Age Of Onslaught Part 13/37 "Chat sounds good to me, eh boss?" laughed Puck. "We have our orders, Logan," said Guardian sternly, although he seemed a little reluctant,"And Prelate Summers, you can't be here, you've created an international incident." "Jean," said Scott,"Show them, show them what I showed you." Jean nodded, and then sent the images of the real Universe at Alpha Flight, none of whom had even the more unsophisticated psi-barriers, an oversight that would have cost Clark dearly if he ever tried to fight Apocalypse's legions. The eyes of the assembled Alpha's widened in surprise at this intrusion, but even more so by the images themselves. "...what is this....?" "....everything is so green..." ".......never imagined..." "..can't be real....." Finally the images stopped and the Alpha's stood stockstill, eyes blinking, taking in what they had just seen. "What was that?" growled Radius,"Some kind of mind trick? What? do you want us to believe this and just let you go." "Quiet, young pup," admonished Shaman gently,"We have been given a vision, a sending that we were meant to see... and like all great visions, it both comforts us and frightens us." "What the hell are you talking about?" growled Radius,"Some new age mystic bullshit? My brother was into that kind of crap as well and look where it got him, a sleeper tube in Beta division." "Hey now Jared," said Puck, moving to place an arm on his side, then realizing that the forcefield would prevent him,"Calm down, eh?" "For the past twenty years I have sensed a sickness in the land, in the air, in our bodies and souls," Shaman noted,"Now I know why, when this man Xavier died prematurely the world that should have been died and a new world began, a world corrupt from it's very inside... and we have been given a chance to save it." "Enough chatter," growled Logan,"It's as simple as this, you either help us or we throw down, what's it going to be?" "No way," growled Radius,"We throw down!" "You don't speak for us, Corbo," muttered Guardian,"Logan was a friend long before he left the program... we'll help you Logan, but we have to get you to Department H, out here in the open there are eyes in the sky, eyes that report back to Apocalypse." Despite Radius' protests, the three refugees and Alpha Flight began to make their way back towards Department H. After a few moments Radius realized he was alone and began to run after the others. - The guards stepped aside and the doors opened, Alpha Flight, Scott, Jean and Logan made their way through them and found themselves standing in the middle of an adolescent boys dream. All down the hallway and apparently in other rooms too, men and women were in various stages of undress. Some were engaged in oral sex, others in heavy petting while some were actually screwing right out there in the open. "What the hell is this?" cried Guardian, turning to Vindicator as if she could answer his questions. "Perhaps I can answer dat question," laughed a light, happy voice in their minds, that accent was french, indicating that she was French Canadian. Looking up they saw a giant, transparent face floating in the air, smiling at them slyly. "My name," she said,"Is Arlette Truffaut, and we are going to have some fun." ------------------------- Gambit & The Externals 6. ------------------------- Without warning Guido reached down, grabbed the huge lock and ripped it away, pulling the large hatch open with one of his giant hands. At the same time Bobby used his solar powers to light the lamp, shining light down into the cargohold. "Well well, dis is certainly unexpected," said Remy, looking down at three stowaways he knew hadn't been there when they had left Tonga. And Captain America, The Invisible Woman and The Thing looked up at him, seemingly equally confused. "Gambit?" asked The Thing,"What the hell is going on here?" LeBeau turned to Guido, raising an eyebrow, how did this... thing know his old codename. "And just who you be?" he asked,"I see some weird mutants, but you take de cake." The Thing turned to glance at Sue, then at Captain America, both stared at him with same look of confusion, they had no idea what was going on. "What's with Mr. Red, White and Blue?" asked Bobby, looking over at Captain America,"Who are you supposed to be? Captain Nostalgia?" "I recognize the duds," said Guido,"Back during World War II, guy called Captain America fought in a uniform just like that one, but he disappeared just before the war ended, was never seen again... I guess the Nazi's got him." "What do you think, Suzie?" Ben whispered in the Invisible Woman's ear,"Alternate reality of some sort?" She nodded slightly, then turned and whispered it in Captain America's ear. "Can de whispering," snapped LeBeau,"What gets me is what you be doing here?" he pointed at Sue,"What's with the costume? Why you got a four on your titty? And most 'specially, why ain't you in Madripoor living de high life wit your