‘Isn’t this the best?’ Angel calls out as he soars through a light blue sky, the sun glimmering overhead. ‘Could you slow down?’ his past self calls out, as the younger Warren struggles to keep up. ‘Remember all the time we spent with our wings tucked in our blazers?’ the present Angel asks, before quietly adding ‘We used to do that, right?’, as his memory is not what it used to be. ‘Could you please just stop and talk to me!’ the young Warren pleads. The present Angel turns and hovers, remarking that sometimes you take for granted all those normal everyday people, stuck down there in traffic, just sitting there. ‘WHY?’ the young Warren shouts when he catches up. ‘Whoa!’ the present Angel calls out. ‘Why won’t you tell me what has happened to you!’ the young Warren asks.
The older Angel grabs his younger counterpart by his arm and tells him to relax and stop. ‘Man, was Warren always like this? You’re like a - a coiled spring’ he remarks. ‘Why did you just refer to me as Warren? You’re Warren too’ the young Warren points out. ‘Well, huh. See, this is going to be hard for you. Warren was - I mean we were born Warren but we are…Angel. I’m Angel. We - we’re Angel’ the older man tries to explain. The young Warren just looks confused, but the older Angel smiles and exclaims: ‘Okay, okay, I know that look. I’m sorry if I’m coming off, I don’t know what, like…I’m just so excited to meet an older model of myself!’
‘Older model?’ the younger man asks. ‘Yeah, I mean, you get that, right? I was like you and now…’ Angel begins. ‘And now what? What are you saying? What happened to us?’ the younger Angel asks. ‘I don’t mean to freak you out’ the older Angel assures his past self. ‘That is all you are doing!’ the young Warren tells him. ‘Think of it this way -’ the older Angel begins, when suddenly, there is a massive BOOM, and they both turn their attention to the sprawling city below, and see an explosion rising from the location of Avengers Tower. ‘The Avengers live in Avengers Mansion!’ the young Angel remarks. ‘Yeah? Well, not anymore. Follow me!’ the older Angel orders as he speeds through the air, down towards Avengers Tower, while the young Angel asks what is doing that.
Down below, a female in green armor is surrounded by others in a similar armor, and she shouts ‘Your orders are clear. Let the world know that we are back! HAIL HYDRA!’ As a fire rages, the Hydra agent declares ‘Let them know that we are here to burn down this disgusting police state! And our first order is to bring this symbol of multinational corruption, this monument of compromise…I want you to bring Avengers Tower down to the ground!’ ‘What the hell?’ the young Angel asks as they move in closer. ‘Logos say Hydra’ the older Angel announces, adding that he loves it when they put their logos on things, as it makes it so much easier to figure out what’s what.
The young Angel asks his older counterpart if he knows these guys. ‘Terrorists. Noisy terrorists’ the older Angel explains. The young Angel suggests that they should call the Avengers, but the older Angel points out that he is sure they already know. ‘We should call the X-Men’ the young Angel adds, but the older Angel tells him that this will be fun. ‘Fun?’ the young Angel asks.
‘The streets will run red with blood-’ the female Hydra agent calls out, as the older Warren slams into her. ‘Whoops! Sorry to interrupt your villainous rant! You were really building to something there!’ the older Angel jokes, while the younger Angel flies straight into another Hydra agent, knocking his foe backwards. The other Hydra agents start firing their weapons at both winged mutants.
The young Angel dodges the bullets and other devices of destruction that are shot at him, but looks concerned and frightened as the Hydra agents start to chase him. ‘Avengers? Uh, Avengers? Hello!’ the young Angel calls out. ‘Uh, um, Avengers Assemble? That’s a thing, right?’ he asks, before wondering, as the Hydra agents close in on him, whether the Avengers are actually not home. ‘Did you Hydra goofballs actually attack the Avengers when they aren’t even home? Are you beating up an empty building?’ the young Angel asks, wondering if Hydra are big gigantic cowards, or just completely not lucky or good at this at all. The Hydra agents close in even closer to the young Warren, who flies forward, muttering that this is why he doesn’t do trash talking. ‘Uh, help!’ he adds.
‘I have your back!’ the present Angel promises as he starts darting from Hydra agent to Hydra agent, somehow making them or their hover-packs explode. ‘Hey! The best part of teaming up with ourselves is that there’s no way I’m going to let you die!’ the present Angel shouts out to his past self. He smiles, and adds ‘Because if you die don’t I cease to exist or something? Something like that. I’m not good with math’ he adds. He then chases after a large vessel, ‘Hey, Hydra guys! Aren’t you all just a little bit scared of Tony Stark suing the green off you?’ he asks. ‘The guy is probably all lawyer!’ he jokes, while the past Angel drops down on top of the large vessel, telling his present self that he thinks they have had all this fun he was referring to, and asks if they can call the rest of the X-Men now.
