Mr. Argenetto stepped up to the podium and began to speak to the UN officials, "As you all know there have been accusations of the US and Russia working together to wipe out Cuba. First and foremost I must say that my country and the honorable country of Russia would never and have never planned any sort of attack against Cuba. Whether it is by biological or traditional warfare. And anyone who thinks otherwise can take it up personally with me."

"Before you go on Mr. Argenetto let me say that as a representative of the Cuban country we believe the United States and Russia in what they say. In fact we will not allow the ramblings of a fanatical terrorist to interfere in the ways of peace and justice. I'm on behalf of Fidel Castro now extending an invitation to all the diplomats in Paris to come to Havana. There we can wrap up any loose ends and show the world a UN that works."

The Secretary General smiled sinisterly as he said, "Glad to see that's all been resolved without too much trouble. Now there are more pressing matters at hand."

A man in the crowd smiled at what just took place. While his plan to create war may have been thwarted the drug was still going to get distributed. And in time he would have both the Shi'ar and Earth under his thrall. That is if Chancellor Dooku didn't bumble up and say the wrong thing. He had worked too hard building up his plans to have them crash down at the last moment. Soon Menace X would make their move and another cog in his plan would be revealed.

Hyperion launched himself into the air his body slamming into one of the Binary clones. The momentum knocked her and ten of her friends out of the red sky pummeling to the ground. The former Squadron Supreme leader didn't have time to gloat over his victory for two long because 5 more Binary clones were behind him. Skillfully, he dodged the energy blasts of the Binary clones despite his large size. A few carefully placed punches ended the fight. The fact that Hyperion was standing up against this horde wasn't the most spectacular things. It was the fact he was surviving and fighting with a severely weakened Wanda Maximoff strapped to his back. Of course if you were to tell Hyperion of his grandeur he would probably shrug it off as coming with the territory. That was the type of man he was.

"You shouldn't have to fight this battle. You should be home," Wanda said feeling guilty over Hyperion risking his life for her. He had saved her life before on his world when Sersi, Satana, and herself traveled to his world to try and get him to join the Avengers. They found his Earth overrun by the forces of Scarlet Centurion. Hyperion and a few other superpowers were the only resistance to his rule. The three Avengers helped Hyperion in his guerrilla war against Scarlet Centurion. After running a few successful raids out of nowhere Scarlet Centurion made a deal. He would leave Earth if Hyperion left and if he was allowed to unlock Wanda's full potential. Hyperion and Wanda both agreed to the deal and they are where they're at now because of it.

"Wanda if I wanted to stay on my world I would have turned down Scarlet Centurion's offer," Hyperion said. He didn't want Wanda to feel guilty ever. His choice was his own. Hyperion was his own man and every choice he made was his own to make.

Meanwhile on the ground below Jennifer Kale, Satana, and Binary were blasting back clones as best as they could. Then an idea clicked in Binary's head on how to stop her "sisters". She motioned her two teammates to stop fighting. She received strange looks for it.

"Look guys. I got an idea on how to stop my clones once and for all. First I need Jennifer to heal Wanda with one of her doo-hickey spells and then Wanda's going to use her powers to make my clones stick together like glue. Once this happens Satana is going to open a massive dimensional portal leading straight to a black hole. And finally Kale is going to drop the little ladies in with yet another of her wondrous spells. Get it? Good," Binary said as she flew off to tell Hyperion to bring Wanda down to the ground. He probably would laugh at her plan.

As Binary flew off Kale leaned over to Satana and said, "Gilgamesh is going to be highly upset that he wasn't involved in the plan. You know how big-headed that guy is?"

"Believe me I know first hand. The guy threatened to kill me, but he's probably better off warning the local population of the attack of the clones anyway. His abilities wouldn't do much good in a situation like this," Satana said almost with a smirk on her face at the thought of Gilgamesh being upset. The guy was very touchy and she could use this as another way to get under his skin. If she couldn't have him embracing her then she would make his life a living hell, but in the smallest of ways.