husband, Doom?" Susan's eyes widened with shock and Ben began to cough in shock, Captain America's eyes narrowed slightly. "She looks a little surprised, maybe the sheets have cooled a bit?" laughed Guido, then he sobered up,"I'd still like to know how they got in there." "Listen," said Captain America,"You probably wouldn't believe us if we told you how we got in here, but believe me when I say that it's paramount that you help us..." "I be more dan pleased to help," laughed Remy,"If you got de cash dat is." "Oh come now, Cap'n," said Guido in his best sixteenth century pirate voice, a huge grin on his face,"Mebbe we can help them just a little bit? Huh? Huh?" Remy chuckled,"Well, dere is de old fight for your passage bit, but is dat really fair? Three mutants against two humans and a.... a Thing?" it was obvious to all that this was a familiar dialogue between Remy and Guido, they had dealt with stowaways before. "We agree to your demands," Captain America said,"Give us a chance." Remy laughed,"You don't know what you getting into, but dat never stop me having a good time before." With a smile Guido reached down with one giant arm, all three grabbed it and he lifted them (with a little strain) out of the cargohold and onto the deck. Several members of the crew not on duty, as well as many of the passengers (economy and first class both) had made their way onto deck to see what all the noise was about. Jubilee and Kitty stood together, both dressed in tiny shorts and shirts - the heat in the southern oceans was even apparent at night. "It seem we have some early entertainment!" cried Remy, he smiled when he saw Jubilee's eyes widen slightly,"Don't worry mes petit, not that kind!" The crewmembers laughed as Jubilee smiled with relief, although the passengers didn't really understand the joke and so just watched LeBeau expectantly. "Goin' to be a little fight for dese fine folks passage, den we gonna throw them overboard when dey lose, anyone who care to make bets see Sione over dere." Sione, a large Tongan crewmember smiled broadly and pulled out a little black notebook, some crewmembers and several passengers quickly moved over to him and began placing bets. "Okay my strange stowaways," said LeBeau,"I figger you use one of dem teleporters to get into my cargohold, but you better hope you can use it to get away once you overboard... cause nobody rides The Sprite for free." "Damn right," muttered Kitty, Jubilee pulled her hands up to her face to stifle her high pitched giggles. Kitty smiled and admonished her for being so immature. "Captain America wannabe here get to fight me, that Thing can fight Guido... sorry lady, you gotta take on Bobby." "I'll go easy on you darling," laughed Bobby, Sue didn't bother to reply. - Even in an alternate Universe they call me The Thing, sheesh! - Ben Grimm thought to himself, - I guess that's what you call irony. - Luckily, as members of the Fantastic Four and Avengers, they had had plenty of experience with alternate Universes and had adapted remarkably quickly. They had already reconciled themselves with the fact that they had moved from a fight in Isreal with a mysterious entity to fight with the alternates of friends of theirs on a ship in the Southern Seas. Lamps were quickly strung up on the mast and rigging to light up the deck, an area was cleared of all ropes and boxes to keep the fighting one on one. Remy glanced about, looking for Fisk, when he didn't see him he nodded grimly, he'd told Fisk he'd have no entertainment on this voyage, and he always kept his word... sometimes. The first fight was between Guido and The Thing, the stowaways had been kept seperate to keep them from talking or discussing strategy. The passengers eyed both the combatants seriously, Guido was huge, standing nearly eight feet tall and several feet across he seemed to obvious choice for victory. The Thing also looked incredibly strong but he looked small compared to Guido, at the most the passengers didn't think he stood any more than seven feet and he wasn't as wide across the shoulders as Guido. The decision was set, not one passenger made a bet on The Thing. Guido stepped up to the middle of the cleared area, he grinned down at the much smaller Ben Grimm and turned to face LeBeau. "I'll try not to take to make the fight too short, wanna give the crowd a good show." Remy grinned, then shouted,"BEGIN!" The Thing instantly slammed one huge fist straight into Guido's gut, surprising the mutant and making him double over. Then Grimm slammed him full in his ordinary sized face with a powerful uppercut, arching Guido's back and launching him several inches into the air. He fell hard on his butt. The passengers gasped, fearing they would lose their money, but the crew watched with expectant smiles. Suddenly Guido was leaping back to his feet, smiling as broadly as always. "Nice, pity my mutant power is the ability to absorb kinetic energy and re-release it... meaning