Age Of Onslaught 
	Part 18/37


        The giant E.M.P's (Environmental Maintenance Platforms) floated
in the air, humming almost silently as they collected up impurities and
pollutants in the air and filtered them out, pumping clean air back out.
        The sight of the giant devices floating in the air was a familiar
sight for the citizens of Madripoor.  Familiarity breed contempt, and
nobody really paid attention to them, they were just another part of
the background.
        The dockside bars were in full swing from the late hours of the
night right down to dawn.  Once the docks had been indistinguishable from
'lowtown', the common slums where the majority of the citizens of Madripoor
lived, but since Doom had taken over the city, the squalid conditions and
poor standard of living had faded.  No longer did the political leeches
and corrupt druglords lord it up in Hightown skyscrapers, nor did the
Prince partake in drunken debauchery and sordid orgies - the Prince was
gone, where, nobody knew.
        Even before the First Great Mutant Purge had happened,
the consolidation of European countries into Eurasia had meant small
countries like Latveria had been collected up and passed out to favored
allies of the new Administration without consultation of the people or
leaders of those countries.  The Russians - who had had long standing bad
blood with Latveria's ruler - had sent in the 1st Generation Sentinels
to wipe out anything that got in their way, paving the way for the Russian
soldiers that followed.  Terrified peasants had run from the sadistic
soldiers into the hills, followed by the trackers and hunters they'd nearly
given up hope until the armored, green robed man had appeared, destroying
soldiers and Sentinel's alike as if they were made from paper.  He had led
them and thousands of others from small countries who had shared Latveria's
fate to freedom, bringing them to the last bastion of Democracy - Madripoor.
        Now the only shacks were the Fisherman's baches out on the docks
and some of the lower class bars.
        It was from one of these that the Off-Duty Storm Division soldier
stumbled during the earliest part of dawn, a beautiful young blonde woman
on his arm, she hung onto him and they laughed together, he was still
swinging a half-full bottle of tequila in one hand.
        "Come with me," she told him,"I know a place."
        "Sounsh good tah me," he slurred, allowing himself to be led into
a back alley.  The alcohol he'd drunk had been drugged, and it
was remarkable that he was even able to stagger.
        Once in the dark alley he attempted to kiss her and nearly fell
to the ground.
        "Come on baby," she said,"Feel what I got for you."
        She took his hand in hers and guided it down her pants, with
eager abandon he scooped his hand, ready to slide it up into her warm,
waiting.... hard, cylindrical object?"
        "What?"
        She had held onto his wrist, now she grabbed the object hidden
down her pants and pulled it out, pressing it against his groin.
        "Move it and lose it," Gwen Stacy said, pressing the old fashioned
revolver hard into his crotch.
        "Oh shit, oh man," he moaned, sobering up,"Please, I don't have any
money."
        "I don't want your money," she growled at him,"You've got information
I want."
        "I don't know nothing," he moaned,"I'm just a grunt."
        "Bullshit, you're in Storm Division, you're group is the security
personnel assigned to the visiting dignitary."
        "How do you know....?"
        "Shut up," I just want to know one thing," she said to him,"What's
the passcode for access to the perimeter?"
        "I can't tell you that...."
        She pressed the gun forward harder.
        "These old guns aren't as advanced as the new energy weapons she
explained to him, they don't automatically cauterize the wound, in fact
infection could set in and then gangrene...."
        He moaned, part of the drug she'd given him also made him more
susceptible to suggestion.
        "So tell me the fucking passcode."
        "Mephisto's Folly," he moaned.
        "Good," she said, pulled the gun from his crotch and pressed it
to his forehead,"And goodbye."
        She pulled the trigger, but the bullet hit the wall instead of
his forehead.  She stared in shock at her arm, where a strange, cobweb
like substance was wrapped about her wrist.  It had pulled her hand away.
        The soldier had fainted anyway, lying in a pool of his own urine,
so she was able to forget about him and turn to face the source of this...
webfluid.
        "Don't you know," said Spiderman, crouching on the side of a wall,
his feet holding him in place, he wagged his finger at her,"That you
shouldn't play with guns?"