As Hyperion landed Wanda was instantly hit with a glowing purple ball of energy straight from Kale. Scarlet Witch stirred slightly as the spell took its effect, but soon she was off Hyperion's back and as lively as ever.

Wanda smiled lifting her hands up in the sky as she began to hex, "Time for phase two of this little plan boys and girls."

Suddenly the clones of Binary froze in mid-air and began to fly backwards all at one point of convergence. They were sticking together like glue and soon they were all attached to one another as if they had been thrown on a giant piece of flypaper. The clones struggled with all their might to break free of their prison, but it was to no avail.

Binary smiled at the fact that her plan was working perfectly. Satana stepped up in front of Scarlet Witch and pointed her black sword at the sky. Suddenly a large purple ripped formed in the sky right behind the bunched together clones.

"Looks like it's your turn Kale," Satana said motioning Jennifer to do her magic.

"Alright ladies and gent lets hit this," Kale said mumbling something under her breath. Her body and the bodies of the clones began to glow a rose color. As the color's intensity grew brighter Kale began to wave her hands back and forth. As she did this the mass of clones began to move close towards the portal. When they were close enough Satana swung her sword around in a circular motion and the portal engulfed the multitude of glowing clones.

"That takes care of that," Binary said dusting her hands off as if she had done a great deal of work.

"Now all we gotta do is contact the Shi'ar fleet and get back home. I want a Burger King sandwich so bad that it hurts," Hyperion said.

"I've never been partial to Burger King. Too many calories! I do enjoy a Taco Bell burrito though," Scarlet Witch said.

"Well, look who's coming up the hill. I bet he'll be supremely disappointed that he missed out on the fun," Kale said as she saw Gilgamesh running up the hill in front of her with all his speed.

"Hey what's the rush Gilgamesh? We got the clones beat!" Binary informed Gilgamesh as he finally reached the spot where the Avengers where gathered.

"The clones are the least of our worries! We have to get off this planet before…ACKK!!" Gilgamesh yelled as his body was encased in a glowing red bubble of energy.

"What the heck…ARGHH!!" Binary yelled as she was wrapped in the same bubble of energy. Soon in a matter of seconds the rest of the Avengers were wrapped in the same type of bubbles unable to do anything about it.

Crystal sipped her cup of tea as she read her Cosmopolitan magazine. The Inhuman royal quite enjoyed reading about the intricacies of human female glamour, fame, and beauty. It all made for entertaining reading and along with some of Jarvis's exquisitely made tea it was heaven. She never knew being the leader of the Avengers, no matter if it was short, could be so much fun. There hadn't really been any problems for her three-member squad to handle.

When her comrades left Earth she considered assembling some older Avengers members to form a temporary team until they came back, but she decided against it. Forming temporary teams seem to always lead to problems. Besides Sersi, Shaitan, and herself were more than potent enough to handle any threat that might come their way.

Sersi walked up to Crystal with a glass of wine in her hand and said, "We have a situation Crystal. It appears that some group calling themselves Menace X is attacking a Mutant Registration building in Tampa."

The Inhuman jumped her up from her chair immediately as she said, "Well, then suit up and let's get there before one of those X groups get to them."

As Sersi and Crystal both headed out of the luxuriously decorated room with the amazing spa the Eternal asked, "What's so exciting about having an X plastered to your name? I'm really starting to think mutants are the Brittany Spears and Justin Timberlake's of the hero biz."

"Well, those types are known for sleeping around. No wonder Pietro decided to stay with the X-Men if that's the case."

Tampa

"Here comes company," Post said as he looked up and saw one of the Avenger's infamous jets past overhead.

"And just the kind of company we're looking for," Femme said as she moved her long white hair out of her face to reveal her deep brown skin and her green eyes.

"Yeah well don't get too frisky with Shaitan. We all know you like the big, strong, and ugly type," Slash said as he retracted his glistening orange claws and extended his pearly white teeth. With the claw on his pinky Slash scratched his golden fur.

"Then that might explain why Post gets all the booty and you don't," Femme said blowing Slash a mocking kiss.

Slash growled, "Who'd want a ho like you anyway?"

