Issue+67+-+'Worry'


 * Issue 67 - 'Worry' **




 * Plot**

In retrospect, the omens were everywhere: the weakening dimensional barriers that allowed travel between realities, Sinmara/Meghan’s arrival from Muspelheim, Vidar’s news that Baldur is dead, Loki imprisoned, and the first cock has crowed, announcing the approach of Ragnarök. Steven Rogers, formerly Captain America, was injured trying to stop a riot in New York City. And while Tony Stark pledged to rebuild Asgard above Broxton, Oklahoma, the Asgardians left Earth shortly afterward. The ash cloud from the eruption of Mt. Aso in Japan has obscured the sun, moon, and stars. Several small cults coordinated mass suicides. Clearly something ominous was coming. And then 8 meteors struck the Earth, including one in San Francisco… After confirming with Agent Owens that S.H.I.E.L.D. needs assistance, the eXalts take off in the Blackbird. Dane can’t attend due to the fires in the neighborhood. Samantha is returning for her first mission as an eXalt since her maternity leave, and Bastienne volunteers to go along, as well. The Blackbird goes into hover mode next to the area with the worst damage. The meteor came in a low angle to the ground, smashing through several buildings before landing next to a gas station and fountain. The gas station exploded into flames and several nearby buildings are also on fire. The eXalts land or fly out of the vehicle, only to realize that new eXalts member Mercy has disappeared! Her brother, Ethan, realizes he can’t contact her mentally and that she was pulled through to another dimension. But the eXalts have other problems to attend to. Besides the buildings on fire, several buildings were damaged and could collapse. Some people are trapped inside buildings or under rubble nearby. Mustang, the eXalts team leader, gives orders to his teammates. Bast is to use her teleportation powers to rescue people stranded in buildings. Glimmer is to reach out with the telepathy she borrowed from Phantasma to find if any other people are trapped. Mystic is to use his portals to help people inside buildings. Phantasma can use her telekinesis to pull rubble from trapped victims. Prism can use his solid illusions to help victims and Subsume’s absorption power makes him suitable for going inside buildings to rescue anyone Glimmer finds. Mustang then creates solid light “slides” to help three civilians escape a fiery building. Bast teleports a woman to safety. Glimmer organizes the nearby bystanders to get them to flee the scene. Subsume rushes into a burning building to help someone trapped on the second floor. Vortex creates a vacuum of air around one building’s fire and puts it out. Mystic unleashes his fiery breath, melting the cap on a fire hydrant and creating a burst of water. He then creates a portal to direct the water onto another fire, putting it out. Phantamsa uses telekinesis and Prism creates illusory Asgardians that pull several people free from the rubble. After their initial success freeing trapped or stranded civilians, the eXalts are surprised when the crowd begins shouting insults at them. They blame mutants for the problems afflicting San Francisco and for this crisis, specifically. Then one shouts “Kill the mutants!” and the civilians attack the eXalts! Even more surprisingly, the civilians seem oddly strong. Glimmer scans them and discovers they’re under some sort of mind control, but she can’t find the source. Then a building collapses, killing three people inside, and the eXalts are forced back into action. They continue saving people under rubble and trapped in buildings while putting out fires. Another building collapses, killing another. And the civilians continue attacking the eXalts. Subsume pulls the trapped victim from a building only to be surrounded by a gang of people. He is buffeted from all sides. His absorption power is overwhelmed and he collapses, unconscious. Mystic is attacked by several people. He creates illusory duplicates of himself. Several of the duplicates are destroyed and Mystic himself is dazed by several hits. Prism deflects the mob’s attacks by creating an illusory fiery barrier around himself. At this time, Mustang hears a voice from where the hammer landed in the fountain. He flies over to the crater and sees a hammer amidst the wreckage of the fountain in the water. He hears a sound, like buzzing or singing, that calls out to him. It tells him to pick up the hammer and use its strength to stop the humans. The humans have hated mutants, oppressed mutants, registered mutants, and killed mutants. The hammer can help Mustang protect mutants and teach humans a lesson so they’ll never harm mutants again. Mustang is tempted. He reached towards the hammer… and grasps the handle. There is a flash of bright yellow light and an explosion of force that drives the rubble away. When the light fades, Mustang is standing in the center of the crater holding the hammer. His eyes are glowing yellow and the mustang symbol on his chest is glowing yellow as well. He yells out, “I am Runak, Breaker of Skies! Behold my glory!” Runak flies over to where a