	-

	Victor Von Doom - elected President of Madripoor - strode down
the corridors of the palace, lost in thought.
        A man with golden skin in a red cape, a man made of silver and a
diminutive midget in a fur loincloth.  He had seen them in the place between
places where he had been in communication with Elizabeth Braddock - Matriach
Of Eurasia - tearing through the fabric of nothingness and disappearing
back into it almost immediately.  There had been something almost familiar
about them, but what?
        This was something he didn't need right now, he had finally agreed
to see an Ambassador from Apocalypse.  Not because he believe they could
form a real treaty, but because he was preparing to step up his plans to
eradicate both Apocalypse and the Inner Circle that really ran Eurasia.
Having this added variable thrown in threw off the balance of his entire
plan.
        He passed by the armor he'd once worn as he'd freed the peasants
and refugees from countries like his homeland Latveria without a second
glance.  If he'd looked closer he would have seen that the armor - while
looking the same - was far more advanced than it should have been, far
more advanced than anything that existed today.
        And he might have also seen the eyes looking out at him from inside
the armor.

        -

        Susan Von Doom looked up as the doors to the bedchamber opened.  She
had just woken up, and hadn't been surprised to see her husband was already
up and about.  He often woke before dawn and set off to do who knew what,
she never questioned what he did or where he went, she loved and trusted
him with all her heart, as she knew he did her.
        "You're worried about the Ambassador?" she asked, as always getting
to the heart of the matter, although missing the finer details this time.
        "That's part of it," he said,"But not everything."
        He sat down at the end of the bed and told her about what had
happened when he was talking with Betsy.
        "Mephisto?" she asked,"When you and Ben went into the Netherworld
and rescued your mother's soul, trapping him in Limbo, he swore revenge."
        "I don't think so," said Doom,"Although I did consider it... but
there was something about these three, an intrinsic nobleness that's as
alien to Mephisto as he is to us.... even the troll had it."
        They sat together in the bed for awhile, not speaking, just relaxing
in comfortable silence.  Finally Susan said.
        "Who is this Ambassador anyway? Summers?"
        "No," said Doom,"Didn't I tell you, Intelligence reports that
Summers and his brother are dead... which just makes the fact that nobody
has seen Apocalypse all the more meaningful, he could be culling his own
unfit in an effort to make his killers more efficient.  No, Sinister is
sending someone more diplomatic, less quick to anger and much, much more
dangerous.... Northstar."

        -

        Jean Paul Baubier - Northstar - looked through the documents,
paying close attention to those with security flags on them.  The main
document was on Victor Von Doom, unfortunately it was also the smallest.
        Doom was the Magnus of humans, Sinister had told Northstar once,
the almost mythical figure who came to drive away the big bad mutants as
well as the corrupt, evil Eurasian High Council.  Madripoor was known
amongst the Prelates and High Ranking Officials of Eurasia as 'The Real
Avalon' because humans and mutants lived there together, although not in
absolute peace and harmony like it was purported to be in Avalon.  The
mutants lived in a seperate community, not because they were forced to
but because it was easier.  Doom's dream was that they could live together
in peace one day, and to do that he'd have to take out Apocalypse and
change the inner politics of The Eurasian High Council.
        "Born to Latverian Royalty," muttered Northstar, reading the
document,"Fled from his country when his father and mother were killed,
pursued an academic career where he was lightyears ahead of all students
but one, Reed Richards - deceased - whom he only ever managed to equal.
        Married Susan Storm, disappeared from public records during
Apocalypse's rise to power and the formation of Eurasia.  Reappeared in
incredibly technically advanced armor during the absorption of smaller
countries into larger, somehow managed to get thousands past Apocalypse's
newly built defensive seawall in the Atlantic.  Reappeared in Madripoor,
overthrew corrupt Prince and immediately announced democratic elections,"
Northstar snorted at his, democracy!
        "Won in an overwhelming landslide, not surprising considering
the majority of the new population had been rescued from death by him.
Has successfully overcome attempted coups masterminded by both Apocalypse
and Eurasian High Council, numerous assassination attempts and even a
Sentinel attack from Los Angeles Island."
        He sighed, then opened the electronic notepad's file on Susan
Storm, which contained more information but nothing he could use.  She was
an intelligent, strong willed woman totally devoted to her husband and
absolutely incorruptible.
        But he thought he saw one weakness, she was also devoted to her
family, the only surviving member of which was Johnny Storm.  He was a
shallow, inconsiderate and lazy good for nothing according to the files.
He squandered his potential, he apparently had a very high I.Q but lacked
the drive and will to do anything with it.  He stayed in the palace and
spent most of his nights partying in the dockside bars.
        "The weak link," Northstar muttered,"That'll break the chain."

