New York City, New York
The Bronx
2039 A.D.

Sweat ran down his wrinkled brow, the jagged edges of the crudely fashioned helmet cutting into his neck with each turn of his head. His inhibitor collar was now a fused piece of technological trash, tossed to the ground beside where he had sat. For the first time in four years, he was standing once again – his wheelchair wrapped around his body as armor. The Master of Magnetism was the last man standing between the escaping X-Men and the gigantic death machines stalking toward their rabbit hole.

This was the fall of the man called Magneto.

The first of the metal monsters exploded into several million components at the wave of Magneto's hand, dissecting it like a child would a construct made of Lego pieces. The other Sentinels hesitated after witnessing the easy destruction of their brother robot, giving one another almost humanistic looks of distress and worry. Magneto hovered above the South Bronx internment camp that had been his home for too many years, a fury entrenched in his aged eyes that echoed the day he watched his son and daughter struck down by Sentinels…

…just…

A girder ripped from an abandoned skyscraper, pulled from a mile and a half away, flew through the side of a Sentinel's head at an approximate speed of Mach 2.

…like…

The electrical system of a second Sentinel short-circuited, causing it to fall to the ground as a smoking metal husk.

…THESE.

More and more of the mutant-killers were descending from the sky, called by their central mainframe unit to the point of hostile contact. Magneto was the biggest fish in their mutant prison system, and it was always a statistical probability that he would one day attempt an escape. This was the day, and the Sentinels were far past the option of recapturing him.

A shockwave of magnetic force exploded in a radius around Magneto, knocking a dozen of advancing Sentinels onto their backsides. This was his moment of vengeance, the time when he could pay back the anguish in his heart every time he'd passed by one of the many “kill notice” posters plastered on broken brick. SLAIN, the posters had been stamped across the faces of hundreds of mutants. His children, his chosen people, had been driven to extinction and there had been nothing he could do to stop it. Until now.

He didn't notice the Sentinel approaching from behind until it was too late. The laser blast pulsing from the robot's palm struck him, melting the metal on his body and incinerating his flesh. Still, the Master of Magnetism did not fall. As his body became engulfed in flames, he simply raised his fist into the air and screamed a defiant cry of a dying soldier. No more prisons, no more waiting for the axe to fall…this was the end.

This was the death of Magneto.

Hours later, a man clad in crude chain-mail crouched over the still-smoldering bones of Erik Lensherr, his sword dug deep into the earth beside him. He lowered his helmeted head and offered a silent prayer for yet another proud warrior slain in battle, a sight he had witnessed far too many times in his life. “I knew of this man,” Dane Whitman expressed to his teammates, scattered around the deserted area, “and he should not have died like this.”

The Avengers had arrived too late to save any of the 268 men and women that had been held captive at the South Bronx Mutant Internment Camp. Following Magneto's defiant stand, the Sentinels had initiated their Scorched Earth Policy…if one mutant showed dissidence, then the entire population would suffer. 268 lives were snuffed out in the matter of moments, and the time-lost heroes of years before and after this period of history were left to literally sift through the ashes.

Seven Avengers stood in silence, pausing to reflect on what had happened and what they had failed to stop. Only their guide, the man called Libra, spoke to break the silence. “My friends,” the blind time-stepper remarked, “we must not tally, despite what we've seen. The X-Men are currently on their way to the Baxter Building, and unless we stop them this world is doomed to the machinations of Kang the Conqueror. I assure you, what you see here is tame compared to what that warlord will do.”

Whitman, the Black Knight, made the sign of the cross on his chest before the ashes of Magneto and then stood to his feet. “If these X-Men must die to prevent atrocities such as this,” he said as he removed his Ebony Blade from the stab wound it had made in the ground, “then so be it.”

Marvel 2000 Proudly Presents...

# 3 - "The Scorched Earth Policy"
Written by Chris Munn

“I told you that it would be a waste of time.”

Craig Hollis, otherwise and heretofore known as Mr. Immortal, grunted at the statement made by the man walking beside him. He'd never really had a chance to speak with Henry Pym before his death years before, but if he'd been anything like his past incarnation then that had been a many blessed thing indeed. “We had to try, dude.”

Yellowjacket cracked his bubble gum as loudly as possible, the sticky substance clinging to his mask in several strategic places. “Hell, even the Vision tried to tell you guys. I can kinda understand you guys not listening to me, ‘cause it's not like anyone else ever has, but Vizh is a freakin' robot. When he tells you something, it's, like, statistically impossible for him to be wrong.”

“I don't care!” Mr. Immortal shouted, stopping his forward advancement through the rubble of New York City long enough to jab an accusatory finger at his teammate. “If there was any chance at all of us saving those poor people, we had to at least try! We're the Avengers, for crying out loud…innocent people shouldn't have to die if we're here to stop it!”

“Look,” Henry Pym replied, knocking Hollis' hand away from his chest, “you think I wasn't bothered by what we just saw? These monsters killed people I've known my whole life and I'm itching for some payback just as much as everyone else. But that's not our mission right now, and what worries me is that this little side trip to save a bunch of people that were already marked for death may have just doomed this planet to an eternity of Kang's rule. So suck it up and get on task, Avenger.”

“Screw you, man,” Mr. Immortal mumbled as he walked on, leaving Yellowjacket where he stood. Pym let loose another crack of gum and paused long enough to brush away a small collection of insects that had begun to buzz around his head.

“Craig has a large heart,” a woman's voice said from behind Hank, causing him to smile before turning his neck. Luna Maximoff, the sorceress Avenger named Arcana, placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled in return. “I would've expected nothing less from him, to be honest.”