those punches of yours are coming straight back at you.... with a little something extra from me." He smashed The Thing hard in the face with a right hook, followed it with a left and stepped back, waiting for Ben to collapse. The Thing wiped a little blood from his nose. "That it? That's all you got?" Guido's eyes widened, then he launched back into the attack, but this time The Thing was trading blow for blow. Sue watched in apprehension, Ben had once beaten the bearer of the Power Ring - calling himself The Champion - in a fair fight because his fighting spirit wouldn't let him surrender... but this was hardly a fair fight, Guido was absorbing every punch thrown at him and sending them back with his own strength thrown in. How long could Ben fight himself? Guido was surprised at The Thing's tenacity, and he had a feeling that if he wasn't absorbing the punches then he'd probably be out cold by now... who was this guy, for some reason Guido could sense he wasn't a mutant, but he certainly wasn't a norm. Suddenly Ben collapsed forward onto the deck, face first, his hands landing near Guido's small legs. "Phew," laughed Guido as cheers began to ring out,"Looks like I win again... for a second there I WHOA!" The Thing hadn't fallen unconscious, he'd deliberately dropped and now he had Guido around his small ankles. Pulling himself back up to his feet he jerked Guido off of his and began to swing the oversized mutant about in circles like a man might swing his son about. "HEY! QUIT IT!" cried Guido, trying to reach Ben's hands but unable to make it. "Figure with disproportionate legs like this," muttered Grimm,"You'd have trouble getting leverage to get out of this," he smiled and his blue eyes glinted mischeiveously,"Think of me as an Olympic athelete and you as a shotput, once I let go of you you'll probably fly a few hundred meters, maybe a couple of thousand if I put my back into it, you feel like swimming that far back?" Guido gritted his teeth and tried again to grab Ben's hands, then he cried out in anger and muttered words underneath his breath. "Oh no," laughed Ben,"So everyone can hear." "Dammit," growled Guido, then shouted the words,"I give in! I GIVE IN YOU SONUABITCH!" Ben flung his arms down so Guido was heading for the deck, then pulled them back up and tensed them so Guido didn't ram into the wooden deck and smash it. Releasing him the superlarge mutant collapsed in a heap. "And don't go making no disparaging comments 'bout Mrs Grimm neither," he grunted and went through the motions of dusting his hands. "Not bad, mon frere," remarked Remy, forcing a smile onto his face,"But you only bought your passage, not theirs... next fight!" Guido was lifted with some effort by a number of passengers and crew and carried away, then dumped unceremoniously by the rather put out carriers who had lost a lot of money. "Geez, a guy loses once and he loses all his friends," muttered the dizzy mutant, then forced himself to relax and catch his breath, getting his bearings back. - Sunspot stood with the same easygoing confidence as Guido had before his fight, Sue hoped that the result would be the same but she was a little uneasy. She was weak against light attacks, her invisible forcefield could not shield light from getting through, but she wasn't sure what Sunspot's particular modulation of light was. Some mutants could change the modulation of their light attack, like the mutant Dazzler, she hoped Sunspot's power would be blocked by hers and he wouldn't be able to change it. She stood ready to fight, was astonished to see that Sunspot was flexing his muscles to whoops of delight from the crew and passengers, he strutted about with his shirt off. "Yeah!" screamed one passenger in delight,"Now you take yours off!" he pointed at Sue and there were raws of laughter and agreement. "Calm down!" cried LeBeau,"Let's have none of that.... at least not yet!" he said the last with a smile and the crew and passengers cheered, they seemed to be being brought together by this event. Sue glowered, she wore skin tight clothing for several reasons, most of all because loose, free fitting garments tended to not be covered when she made herself invisible. Her breasts were large and she'd always been a little irritated when people reduced her to nothing more than flesh, despite all her accomplishments as matriach of The Fantastic Four. "Okay, let's get this over with," Bobby laughed, his skin suddenly becoming pitch-black as he powered up with the solar energy he absorbed into his skin everyday. He turned about and with an almost nochalant gesture flicked out his fingers, sending a small ray of black light out directly at her head, he never even looked at her. "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls," he wriggled his eyebrow at Jubilee,"Thank you, thank you, It was a difficult fight true but..." he broke off as he saw the surprised looks on the gathered spectators faces. He