	-

	"Mutie freak!" Gwen screamed and pulled her arm back, hoping to
catch Spiderman by surprise and pull him off the wall by his own webline.
        She was jerked off her feet and pulled forward, she would have
landed on her face if his webline hadn't kept her up.
        He hadn't even moved an inch.
        "Gwen," he said,"I...."
        "How do you know my name!" she screamed at him.
        - Gee, - he thought to himself, - Well see we were High School
sweethearts until Norman Osborn, disguised as the Green Goblin, killed
you.  Then you got cloned a few times, then I got cloned a few times and
until recently I thought I was a clone and then it was all resolved and
I was webswinging along when I got hit by yellow light and found myself
in the city.  I spent the last day and a half following you until I saw you
try and kill this man.  From what I've seen and heard I think I'm in some
kind of alternate Universe, which kind of pisses me off since that's more
the Avengers gig than mine.  Also I think I know what Universe this is
based on conversations I've had with Nate Grey - X-Man.  Should I tell you
that? and will either of us die of old age before I get finished? -
        "Ummm, lucky guess," he said.
        She lifted the revolver and pointed it at him.
        "Get this gunk off me you freak, or I'll blow your brains out the
back of that stupid red mask of yours...what are you supposed to be anyway?
Some kind of Web-Man?"
        "Spiderman, actually," he said to her in mock offense,"And that...
gunk.... is stuck on you for about an hour, and I wouldn't advise shooting
that thing, you'd just embarass yourself."
        Her eyes widened slightly, not at what he'd said, but at his
voice.
        "Peter?" she whispered in disbelief.
        He stopped, no witty comment for once.  Without a word he leaped
from the wall and landed on the ground in front of her.  Standing up
straight he grabbed the neck of his mask and pulled it up over his face,
all the time wondering if this was the right thing to do.  After all, he
may be Peter Parker, but he wasn't her Peter Parker.
        "Oh my...." she gasped,"Peter, you're alive!"
        She leaped forward and hugged him fiercely, then pulled back and
slapped him hard across the face.
        "Huh?"
        "How could you let me think you were dead!" she screamed at him,
stepping back from him,"I told you not to go with Flash that first night
Apocalypse had occupied Manhattan, but Flash had convinced you that he'd
found a hole in their siege walls and he wanted you to help him check it
out.  You promised you'd come back but I never saw you again! What'd you
do, escape without me?!"
        "Gwen, no!" he cried,"I'm Peter, but I'm not Peter."
        She didn't hear him,"And you're a mutant, why didn't you tell me
you were a mutant?"
        "Hold it!" he cried,"I'm not a mutant, although there's nothing
wrong with that.  Just listen to me for a second!"
        She stared up at him with wide eyes,"You never yelled at me before,
what's happened to you?"
        "It's too complicated to explain here," he told her,"Is there
someplace we can go?"
        "Yes, but we can't leave him here," she pointed at the Storm
Division Soldier,"And you won't let me kill him...."
        "No problem," he said, pulling the mask back over his face.  He
reached down and picked up the soldier in one hand, tucking him under his
arm,"Grab hold of my neck and hold on tight, then give me directions."
        She looked at him strange, wanting to ask how he got so strong, but
decided against it and did as she'd been told.  Suddenly they were launching
into the air, he'd leaped over forty feet to the top of roof of the building.
        "Which way?" he asked her.
        "Uh....wow.....huh....straight ahead," she finally stammered.
        He spun out a webline to the next building and began
their webswinging journey though the city.

