Earth #1720
Madame Hydra’s Quarters
Susan Storm aka Madame Hydra, admires her newest recruit to the Hydra ranks, Blink, who is currently standing in the room at attention. In comes Wolverine who asks if Sue’s playing with her new toys. They share a few quips before sharing a passionate kiss. After they finish James informs the Madame that Blink’s muscle-bound friend who got away is back and has some friends with him.
Bryant Park
Sabes and Cap are in the middle of a showdown. Sabretooth takes a swing at Captain America and his fist very painfully meets his shield. Cap uses the free moment to whip out his poison gas gun. He fires away and Sabes is knocked off kilter. Captain America comes in with a kick to the midsection and then levels Creed with his shield.
Morph and Psylocke watch the battle from a half-demolished building nearby. Morph questions whether they should join the battle. Psylocke assures him that Sabretooth, if anything like her 616 version, can handle it.
Morph cringes as he sees Sabretooth getting kicked repeatedly and then smashed in the face again by Cap’s shield. Morph can’t take it anymore and gets up to help. Psylocke grabs him by the arm and tells him to wait, watch and learn.
Cap grabs the top of Sabretooth’s hair with his left hand to hold his head up. He brings his right hand back to strike. Sabretooth catches it mid-swing. Cap is taken aback at Sabretooth’s newfound energy. Sabretooth smiles as he presses the advantage and knocks Cap for a loop. Cap’s shield goes flying off towards Morph and Psylocke.
Psylocke tells Morph she’ll catch it with her telekinesis, but he wants to have some fun and jumps for it. He catches it and the shield’s momentum takes him for a short ride.
Morph starts gushing about how awesome Sabretooth is and all Psylocke can do is sigh. Morph apologizes when he remembers that her reality’s Sabretooth isn’t a good guy. Psylocke jokes the way her reality is going Sabretooth is probably on the X-Men right now. Morph asks Psylocke is she trusts them yet. She replies she still has no reason to. Morph, serious for once, tells her the Omniverse needs her; they need her.
The two spectators head to the ground where Sabretooth is rubbing his knuckles, with Cap unconscious hunched over some rubble. Psylocke seems resigned to her fate as she talks about the “seven of them” and how crazy this whole mission is and their job as Exiles to protect the integrity of “everything!” Sabes, with a half-smile, tells her he thought she loved a challenge.
Not far away, at the steps of the fifth avenue side of the library, a lone figure stands amidst the dozens of fallen Hand warriors. Swords and various other weapons protrude from the bodies of the fallen red-clad ninjas. The Slaymaster analyzes the battle that had taken place. There were two adversaries who fought entirely hand-to-hand. One of them used brute strength with no real fighting style (Morph) while the other had skills he had never seen before (Psylocke). The Slaymaster thinks the woman from the battle is very special.
Blink, Longshot and Spidey appear out of nowhere with their own band of warriors. Blink tells him the male was Morph and the woman is someone new, probably a new recruit to the team. Spidey’s not worried and says they’ll deal with her. Slaymaster tells them they can fight the next battle and lets out with a resounding, “Hail Hydra!”
Nearby, Psylocke tries to wake up Captain America. She complains to Sabretooth about him hitting him too hard. Sabretooth tells her to cut him some slack. Psylocke gets up in his face and asks what the deal is. Creed doesn’t know what she means. She tells him he’s the one with the Tallus and in touch with Heather. She wants to know what they have to do to save this reality. “Kill Reed Richards. Or this whole dimension gets wiped” he replies.
Psylocke asks why so Sabes explains that if Reed Richards lives then the bad guys escape this world, which they can’t let happen. So to keep that from happening, he continues, the dimension is sacrificed. Morph can’t believe that’s the answer. Sabes asks him if he has any better ideas.
Psylocke asks Creed if he thinks he can do it. He tells her Heather ran some parameters and apparently he wouldn’t even come close. Morph puts his arms up in frustration and then tells them he’ll do it. Psylocke disagrees. She realizes that’s why she was chosen for the team. She explains she’s the wild card with the capacity to be as lethal as Sabretooth. One thing bothers her though and it’s why they have to kill Reed. She doesn’t see why they just can’t go after the bad guys. She thinks something’s missing. Creed agrees something’s wrong, but points out they’re running out of time.