twisted about and found himself facing Sue, still standing and looking more than a little pissed off. His head snapped back and his eyes opened wide, he gritted his teeth and then collapsed to the ground, knocked out by a hard beam of invisible light. "Two out of three," she said, smiling sweetly at Remy,"You still want to fight the Captain?" Remy growled and stepped forward into the area,"You bought your passage, but you can damn well be sure your precious Captain won't be joining you on de journey!" Bobby was going to be dragged away, but they lept back as he seemed to lift into the air himself and was flown over their heads. Sue smiled at them and they backed away, leaving a circle about her as she left the battle area to join Ben, who was unsuccessfully stifling laughter. "Sprite!" Remy yelled,"My staff!" Kitty phased through the wall to their cabin and returned a second later, holding the staff in her hand. She threw it to Remy who caught it one handed, he did a one-legged backflip, landing directly in the middle of the battle area. Captain America strode forward with a blank expression on his face, but some of the more experienced fighters in the crew noted the way he carried himself, he was confident without being brash, without being arrogant. "Damn," said Jubilee, eyes wide,"I'd like to get into his pants." Kitty shook her head and rolled her eyes. "BEGIN!" roared LeBeau and swung his staff in an overhead arc, meaning to crack Captain America's skull and knock him out, but the Captain was no longer there, sliding away and swinging his leg out in an attempt to trip the Cajun. LeBeau leaped nimbly away swinging his staff again, but Cap was ducking under it and swinging his Shield. LeBeau leaped several feet up and actually landed on the Shield, kicking out to catch Cap in the face. Cap responded by pulling his hand down, literally taking LeBeau's legs out from under him. The Cajun rolled away and swung up, he wished he had some cards on him, but dressed as he was in a singlet he'd have nowhere to hide them. He cursed himself for not coming in to the fight fully armed, he'd trusted in his own fighting ability to beat the human without considering he might have to use his mutant ability to charge objects with kinetic energy to the point where they exploded. Cap rammed the Shield faceforward into the deck with both hands and used it as a base to swing up and kick at Remy with both legs. The Cajun only just managed to dodge aside, he brought down an arm in a vicious chop but somehow Cap had the Shield there to block his blow... Remy could not believe the man's speed, and also the fact that his expression had not changed, he wasn't even breaking a sweat. - And that Shield, it seemed to absorb my blow, just like Guido! - he thought to himself, then swung the staff still held in his other hand, it seemed it would strike Captain America (and indeed LeBeau was thinking of him as Captain America now) until with a blue blur the Living Legend's hand sped up and caught the staff. In turn LeBeau gripped the Shield and pulled, and the Cajun and Captain both had hands on each others weapons, pulling and tugging, trying to get them off the other. Just as suddenly Cap released both the Shield and staff, Remy flew back, wildly swinging his arms to keep his balance... and then Captain America had launched himself into his, wrapping his arms around his waist and knocking him onto his back. Before even Remy could react a red gloved fist slammed into his face, his head rocked back and seemed to explode with pain. Looking up he saw Captain America holding the Shield up high, he brought it slamming down, edge first and stopped it only half an inch from the captain's neck. "I could have killed you just then," Captain America said,"And maybe now we could continue the fight... or you can realize I don't mean you any harm." There was something about him, something in his eyes that seemed to speak to a part of Remy he thought long since gone. Their was a conviction and belief there he wished he shared. "De fight's over," he said, loud enough for everyone to hear,"Our t'ree stowaways have paid de way." And Captain America smiled. --------------- Two Days Later. --------------- Once they'd 'paid de way' the three stowaways from another Universe had made their way to a first class cabin that was free (LeBeau had hoped to sell it to Richard Fisk). "Sorry dat dere's only de one cabin for t'ree of you," LeBeau had told them,"But it better dan de cargohold, no?" Once he'd left them the three had settled into heated discussion, wondering what had happened to them. "We were in Isreal," Ben said,"Reed was saying that the members of X-Factor we were looking at weren't real, despitethe fact Wolverine could smell them... then everything seemed to go yellow for a second, then we're in that cargohold." "From what I picked up in stray conversation," said Captain America,"We're in the Southern Hemisphere and