        -

        Donald Blake stared through the shutters out into the city
beyond.  The sunlight shone though the slats and cast lines across his
face, despite being horizontal they gave the impression of a man in
jail.
        "What's the matter?" asked the woman on the old couch behind him,
he turned to look at her and a smile crossed his tired, haggard face.
        Jennifer Walters was tall and incredibly good looking, but he'd
never thought of her in a sexual way.  She was his best friend, his closest
confidant.  He often felt pity whenever he looked at her, not for her, but
for what could have been.
        - She was studying to be a lawyer, - he thought, - Back in America
when things were still relatively normal, she could have been a huge
success and instead she's hanging aroundin this dump, sacrificing her
body for 'the cause.' -
        Blake and his compatriots wanted one thing and one thing only,
they wanted Apocalypse's death.  Madripoor had been a perfect base for
them because of Doom's absolute and total refusal to deal, but now they'd
heard from their contact that Doom was going to open up negotiations with
Apocalypse.
        "If we kill their Ambassador, that'll set back any negotiations,"
Blake had said,"If we can capture him and brainwash him, maybe we can send
him back and find a way to take out Apocalypse."
        He'd sent Gwen out to get information about passcodes and the
planned troop movements and patrols.  Meanwhile Jennifer had used her
wiles on the contact to get dates, times etc.  They needed just one
more vital piece of information, they needed to know who the Ambassador
was, what his powers, abilities, strengths and weaknesses were... and so
far their contact hadn't told Jennifer, because he considered it all to
be a game.
        "What if he doesn't tell us?" he asked.
        "He'll tell," she said with a grin, she pushed her chest forward,
her ample breasts pressing forward against the tight white shirt,"Can
anyone say no to this package."
        "You shouldn't have to do things like this," Don said,"You're an
intelligent woman, more than just a piece of meat."
        "There's a reason why I have to do things like this," she replied,
smiling sadly,"It's because of Apocalypse, and until we stop him it's
just going to keep happening."
        She stood up,"I'm going to go meet him now, will you wish me luck?"
        He smiled at her,"You don't need it, who can say no to a package
like that?"
        She smiled back, then turned and left.
        "I feel bad about it too," said a new voice once she was gone, Don
gave a little start.  Turning around he saw a tall, skinny man step out
of the darkened doorway leading to one of the bedrooms.  He was shirtless
and wore only ridiculously baggy, purple pants.  As incredible as it was
to believe, he was the strongman of their group.
        "Bruce," said Don,"I didn't know you were in."
        "My alter ego drank alot last night, even for him," he sighed,"He
goes along with the cause for nothing more than the promise of money and
sex, he doesn't care about anything but himself.  I was lucky to be able to
stagger indoors last night."
        Don nodded, no one liked Bruce Banner's alter-ego - a result of
studies in gamma radiation treatments for burn victims he'd been working
on before Apocalypse reared his ugly head - including Bruce Banner, but
they needed him.
        "Jennifer deserves better," Bruce said,"Once this is over I'm
going to deal with that bastard contact of hers, and I'll do a better
job than my alter-ego ever could."
        "The more things change, the more they stay the same," said a
new voice, they both looked in shock as the shutters came open and a man
dressed in a red and blue costume swung through it and landed gracefully
on the floor.  On his back was Gwen Stacy, under his arm was a Storm Division
Soldier.
        "Gwen? Who is this?" cried Don, awkwardly stepping back, his lame
leg paining him.
        Gwen stared down at Spiderman, unsure of what to say,"I think," she
finally said,"That he was an old boyfriend of mine from back in New York,
but there's something different about him."
        "You look familiar," Spiderman said, standing up and staring at
Don,"And you Dr Banner, there's no mistaking you."
        "Do I know you?" Banner asked.
        "You don't," said Spiderman,"But you do."
        "I think you'd better explain, Gwen," said Don.
        "I can't," she said,"But he says he can."
        "Sit down," said Spiderman, grinning beneath his mask,"This is
going to take some time."