Blink teleports in. She jabs Creed in the chest with one of her shards. She goes after Morph next who twists out of her striking range. Blink tries taking a swing at Psylocke next, but Psylocke is too quick and grabs her arm before it makes contact. Betsy takes a swing in return, but Blink teleports free. She reappears directly behind Psylocke and gives her a boot to the back of the head.
Slaymaster watches the carnage from the top of another gutted building. Blink tells her teammates to concentrate on Sabretooth. They all converge on the Exiles’ leader so Psylocke grabs Morph by the hand and whips him around. Morph’s body elongates as he bowls over a few dozen of the Hand. Morph even manages to snag Spidey and Longshot, the latter whom slams into Blink sending them both into a wall.
Morph comes back around and boxes Longshot away from Blink. He chastises him for using Blink as a landing cushion and then transforms into a boxing dummy. Longshot takes a few swings at him, but Morph nimbly dodges them all. Longshot grows more agitated with every miss. He ditches the boxing and goes straight to kicking Morph in the groin.
Longshot then grabs him by the ankles and begins swinging him around. Longshot must not care for his comrades because he keeps slamming Morph into them. Longshot twists his legs like a pretzel as he flips him back and forth. He finally lets go and Morph goes crashing into a motley crew of bad guys.
Spider-Man comes over and decks him while he’s caught in the twisted bodies of the Hand. Psylocke runs over to help Morph and busts Spidey in the chin. Spider-Man introduces himself to Psylocke and then slashes her across the shoulder with his talons. Psylocke applies pressure to the wound with her hand. Sabretooth comes over and decks Spidey, sending him back about 20 feet.
Sabes seizes the moment to consult with Psylocke about his plan. He asks her to complete the mission while he and Morph handle the fight. Psylocke reminds him of the doubts they have about their mission and their teammates’ status. Sabretooth pushes her off and tells her not to worry about their doubts, but assures her all of them are going back when the mission is complete.
Blink is back in the fight and takes on Sabretooth. She tells Sabretooth his girlfriend should have hit her harder. Then she throws some teleportation shards his way. Creed grabs Spidey from off the ground and uses him to block the attack. Spider-Man is teleported away.
Creed moves in to grab Blink, but she teleports in behind him and immediately tosses a shard his way. Sabes ducks and picks up some debris. He hurls it at Clarice and hits her right in the face. She looks up seemingly dazzled as Sabretooth approaches her. She acts all confused and asks Sabes why they’re fighting. Sabretooth tells her it’s almost over. She leaps up with a shard in each hand, calling him a fool. She receives a solid punch to the nose as Sabretooth reminds her he taught her that trick. Blink falls to the ground unconscious.
Resistance Headquarters
Fury and Callisto mix words about the Exiles while walking down one of the disheveled hallways that make up their secret base. Nick is still worried despite Callisto’s outlook. They run into Wolverine who tells them they no longer have that concern. Callisto and Fury aim their weapons, but shocked expressions cross their faces. They both collapse as Sue Storm materializes behind them with a blood-soaked knife in her right hand.
Wolverine embraces his lover. She pontificates on the fragility of human life. Wolverine reminds her her ex won’t be as easy. She assures him he is done and that the world belongs to them.
Close by, Elektra warns Reed about Madame Hydra and Wolverine. He tells Elektra to leave. She tells him she won’t. He tells her it’s important, the moment they’ve been waiting for. He knew Susan would need to confront him face-to-face one day.
He moves over to Elektra and grabs her by the arms, pulling her in close. Even though she doesn’t want to hear it, he explains she needs to leave because that’s something they wouldn’t expect and would give them an edge. He moves his hands to her face and asks her to do it for the future, for a better tomorrow. He tells her no matter what she has to free his daughter and keep her safe. They share a passionate kiss and Elektra leaves with the departing words, “...stay alive.”
Reed turns his attention over to Psylocke who’s been observing them for some time. She’s a bit taken aback that she was spotted. He asks her if she’s there to choose sides or just watch.
Bryant Park
Morph and Sabretooth are tired. Longshot and a decent amount of the Hand are still up and ready to go. Sabretooth tells Morph they just need to keep hitting until they run out of targets. Unfortunately the Slaymaster interrupts their conversation. He tells them their battle has yet to begin... and that it will be their last.