"Focus guys. Here they come. Remember they're Avengers and there is no margin for error."

The three Avengers came charging through the parking lot of the building bobbing and weaving their way through the blasted out potholes and the charred cars. Finally they came to a stop only a few feet away from Menace X and Crystal yelled, "Stand down now! Or this is going to get very ugly."

Post smiled, "I can't imagine getting much uglier lady!"

With that proclamation Post leaped into Shaitan and landed a punch to the jaw sending the alternate reality hero into a still flaming car. Before Shaitan hit the car and become forced to suffer a couple of burns he shapeshifted himself into Storm and with her powers blew himself over the car. It required a strong gust of wind to do so. Shaitan could only hope he had chose the right form to fight this mutant with. Because once he changed his form he could never be quite sure when he would change back. That was part of his powers. He could shapeshift into anyone and anything, but he could never be quite sure when he would change back to normal. It would happen randomly. Sometimes he would change back in a matter of seconds and sometimes it took two weeks. He knew his maximum to stay in one form was a month, but he had never hit that limit yet. The only problem was once he changed back that he would be too exhausted to do anything for at least seven hours.

"You just made a bad mistake big guy!" Shaitan yelled as he poured down lighting from the sky on Post.

Meanwhile Sersi was fighting against the mutant who called himself Slash. She easily dodged the attacks he tried to deliver with his claws. Though Slash wasn't stupid and realizing Sersi had become complacent in his use of the same attack over and over again he leaped over Sersi's head and delivered a kick to the head. Sersi fell backwards, but she was far from out of the fight. As Slash landed on the concrete Sersi made it so it was like quicksand and Slash quickly found his body half way in the concrete. Despite his best attempts he couldn't free himself.

Sersi put her hand on her mouth for a pretend yawn and said, "Boy I thought I might actually get a challenge from this."

From across the parking lot Femme saw the defeat of Slash and said to Crystal, "Just because he lost doesn't mean you're going to get such an easy victory."

"Of course not dear. Of course not," Crystal grinned as the air around Femme began to crystallize until the woman was trapped in a diamond prison.

"Talk about your pushovers," the Inhuman woman said as she walked away from Femme.

Post saw the defeat of Femme and Slash despite the fact he was continuously being pummeled by lighting. Cursing to himself he unleashed a massive energy wave by shooting off five of his pods that were continuously growing on his body. The energy was enough to knock Shaitan out of the sky and since the form of Storm was weaker the hit was more devastating.

"I guess more enhancements are going to be needed. The power boosts weren't enough for Slash and Femme, but I think Fat-ta-Maru will be pretty pleased at the fact that I withstood a good bit of power that might have gotten the better of me a couple of months ago," Post smiled both angered and excited all at once as he pressed a tiny button on his wrist about the size of a fingernail. He could see the air begin to crystallize around him as he teleported away with Slash and Femme.

Crystal snapped her fingers together and exclaimed, "I almost had him, but I'm almost a 100% percent positive we're going to see those guys again. How's Shaitan doing Sersi?"

Sersi walked up to Crystal with Shaitan in her arms. He was a great deal lighter since he was in the form of Storm. Seeing Shaitan as Storm saddened Crystal a bit. The woman had died bravely in battle. She didn't deserve to die the way she did. Crystal would have been at the funeral if it weren't for the fact that Pietro was there. Besides she didn't want to have to take Luna with her. There was no telling when she might have got the chance to see Pietro again after the funeral. The fool wasn't very good at visiting his child. More and more the image of his father he was becoming.

"He's fine for the most part. Just a couple of bruises and cuts. He might have a concussion though. So I suggest we get him back to the Mansion ASAP," Sersi suggest keeping Shaitan's head level.

Another Dimension

Apollo and Thor stepped through the portal. The same portal that had led them across so many different dimensions and so many different worlds. If the two weren't gods they might have gone insane from some of the sights they saw.

"Does thou feel that?" Thor asked.

"Yes! I do indeed feel it Thor. It is Callisto. She's only a couple of hundred miles away from here. We must find a quicker way through all this jungle and forest," Apollo exclaimed excited at finally having found Callisto.