	-

	Jennifer Walters - intelligent, smart and independent - was
on her knees in front of the man.
        She smiled up at him as he reached down with his hands and he
caressed one of her large, full breasts.  She reached up with her own
hands and slid them over his hard, muscular chest, her fingers lightly
rubbing at his nipples even as he did the same to hers.
        "You know what I want," he said to her,"And then maybe I'll
give you what you want... maybe."
        This was all just a game to him, he had no idea just how important
the information he had in his head was.
        She grinned, although she felt like punching him in the gut, and
leaned forward, her warm breasts pressing forward into his cold hands.  Then
she bent forward and engulfed his hard cock in her mouth.
        Her hand came down began to tickle his balls as she sucked his cock
into her mouth.
        "Ahhhh, yeah!" he moaned, his eyes bugging out of his head as he
felt her warm, moist lips around his cockshaft.
        Jennifer swirled her tongue up and over, around and under his
head, she slid her tongue up to the tip of his cock and pressed it firmly
against his pisshole for a few seconds, then continued on tonguing his cock.
       He shuddered at the wonderful sensations of her marvelous tongue
running through his crotch and throughout his nervous system, sending
messages of pleasure to his brain.  Jennifer grinned up at him from around
his cock.  Then she spread her lips a little wider and began to take in
more of his cock into her mouth, allowing her tongue to slide down the
underside of his dick as she took another couple of inches in, stopping
finally when she had seven inches of cock down her throat.
        "Yeeesss! that's good, suck it, suck my cock!" he moaned, his hands
kneading her breasts, squeezing and plumping them.
        She felt a dim pleasure at his pleasure, it meant he'd be in a
good mood, which meant there was a good chance she'd get the information
she wanted.
        She decided to clinch it, and with some effort took the last two
inches of his cock into her mouth.  This, of course, made her mouth feel
fairly well stretched.  She began to pull her mouth up off of his cock,
bringing it up to the point where only his cockhead remained inside her
oral orifice.  Then she lowered her head back down, swallowing all of
his cock into her again.
        She sucked gently on his meat with her full lips wrapped tight
around his shaft, her fingers massaging his nuts, which were now lying
against her chin.  Her head was bobbing up and down, moving from the head
of his cock and back down, slamming her lips against the base of his
dick, his pubic hair rubbing into her nose.
        She slid her tongue firmly along the underside of his fuckmeat to
bring him even closer to orgasm, she wanted to get this over with so
she could get the information and get out of there.
        "Aaahhh, yeah, suck it you bitch," he moaned,"Your mouth is sucking
my cock, suck it! Suck my dick!!"
        He released her breasts, reached up and slid his hands between her
black hair, gripping them tightly.  Hunching forward he slammed his hips
forward so every last inch was pressed down her throat.  He pumped his hips
once, twice, three times, and then blasted his cum down her throat while
moaning and grunting in excitement.
        After shooting his last load, he continued to press every
inch of cock into her mouth, holding it there.  His orgasm was over but
he was mentally getting off just from having his cock stuffed deep into
her mouth.  He stood like that for a while, making little strokes of his
hips every so often, reveling in the warm wetness of her mouth.
        Finally he pulled free, his cock sliding out of her mouth and
slapping against her chin before he took a step back.
        "And now what do you want?" he asked her, grinning.
        "You know," she said,"Please, who is it? Whose it going to be?"
        "All right, I'll tell you, but only if you let me fuck your butt
next time."
        "Sure thing," she agreed immediately, there wouldn't be a next
time.
        "Okay then," he said,"I'll tell you, the name of the Ambassador
is Jean Paul Baubier - Northstar."
        "Thank you!" she said and started to get dressed.
        "Why don't you hang around?" he asked,"Have a few drinks, I can
give you a tour of the palace."
        "Sorry, I gotta go," she said,"See you next week."
        "Bring that hot ass of yours, I'm gonna enjoy drilling it," he
laughed, grinning lecherously.
        "Can't wait!" she cried, already halfway out the door.
        He sat down on the couch after hesitating a moment, despite this
hotel's good reputation amongst businessmen, it was of a lower standard
than he was used to.  His vid-com bleeped and he sighed, lifting his arm
up and turning the switch on.  His sister's face appeared on the small screen
of the watch.
        "Where are you?" she said,"We haven't seen you in three days and
you haven't answered your vid-com, we've been worried."
        "Yeah, I'm sure Vic was real upset," he laughed.
        "Will you be back for lunch?" she asked him.
        "Sure thing, Sis," said Johnny Storm,"You can depend on it."   

	-
	
     	"I find this all quite unbelievable," said Banner,"From a
scientific standpoint it makes no sense, do you have any idea the kind
of power it would take to wipe out twenty years of history and redivert
it into a non-existant timeframe?"
        "And I'm dead?" Gwen asked Spiderman,"Killed by Norman Osborn?"
        "Yeah, did you know him in this Universe?" asked Spidey.
        "You'd been working for him for about three months when Apocalypse
hit New York," she said,"You respected him more than anyone, you said he'd
become a father figure to you, like your Uncle Ben."
        "Do you see that?" asked Don, who had returned to stare out at
the city, something he always did when he had to do some deep thinking.
        Spiderman, Banner and Gwen joined him at the shutters, staring
out into the city.
        "What?" asked Banner.
        "Up there," said Don,"By the E.M.P."
        A hundred yards or so from the floating E.M.P was a large, glowing
an flickering yellow light.
        "That's the same kind of light that hit me," said Spiderman,"But
it was only there for a second."
        "Perhaps whatever it's trying to transport is resisting?" surmised
Banner,"Although if this is some kind of dimensional teleport as you
claim, then the being would have to be incredibly powerful."
        They stared up at the yellow light, worried.