group of humans has surrounded Glimmer and is trying to penetrate her impervious force field. He swings his hammer wide, knocking the humans away… but catching Glimmer in the process. She goes flying. Bast teleports into Runak’s shadow and leaps onto his back, grappling him. She yells out, “knock it down!” and teleports into a fiery building. Glimmer rises and blasts the building’s foundation. The building shudders, then collapses in a cloud of fire and smoke. Bast’s comm goes silent. Runak roars from inside the building – he’s still conscious! Mystic sends a message on his comm to Dane back at Academy X: David has been possessed and Panzer is needed. Mystic creates a portal and Panzer rushes through. He takes down several humans that knocked out Subsume, then searches for Runak. Bursting free from the debris of the collapsed building, Runak pulls Bast to safety. He then turns his attention to other civilians engaged in attacking eXalts. Phantasma is able to deflect Runak’s attack, protecting the humans. Vortex yells out to Mystic to create a portal next to Runak. The mage does so. Vortex then slams into Runak, knocking him through the portal. Vortex and Runak find themselves inside the medical lab at Academy X. Panzer is right behind. He charges through, turning his liquid metal arms into wicked blades. They pierce Runak’s force field and impale the hammer wielder. He’s badly hurt! Phastasma grabs Glimmer and flies through the portal. Phantasma then uses her telepathy to reach out to Runak, hoping to find David inside. She senses two mental presences. Runak is in control, but David is in there, too! She tells David to shake off Runak’s influence, but David won’t or can’t do so. As the other eXalts watch, Runak’s wounds heal before their eyes. He flies out of the medical lab and into the hangar. He opens the hangar door and flies out to the school grounds. Vortex flies after him. Back in San Francisco, Mystic uses energy from a drained attacker to heal Subsume. The civilians are on the run after witnessing Runak’s power. Bast notices a figure hiding in a nearby building that was watching the battle and seemed to be focused on the civilians. When the mob retreats, the shadowy figure runs after them. Prism creates an illusion of a Thor-like figure that tells him to halt. The figure then uses his mutant power to command the nearby civilians to attack the Asgardian! He’s the one that was mentally controlling and boosting the mob! Bast, Mystic, Prism and Subsume team up to knock out the mutant. They then bring him to the Blackbird. They are joined by Wonder Man, who finished helping in another area of San Francisco. At Academy X, Runak flies into David’s room and grabs the package Magneto gave him: one of his old helmets! Now wielding an Asgardian hammer and Magneto’s helmet, Runak flies across San Francisco Bay. Vortex rockets after him and is surprised to find that Runak is now faster than Mustang. After losing him north of San Francisco, Vortex flies back to Utopia. Dane calls to Mystic on the comms and asks for a portal to the Blackbird. The eXalts all rendezvous on the jet. After stopping briefly at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Triskelion to drop off the adult mutant that caused the mob, they discuss what to do about Runak. The first order of business is tracking him. The GPS functionality was removed from the comms after they had been used for spying, so they can’t follow him that way. Dane calls Matt at Academy X to see if he can get S.H.I.E.L.D. to use a satellite to track Runak. Matt says S.H.I.E.L.D. is too busy tracking the other hammer-wielders. Matt has bad news: the first hammer landed at the supervillain prison known as the Raft outside New York City. The hammer’s landing destroyed the prison and dozens of supervillains have escaped! Even worse, Juggernaut has taken the hammer and calls himself Kuurth, Breaker of Stone. The Thunderbolts and the staff of the Avengers Academy have responded. Besides Runak and Kuurth, another hammer has landed in New York City and others have landed in China, Paris, Brazil, South Africa, and in the Pacific Ocean. The Future Foundation has responded to the scene of the other hammer landing in New York City. Steven Rogers, commander of S.H.I.E.L.D., has put out an “all hands on deck” call to all superheroes. He’s restarting the Initiative on a volunteer basis. Since S.H.I.E.L.D. is overwhelmed and no help is forthcoming, Dane, Lucius, and Cameron come up with a plan to track Runak’s comm. They jury rig equipment on the Blackbird to create a device to find him. While the three tech guys are working on that project, Samantha flies the jet and Bastienne puts a call in to the east coast school. Due to the crisis, the X-Men have ended quarantine and have responded to New York City. They are engaging Kuurth. Bastienne tells the student to leave a message for Erik: David has his helmet… and a hammer. As the Blackbird follows Runak’s heading across California, Matt breaks some additional news: Hulk now wields the hammer that crashed in Brazil and has become Nul, Breaker of Worlds. In South Africa, the