Earth 616, night time in a lowdown London area. An elderly vagrant woman sees something burning and slowly moves closer to it.
It arrived an hour ago, space bursting like a blister, and it tumbled out of nowhere. It is not a machine not entirely, nor is it wholly an animal. It is a cybiote. It comes from another universe. Its journey was not pleasant. Its back is broken. It no longer has any limbs. During that last hour it has grown a gland capable of secreting acid and used it to break down the surrounding scrap into a more absorbable form. It needs metal to rebuild itself. Metal and one other thing.
A hook attached to a wire shoots out of it hitting the woman through the brain with the sound “shizik.” It draws the corpse closer to itself. Close by, another vagrant who had been drinking looks up. Mrs. McGeary? Was that you saying ‘shizik’ right now?
Meanwhile, in a nearby dimension, it is pandemonium, as Captain Britain and the Special Executive are fighting to other Captains and the force of the Dimensional Development Court for the fate of Saturnyne. Captain England warns Captain Britain, hoping he knows what he’s getting in there. What does he take him for, Captain Britain aggressively shouts back. Of course, he knows what he’s getting into. He’s in a parallel universe fighting an alternate version of himself, alongside a group of parahuman mercenaries who want him to help the wrongly accused Majestrix of…
The fight leaves him as he suddenly realizes how absurd all of this sounds. Do you ever get halfway through a sentence and find yourself unable to believe that you’re actually saying it? he asks Captain England. No, the other man replies simply and hits him with his staff.
Elsewhere, the telepathic precog Cobweb announces that she knew this was going to happen. She orders her colleague Legion to get Captain Britain out of there, while she rounds up the rest of the team. They need to get back to the ship. Where’s Wardog? He’s looking after the money, Legion replies cynically.
Wardog is with Saturnyne, politely announcing that this is no place for a sensitive omniversal tyrant like herself. He’d like to teleport her to safety. That’s very kind, she replies. It’s inbred, he states. His mother was a demon, but his father was a saint. Bernard? Saturnyne asks.
Back at the battle, the dour Zeitgeist asks Cobweb if she knew they were going to run into this when they got outside. Yes, she replies. When? Last year. Couldn’t she have told them? he asks, annoyed. Yes, but she decided not to after she learned about the horrible insult he was going to hurl at her. That he was going to, Zeitgeist repeats. She didn’t warn them because he was going to insult her? He hadn’t even insulted her yet at that point. He explodes. She is the most thoroughly irrational squack-head that he has ever set eyes upon. She knew he was going to say that. He needn’t come crying to her, because he teleported into the middle of an army of hostile extra-dimensionals. After language like, this he only has himself to blame.
Back on Earth 616:
Linda McQuillan leaves her flat earlier than usual. It is still dark. Perhaps she should have waited. But she couldn’t She had to leave after the dream… after the morning headlines. Something was closing in on her and she had to get out. Linda walks off. In a back alley next to her flat, a cat is scrounging for food. Suddenly, it gets killed by a barbed hook shot through it. The Fury has arrived.
Back at the remnants of the Dimensional Development Court, an injured guard announces to Lord Mandragon that the parahumans and Captain Britain and Saturnyne have escaped. Really? asks Mandragon, not in the least perturbed. Yes, the soldier continues. They battled their way through to the warp-port, took their vessel and escaped. He stutters, then breaks off, as the smile doesn’t leave Mandragon’s face. Doesn’t he mind?
Not at all, his Whyness replies. One way or another Saturnyne is gone and he is the ruler of the Dimensional Development Court. That being so there is nowhere she can hide from him. Lovingly, he touches the crystal switches, as he continues that, in all the omniverse, there is not one universe he cannot destroy at the touch of a switch. Not one. With a broad grin he asks: so where is that bitch going to hide? You tell me. You tell me.
Back on Earth 616 at Braddock Manor, Betsy Braddock and her lover, Tom Lennox, are embroiled in a telepathic argument. Tom wants them to leave. Betsy retorts that her brother was kidnapped by a bunch of freaks. She got a look inside one of their minds and she wasn’t even human. That’s his point, Tom explains. Her brother’s lifestyle is clinically insane. They were safer being chased by STRIKE. He asks her to think of Alison. She is thinking of her brother! She wants to know where he is! Getting a precog flash, she announces that the doorbell’s gong to ring. She opens the door in for a big surprise, as in stroll her brother, the Special Executive and Saturnyne.
Fascination immediately latches onto the angry Tom, who states that they cannot stay there. This place is an asylum. What? Captain Britain shouts before getting into Tom’s face. Tom explains that he didn’t mean to say that out loud. He didn’t want to sound ungrateful. Cap asks if Tom thinks he enjoys having a house full of superpowered strangers. Does he think he likes having every day turn into a global crisis?
Wardog helpfully points out that they are only staying until Saturnyne can transfer the money she owes them. Oh, really? asks Brian and where is she going to stay while she is in exile? Well, after a little redecoration, she thought she might live there, Saturnyne announces cheerfully. ‘She thought…’ Brian repeats before the doorbell rings again. Utterly confused, he gets the door, even though he is in his costume. Aggressively he yells at the person outside Now, listen! I’m just about… Uh. Who are you?
The plain woman walking in introduces herself as Captain UK. Oh God… moans Captain Britain. Linda McQuillan takes a look around. All these superhumans. All in one room. Just like before. Just like last time. It’s begun already, hasn’t it? The drawing in, the huddling together, the waiting…
Waiting? Captain Britain asks. For what? Genocide, Captain, replies Linda, as she shows him the newspaper front page with the headline Sir James addresses Commons following London Street Battle: Call for Superhero Legislation Waiting for genocide!
