammond’s blood sample, delivered an hour ago by the Russian agent Darkstar. Several scientists were huddled over it, doing tests and forming hypotheses. Invisible force fields cut off their throats, restricting air supply and soon they were unconscious. An invisible field enveloped around the sample and raised it up to the duct and to K’lrt.
Holding it tight in his hand, his hand turned into a dense, impenetrable rocky hide, while the rest of him became white hot fire, an omnidirectional fire blast escaped from his body.
“Slag this pit,” he spoke into his communications link and seconds later Hyperion and Zarda flew into it at top speed, sonic booms and explosions resounded in the air. As Winter Guard along with their transfer agent Monica Rambeau a.k.a. the Avenger Photon gathered, surprised by the sneak attack, the whole compound seemed to melt into the ground.
Or rather the ground seized up around it, but it was not rock or root, but devils and ghouls come to ravage the earth, invading the Winter Guard compound, the heroes had to busy themselves with this netherworld invasion rather than their attackers.
Pandemonium:
“Demons are attacking our most hated enemies, our plan is about to be set into full motion and Midgard shall be ours, a beautiful day, isn’t it?” Hela waxed, her sultry, fiery voice held a tone of glee.
Hades was equally as happy, his bumbling nephew had been successfully captured and now the world was about to succumb to their plans.
“What shall we do with our prisoners, my nephew and the two thundering Asgardians?” Hades queried.
“They are nothing, captured as they are, they are now only amusement. Torture them if you wish. Lock them away forevermore or kill them. I was only concerned with them interfering, their combined power would have proven an obstacle I was unwilling to deal with,” Mephisto finished.
“How did Thor wind up in your realm, Hela?” Hades questioned.
“I know not how, what I gleaned from the tow-headed buffoon was that he was on a mission for his simpleton father, Odin. As he was using his hammer to traverse space and dimension, some errant blast of energy temporarily short circuited Mjolnir, sending him by chance to Hel.
Concealed in mystic shadows, Ahphuch watched, waiting to strike at his enemies, gathering his energies and forming his plan.
Hel:
Quetzalcoatl flew at top speed, searching this nightmarish realm as quickly as possible. He had been in touch with Odin via the elder god’s magicks and Odin had verified that Hela had left her realm for a short while. Quetzalcoatl felt out of place, an Asgardian hell realm was nowhere near his normal area of operations. But it felt good to get away from the tedium of his usual existence, which had denigrated into wiling away the days with other Meso-American deities, drunkenly embellishing former adventures and reminiscing.
He found Hela’s home, a necrotic castle and at that moment he saw two ravens with a heavenly aura about them and he knew that they were Hugin and Munin, Odin’s ravens.
Avenger’s Mansion:
As the Avengers bandied together to fend off the demonic horde attacking them, matters got worse. The demons crawled out of the ground, phasing in from Mephisto’s realm, soon the wall of Avengers mansion was blown out in the battle, and the hellish conflagration spilled out onto the lawn.
A flury of flying forms took to the air, Avengers and demons alike. Jim Rhodes erected a force bubble around the Avengers property, keeping Mephisto’s horde from attacking civilians.
As each horrid creature is felled, simply another rises in its place.
High above the battle an eerie sulphurous cloud coalesces and forms, thunder and lightening red like hellfire erupt from it building to a climax when it finally coalesces into an energy portal, with Mephisto and his Squadron Sinister emerging.
Alice Nugent emitted a laser like beam from her energy prism, it shot down at the force bubble created by Rhodes, at first it appeared as though the beam was stopped, but Alice was simply analyzing the field with her prism, finding the frequency and wavelength that his was currently working on and interfaced with it, a split second later, her beam shot straight through hitting Rhodes and stunning him for a second.
“Squadron, attack!” Hyperion roared, with the force field down he blitzed the Avengers, flying down, arms extended into fists and driving Warbird into the ground.
The Squadron picked their targets and attacked, Zarda went after Darkstar, and Nugent the malign Dr. Spectrum attacked Rhodes. Black Cat found herself assaulted by the crook Blackwing.
Angel took to the sky, using his keen, enhanced eagle-eye sight to keep track of James Sanders, the Speed Demon. Sanders hadn’t really partnered off as his team mates had, instead he was darting about the field, sending high speed blows to any Avengers that got in his way.
Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch and his wartime friend Jack Frost teamed up to fight the ferocious Atlantean Meranno, or U-Man.
But the Squadron had the upper hand, they’d come out of the sky by surprise, in an organized strike with a demon horde backing them up.
With the Squadron busy holding off the Avengers, Mephisto floated up into the air, protected by his Sinister force, he devoted his attention to casting an intricate spell, a bright red flash burst in the air, emanating from Mephisto and then his demon horde bandied off in all directions on some terrible mission.
Super-Skrull flew in dizzying maneuvers in the sky, dog fighting with the intangible Vision. Perhaps the only battle that was going in favor of the Avengers. With his intangibility the Vision couldn’t be hit, and with his android senses, the Super-Skrull’s invisibility proved to be of no avail.
Warren watched and analyzed Speed Demon’s trajectories. Doing his best to predict how the fights were going, Warren flew up high, soaring and then tucking his wings, he came down like a giant sized falcon swooping for the kill. His guess had been right and he barreled into his chosen target.
Johnny Blaze leapt into action, the Avengers mansion was being further demolished, he ran around to the other side of the mansion, psychically reaching out to his motorcycle, activating it and imbuing it with hellfire, he took his steed and revved the engine, making sure it was set to go, he sped around the mansion, up the crumbled side, to the roof and soared into the sky.
Hyperion was busy fighting Warbird in the sky, too busy to notice the Ghost Rider as he launched off the mansion and crashed it into alien powerhouse. Taken by surprise and hurt by the mystical fire, Hyperion crashed to the ground with the bike on top of him.
Blaze wrapped his whip-chain around Hyperion’s neck, attaching it to his bike; Ghost Rider takes off, the mystic hellfire exhaust actually burning Hyperion, with its magical energies cutting through his alien abilities.
“Wait, Avengers, the cast isn’t all here!” with a snap of his fingers, Mephisto created another portal from Pandemonium to earth
He expected Hela and Hades to step through, instead their unconscious bodies were tossed through carelessly, and the death god Ahphuch walked through.
“You had such an audacious plan going, Mephisto, I hope you don’t mind that I invited myself to come and play,” the skull-like visage twisted into a smile as he made the first grand step in his plan.
Yet if one strained to listen, the sound of distant thunder knelled hope for the Avengers.