‘Sure! Do you have a phone!’ the present Angel asks as he bursts into the large armor as well. ‘No. No, no, no. This will not happen!’ the female Hydra agent calls out. But, up above, another Hydra armor fires at the young Angel, and strikes his wings. He sees his singed wing, and is not happy. ‘You singed me’ he frowns, before flying down to the armor responsible, and slamming into it, ‘HAAAAA!’ the young mutant shouts. ‘Madame Hydra, we are overwhelmed. I repeat! What is your new order?’ one of the Hydra agents radios to the female agent.
At the same time, several of the large Hydra armors hovering mid-air have surrounded the present Angel. ‘He’s a kid’ one Hydra agent points out. ‘He’s a mutant! Execute him!’ another orders. ‘Um…huh’ the present Angel mutters, and as the several armors fire simultaneously, and there is a massive explosion - lucky for the present Angel, he flies upwards in time to escape harm. Young Angel finds himself surrounded, and the armors all fire at him. ‘Haa!’ he calls out when he dodges them, flying towards one of them, ‘Mayday! Mayday! He’s all over me!’ one of the Hydra agents calls out, but as the others continue to fire at the young Angel, and one of them strikes him in the back.
As the present Angel is shoving one of his opponents into the armor, he looks up and sees his past self plummeting to the ground. ‘No…’ he utters, while Madame Hydra raises a large weapon and smiles: ‘Two of them and a hundred of you! I have to start screening better’. She looks through a magnifier to get her aim on the two Angels, and with her targets locked, she mutters ‘Two angels. So much for getting into Heaven’. But before she can fire the weapon, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Spider-Woman, the Black Widow and the Hulk arrive. ‘Tis my home, wench. This was unwise!’ Thor frowns as he raises his weapon overhead, while his teammates
Angel flies up to his past self, ‘Gotcha!’ he calls out as he grabs the young mutant, preventing him from slamming into the ground. Lightning crackles around Thor, as he sends bolts of it shattering through the surrounding area, which strike down Hydra agents. ‘You scared me there’ the present Angel tells his past self as he sets down on the ground. The younger Angel assures him that he is okay, but the present Angel points out that he is bleeding. ‘Well, I’m not dead’ the young Angel remarks. The present Angel tells the younger Angel to hold still, as he can heal him. ‘You can?’ the young Angel asks, confused. ‘Since when can you heal people? I can’t heal people’ he remarks.
The Avengers gather around both Angels, as Thor calls out’ Ho! Good mutant Angel! You protected our home in our absence. A great debt we hold in your name and your -’ he begins. ‘You know there’s two of you, right?’ Hawkeye remarks. ‘Why are there two of you?’ Captain America enquires, concerned, while Hulk looks on, confused.
Shortly, both Angels descend over the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, alongside the Avengers Quinjet. ‘Uh-oh’ Kitty Pryde remarks as she looks up. ‘Yup’ Wolverine a.k.a. Logan agrees. With them are Ororo “Storm” Munroe and Bobby “Iceman” Drake, but as Captain America steps off the Quinjet, he calls out to his fellow Avenger, Dr Henry McCoy a.k.a. the Beast who he asks to speak with. The Beast walks over to Cap, while Storm suggests to Logan that he should go over with them as well. ‘I ain’t going anywhere near that’ Wolverine replies.
‘I sarcastically wonder what that conversation is going like’ Kitty remarks, while Bobby claims that he knows exactly how that conversation is going like. ‘I said sarcastically -’ Kitty begins, while Bobby announces ‘Cap is saying “You’re telling me that you once again abused the Space-Time Continuum for your own selfish purposes”’ and Kitty remarks ‘“But Captain, you see, indubitably, vis-à-vis, concurrently! There are many theories how the Space-Time Continuum is a natural living organism that doesn’t blah blah blah”’.
Iceman continues to pretend he knows what Captain America is saying: “Don’t talk to me with your double-talking space science jibber-jabber! I’m from 1940! I don’t understand how you people do it with your model T Fords and your ladies that walk around with their arms uncovered!” He adds “Let me make this perfectly clear, the Avengers don’t like that you X-Men just do whatever you want. We are watching you”. Kitty laughs and continues pretending to be the Beast: “We are not children, Captain. Except that most of us are”. Iceman continues, “You have to take responsibility for your actions. It’s bad enough that Scott Summers is running around declaring a mutant revolution while you guys sit here and do nothing about it”.