"Hast thou's excitement caused you to take leave of thou senses? We shalt simply rise above thee trees!" Thor said taking off into the air swinging his hammer in a circular motion above him as he did so. It removed any obstruction that might be in the way.

Apollo sighed as he changed his body into a flaming ball and began to burn through the forest as quickly as Thor tore his way through them. They continued like this for almost seven hours without ceasing. Neither of them could have guessed at how long it would take them to get above the trees at last. When they finally cascaded through the two gods took in a deep breath as if their souls had been gladdened by finally breathing untouched air.

"How oh how did we get through that?"

"Tis thee wrong person thou ask Apollo," Thor said.

Apollo laughed, "True. Asgardians aren't known for their great thinking skills. Let us just go and find Callisto."

"Verily, but thou shalt first get a thrashing for insulting we Asgardians. Insults shan't go by us lightly. We Asgardians excel at thee arts of addition and subtraction. That shalt be brains enough."

There was silence between the two gods for a moment and then laughter began to pour out from the two of them. Just then a great rumbling began to shake the forest and out of the expansive area there erupted a gigantic black tower only a few miles away from Apollo and Thor. The tower had popped up as if it were a flower in spring. The hilarity quickly ceased.

"What tis that pray tell?"

"Don't know, but whatever it is I'm feeling Callisto calling out to us from within there. Something terrible is going on in there," Apollo said putting his hand to his temple.

"Then let us take flight in haste! For no harm shalt befall Callisto while we still have breath." Thor yelled as he charged toward the tower. The Olympian followed behind the Thunder God with great speed. Controlling the sun required a good bit on side on your side.

2 Hours Later

"How shall we ever free her?" Apollo asked himself as the two gods stared hopelessly at the hundreds and hundreds of vines that flowed in and throughout Callisto. The vines were draining her life while at the same time keeping her sustained to what ends Apollo wasn't sure. But to try and free her would simply kill his granddaughter. They had to be another way. She was crucial to the plan. To everything he was working to build.

"Kill me!" an alien voice that was Callisto yelled. The pain she was going through at the moment was unbearable. Count Abyss had dropped her here as a present to this tower that hadn't had company for almost 500 million years. There was no way he was going to let her go easy. It was better to kill her.

"Nay! We shalt save thou yet!" Thor decreed. He wasn't going to leave a fellow Avengers behind. That's not what Avengers did and even more that wasn't what Asgardians did. Comrades were never left behind. Especially, not in a situation akin to what Callisto was in.

Next Issue: Three heroes come back to the mansion for a homecoming! A guest-appearance is made and it holds some significance to Crystal and see what's happening to our Avengers in space.

Author's Notes

This issue marks my third issue as Avengers writer and I'm pretty proud of the work I've done so far. It was definitely exciting getting an EC for my debut Avengers issue. I put a lot of work into it and much love to Chris Munn for giving me his thoughts and what not about how he felt about the whole thing. Watch out for him and Russ on Avengers West Coast. They are definitely going to blow things up. I'm sure of it. This year is definitely going to be an exciting one for the Avengers.

And if you noticed this issue has some of the stuff from Excalibur #X spill over into it. I figured I'd finally give the story a little more significance since David hasn't mentioned it too much. Now don't get me wrong I understand David's reasons for not mentioning it because he's doing his own thing and believe me what David does is good. Excalibur is probably the second busiest superhero team after Avengers. J Anyway go read Excalibur #X if you want to understand more of what's going on in the first scene of this Avengers issue.

Oh and just to explain the motivations behind of some of what I do the black tower holding Callisto really comes from Saruman's tower of Isengrad. I think that's how it's spelled anyway, but I still got the Two Towers bug as you can tell. And the whole vine thing comes from the cool Black Tom story Chuck Austen did over in UXM. So the stuff I write and do has a lot of background behind it.

Sorry if this is boring, but I figured I'd just give you guys a glimpse into why I do some of the things I do and where the inspirations come from.

-Brent