Asborbing Man and his girlfriend, Titania have found another hammer. Titania has taken it and has become Skirn, Breaker of Men. They are headed north to get his hammer. Meanwhile, Dagan checks with Ethan to see if he’s okay. He’s been withdrawn since Mercy disappeared and the mob knocked him out. He says he’s okay, just overwhelmed – he was knocked out when David took the hammer and he doesn’t know what’s happening. Bastienne explains the situation to him. The headmistress looks shaken. Dagan asks if she’s okay, and she says she’s just worried about David. The eXalts wonder how they’ll stop Runak once they reach him. Dane suggests Bastienne call Shiro Yoshida to see if he has any Hope. Bastienne reluctantly calls Shiro on Dane’s phone. Shiro says he may be able to get Hope for her. Bastienne turns away from the others and says she doesn’t want it. She then tells Dane that Shiro isn’t sure he can get any Hope in time. Mac comes up with the theory that David may regain control if he’s confronted by his former protégé, Joni. He contacts Old Lucius back at the school. Old Lucius didn’t realize Mac knew he was still there. He becomes agitated, worried that Mac is going to ask him to do something bad. Mac says he just wants a favor. Old Lucius says it always starts with a favor. Mac says he just wants all of Joni’s school files, including photos and videos of the girl, sent to Young Lucius’ phone. Old Lucius calls Young Lucius to make sure it’s okay. Young Lucius confirms, and Old Lucius begins sending the files. Dane, Lucius, and Cameron finish their device to track Runak and realize he’s heading straight towards Sacramento. They then combine their efforts to increase the speed of the jet. They set the engine on overdrive. It will damage the engine, but in the short term it will get them there faster. They should reach Sacramento shortly after Runak arrives. Dane realizes he can’t count on Shiro getting Hope in time. He calls Agent Owen to see if the S.H.I.E.L.D. officer has the drug. Agent Owen won’t officially confirm S.H.I.E.L.D. has any, but they may have confiscated some. He says he can’t get it to them now, but Dane says they can open a portal to get to it. Agent Owen agrees to get some ready. This conversation sets up a debate among the eXalts. Lucius says they can’t use Hope and it’s wrong. David would never want to be dosed with the drug, as it would make him a normal human. Dane argues, saying there is a cure for Hope. Dagan points out they don’t have any more of the cure, but Dane says they can find a vampire to get vampiric blood to make more. Lucius once again says it isn’t right and David wouldn’t want it, and Dagan agrees. After all, when Dane had been taken by the Phalanx, they ruled out using Hope on him because they knew he wouldn’t want to live as a human. Dane says there wasn’t a Hope cure back then, and the only other option may be killing David. Isn’t Hope better than killing him, especially since Hope can be reversed? Wonder Man also agrees that he doesn’t want to kill David. Mac agrees with Dane about using Hope, if only because so many innocent lives are in jeopardy. They may have to use Hope on David to save civilians. Dagan asks Samantha what she thinks. Samantha is eXalts team leader now that David is possessed. Samantha says they’ll find another way instead of using Hope. Mac calls with additional news. An oil pipeline has ruptured in the Pacific Ocean near the area where a hammer landed. Then Matt says Ruth has come into the room and is having some sort of vision. Matt puts her on the comms. She’s speaking with an Asgardian dialect. The group soon realizes she’s speaking with Odin’s voice. She says, “The second cock has crowed! Know this Asgardians: The engine of evil that has been unleashed on Earth is coming for us next. And Earth will be its fuel. Its people, driven to slavery and slaughter. Bodies stacked like kindling. The ground black with blood. The sky black with ash. I know, because I’ve seen it before. I’ve survived it before. And I know how to survive it again. We are at war. From rise to set we stand ready for battle. We cannot stop until the last of us falls. And many, many of us shall fall indeed. The serpent rises, Asgardians. And we shall transform ourselves into gods of war to crush him beneath our boots again. The serpent has returned. We rise against him. We shall purge Midgard of his presence. We shall raze the Earth once and for all!” The eXalts sit in shock when the realize the Asgardians intend to wipe all life from Earth. Dane quickly calls Agent Owen at S.H.I.E.L.D. to tell him what is going on. Lucius has studied Ragnarök and realizes more of the signs have arrived. The second cock is the second of three signs that Ragnarök is coming. The second cock is the sound that raises the dead. At that moment, Matt says he hears screaming outside the school. The dead have risen at Academy X! And, at the same time, news breaks from Washington, D.C. that an army of Nazi mechs are attacking the capital, led by a red-skinned woman with a hammer…
 * Next:** Issue 68 - 'Dread'
 * Previous:** Issue 66 - 'Unease'