“Why don’t you do something about it, flag boy?” Kitty calls out, pretending to be the Beast still. “What should I do?” Iceman asks. “What should I do?” says Kitty. “Hank, so help me! If you know where Scott Summers is and you’re not telling us…” Iceman calls out, pretending to be Captain America. “Dear Captain, if I knew where Scott Summers was…” Kitty replies. Suddenly, the young Scott Summers - Cyclops from the past - strides past Wolverine and walks towards Captain America. ‘Summers, what do you think you’re doing?’ Wolverine calls out. ‘Scott, don’t’ Storm adds. ‘And if I find out that you know -’ Captain America can be heard saying, but he stops himself mid-sentence when the young Cyclops appears before him.
‘Hello, Captain. I’ve been studying up on recent events’ the young Cyclops announces. ‘I realize that you and I have found ourselves on different sides of the fence on a lot of issues. I just wanted you to know that I plan on doing everything I can to make it right. I hope you give me the chance’. Cap, and his teammates behind him, stare at the young Cyclops in shock. Cyclops then turns and walks back to the X-Men, where both Angels are now standing, as are his other teammates brought to the present from the past - Iceman, the Beast and Jean “Marvel Girl” Grey. ‘Nicely done’ Wolverine tells the young Cyclops. ‘You’re welcome’ the young mutant replies, while Jean looks at him, concerned. ‘Please tell me you have this under control’ Cap asks Hank. ‘I don’t have any of it under control’ Hank replies.
As the Avengers return to the Quinjet, Cap asks Hank to try to keep him in the loop. ‘There is no loop’ Hank replies. ‘Just -’ Cap begins, but Hank assures him that he will do his best. ‘That’s all I can ask’ Cap tells him. ‘That’s all I can do’ Hank points out. The X-Men watch as the Avengers depart in the quinjet, when suddenly, an alarm sounds.
‘Damn, Hank! What the hell is that noise?’ Wolverine asks as he covers his ears. Hank explains that the alarm in his lab just went off, that someone must have broken in. ‘Quentin Quire?’ Storm asks. Both Hanks suddenly look at the present Angel. ‘Warren!’ the present Hank declares. ‘The Time Cube!’ the past Hank remarks.
And, inside the lab, the young Warren panics, as he taps into a computer. ‘Come on!’ he calls out, but the computer tells him that the manual override is denied. Both Hanks rush into the lab, ‘Warren, what are you doing?’ the past Hank asks. ‘I’m going home!’ Warren replies, while the present Hank points out that he doesn’t know how to work that. The past Hank reminds his teammate that they made an agreement. Crying, the past Warren shouts ‘No! You made an agreement. I was outvoted. I’m going home. I don’t like it here. We - we - we shouldn’t be seeing this stuff’. The past Iceman sleds into the lab, and tells his friend that they will talk about it. ‘Have you seen me? Have you see what I’ve become? Something really bad happened to me. I don’t want to be here!’ Warren cries.
The young Hank tells his teammate that if he goes back, then Charles Xavier will know what they have done here. ‘Good’ Warren mutters. ‘Then we go back to our time, and Charles will erase our memories, and we will -’ he begins, but Warren screams ‘I DON’T CARE! Stop talking in circles! If this is the way our lives go it’s because we earned it!’ He adds that he wants to go home and the second he can go, he is getting the hell away from everyone ‘You - you wanted to teach me something - you wanted to show me something? You showed me all I need to get the hell away from -’ he declares, before going blank. The others stare at him, including Wolverine who has now entered the lab. ‘Is he having a stroke?’ the past Iceman asks as he moves closer to his teammate. ‘Warren?’ the past Cyclops asks.
‘What’s for lunch?’ Warren asks, smiling, no evidence that he was screaming and crying. ‘Is anybody else starving? I’m starving’ Warren smiles. ‘Um…’ the past Bobby mutters. ‘Uh…’ Kitty calls out. ‘He’ll be fine’ a voice announces. Everyone turns to the lab door and sees Jean Grey standing there. ‘We’re not going back’ she announces. ‘Jeannie? Did you just -?’ Hank asks. ‘He’ll be fine’ Jean repeats herself. Hank tells Jean that she isn’t allowed to go digging into other people’s minds and just change them for her own reason. ‘Henry, don’t you of all people start lecturing me on using your God-given things for selfish purposes’ Jean replies, adding that they are staying, because it was decided.
‘He just needs to calm down. So I helped him calm down. Everything’s fine’. Jean adds, staring into the lab. She then turns, ‘I can read your minds’ she tells everyone as she leaves the lab. Kitty looks shocked. Storm looks ashamed, while Wolverine hangs his head. The present Angel looks confused, while the past Angel stares at the ceiling. Jean’s teammates look on, unsure of what lies ahead, while Jean adds ‘Stop worrying. I’m in total control’.