alot of people are running from Apocalypse, who rules America." "This is all adding up," muttered Sue,"We were in Isreal, there was a psionic menace that even this X-Man seemed scared of according to Jean Grey. Now we're in an alternative Universe ruled by Apocalypse." "I heard the story too," said Captain America,"Professor Xavier told me about it after he got the information from one of his X-Men, Bishop... are we in The Age Of Apocalypse do you think?" "Wotta Revolting Development," muttered The Thing. "Obviously this Universe is different from our own, despite the obvious similarities... we have to be careful not to arouse suspicion until we can learn more, anything we see, no matter how strange, we treat as normal," said Sue, looking at the two of them,"I'm hoping that Reed made it the same way we did, maybe everyone with us in Isreal at the time did. We get to this Avalon of theirs and we find a way to contact our companions." They all nodded their agreement, then hunkered down to sleep for the night, Sue on the bed, Captain America on the sofa and Ben on the floor. Two days later they encountered just such an event that Sue had warned them off. They watched, shocked and confused as it happened, but did not intervene. It was then that they learnt about The Sprite's Entertainment Package. The passengers were gathered about a cleared area again, but this time it was not to view a fight. Sailors in the rigging were deliberately keeping as close to the deck as they could without arousing the captain's ire. Kitty had left the cabin, a rarity for her at night, and rested comfortably against the door, a small grin on her face. The last of the passengers to leave the cabin was Richard Fisk, and Bobby was waiting for him, stepping in to his path. "What?" muttered Fisk angrily,"Your precious captain LeBeau ordered all passengers up on deck." "For entertainment," said Bobby with a grin,"You agreed to drop the Entertainment Package to lower the fee for your passage." "Fine," muttered Fisk, turned about and went back to his cabin, Bobby chuckled and moved to where Guido stood. The big mutant - despite his loss to Grimm - was still treated with deference and he'd been able to save Bobby a good spot for the show. Sue, Captain America and The Thing stood at their cabin door, interested as to what was going on. A great number of the first class passengers remained in their cabins, watching from doors or windows, none of them knew what the nature of 'The Entertainment' was. After everyone had settled Remy walked into the middle of the cleared area and motioned for silence. When he deemed that the noise had died down enough he spoke. "De journey to Avalon be long, and de trip can be monotonous... and hard work for you economy passengers." Mumbles of assent from some of the tired passengers who would rather be asleep now than sitting on the hard, uncomfortable wooden deck. "So every t'ree days, you get de entertainment... and until now you not known what it was," he grinned,"Now you gonna find out." Suddenly the electronic torches set up in the rigging began to change colors, flicking from red to green to blue to yellow to red to green and so forth. From somewhere the sounds of drums started up, playing a quickly rising beat that the passengers began to unconsciously move to. Other instruments also joined in to the music. Some grins began to form on some passengers faces, others smiled but wondered if this was the extent of the entertainment, listening to a tape of some Island music? Then somebody gasped and pointed up at the rigging. Dropping slowly from the main mast on a cable was a lithe young figure, holding the cable with one hand and arching her back, her breasts straining against the faded white material of her top. "It's that Jubilee!" cried one passenger,"She's a hot little number." Some of the female passengers glanced at each other uneasily, they had a fair idea what was coming but the men seemed ignorant, which wasn't too surprising. The young mutant reached the ground and released the cable, it began to rise again as she turned to face them. There were loud murmurs of surprise as they got a close look at the woman that had just been another member of the crew in their eyes. Her short, black hair was teased up, making her seem a little taller than she actually was. She wore a faded white top that didn't quite cover her stomach, showing her belly button, also her medium sized, plump breasts pushed the fabric out so it wasn't resting against her waist but just over it by half an inch or so. Her usually short little cutoffs would have seemed long compared to what she was wearing now. It was a piece of red fabric best described as being a pair of panties except that they covered only about a quarter of her hips. The passengers behind her had an excellent view of her firm young asscheeks which were readily apparent and there were catcalls from some of the more bold spectators.