“I'm just worried that the team's rules of admittance have really become lax in the future,” Yellowjacket admitted, returning to his forward walk alongside Luna, “if they're letting guys like him in. I mean, his power is to get killed a bunch of times, what the hell is that all about?”

Luna wrapped her cloak around her arms, staring ahead at the skipping and bounding Mr. Immortal, who was now several yards ahead of them. “You forget, Doctor, that I come from further up the timeline than Mr. Immortal. He may not seem like much to you right now, but believe these words – in my time, Craig Hollis is the current Avengers Chairman, handpicked by Captain America himself.”

“Cap was always a sucker for red, white, and blue costumes,” Yellowjacket dismissed as he took a glance over his shoulder. Walking several yards behind them were the rest of the Avengers – Mockingbird, Major Vance Astro, the Black Knight, and the Vision levitating above them – led by the enigmatic wanderer called Libra. “There's gotta be a faster way to get to the Baxter Building than this. The X-Men are gonna save the world an hour before we get there.”

“I could try teleporting us,” Arcana stated, “but I'm wary of doing such a thing when we're already clearly spitting in the face of the time/space continuum. The easiest way to do it without upsetting the delicate balance of reality in this turbulence is to swap out matter for matter – a simple bi-location spell that would switch us for other organic entities closer to our destination.”

“Then go do that voodoo you do so well, honey child,” Pym replied, only half listening as he continued to swat at the strange insects fluttering around him. “Damn Limbo bugs…”

“Craig!” Luna called out, waving down Mr. Immortal before he turned a corner in the deserted street over a hundred yards away. Hollis turned and waved back, leaving his back to the open blind spot behind him.

“Oh my god,” Arcana muttered as the Sentinel rounded the corner behind her friend, his hand raised toward the brightly-colored Avenger.

“Unknown post-human target sighted,” the Sentinel announced, finally catching Mr. Immortal's attention, “termination imminent.”

Craig Hollis didn't even have time to scream before the Sentinel let fly its lethal energy barrage, incinerating the man where he stood. His fellow Avengers stood with mouths agape as the death machine stomped forward, stepping unceremoniously on the ashes of their teammate. “Attention post-humans,” the Sentinel commanded, “surrender or face extermination.”

Yellowjacket threw his fist forward, but before the iconic phrase could escape his lips his advance was halted by Luna's hand. “Don't bother, Doctor,” she said, forming a barrier between her Avengers and the giant monstrosity, “I'll take care of this.”

As she walked forward, her ivory cape billowing in the wind created by the Sentinel's servo-motors, points of light began to dance across her body. “I'm sick of you monsters threatening us,” she said as the light built to a brilliant incandescence, culminating at the point of her raised index finger, “just plain bloody sick.”

The Sentinel raised its own massive hand in reply, but not before the point of Luna Maximoff's finger exploded in a fiery burst of light. The magick force commanded by Arcana, the Sorceress Supreme of her time, was too much for the creature of metal and circuits. A hole in space – a void, for lack of a better term – opened below the Sentinel, causing it to stumble. A squee of surprise escaped its vocal unit as a set of massive green tentacles emerged from the void, wrapping tightly around the robot's steel husk. Within moments, the demonic creature had dragged the Sentinel down, while the aperture in space closed behind them.

Arcana dusted off her hands as the other Avengers approached cautiously behind her. “I'm glad I left Ebony back in Limbo,” she commented, “he never did get along with Shuma Gorath.”

“Remind me never to make you mad at me,” Mockingbird chimed in from the back of the group.

As the Avengers took in what had just happened, a blackened figure staggered toward them, his hand raised in greeting. “I'm okay, guys,” Mr. Immortal said with a drunken smile before falling forward, “right as rain, I am.”

“Avengers,” Libra said, interrupting the odd moment, “time is of the essence. We are no closer to our destination, and our current pace will ensure our arrival much too late. I can step between the second and arrive at the Baxter Building, but I cannot carry you with me. Have you any ideas?”

Yellowjacket let fly a wicked smirk before nodding his head in Luna's direction. “I think our gal of the hour here may have found us a way…”

The Sentinel fell in a heap of destroyed metal, its head a melted slag of metal and fused circuitry. This was the power of Ororo Monroe, the woman who – what seemed like a lifetime ago – had also been called Storm. She touched down on the cracked concrete in front of the abandoned Baxter Builder, former of the Fantastic Four and current central hub of the North American Sentinel force. The one sentry standing guard at the doors to the building was now destroyed by the African's lightning, and as she stood in anxious repose her fellow X-Men approached.

Wolverine, a member of the Canadian Resistance Army, had been instrumental in the mutants' breakout of the South Bronx facility. Alongside him was Piotr Rasputin, Colossus, who held cradled in his organic steel arms the unconscious body of his wife, Kate Pryde Rasputin. Rounding out the remnants of the X-Men was a young woman, a telepath, named Rachel Summers, the daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey.

Colossus sat the body of his unconscious bride onto the ground, hidden behind the disabled husk of the Sentinel. His eyes lingered on her, his thoughts drifting back to the mission she had undertaken – a journey to the past, where she had switched bodies with the Kitty of her youth. It was the teenage Kitty Pryde that now inhabited the older Kate's body, and there was no clear idea just when the switch would revert back. “Rachel,” Colossus advised as the redhead knelt beside Kate, “you remain here, to protect Kitty as best you can.”

As Wolverine and Storm moved around the massive robot body toward the doors of the Baxter Building, the weight of their mission weighed heavily upon them. They were the only people capable of stopping the Sentinels' march against the rest of the world, and if they failed – well, failure wasn't an option anymore. They would succeed or they would die, and there were no other choices left.

“X-Men!” a voice called out from behind them, in a place where there had previously stood no one. They each turned to see the robed stranger walking toward them, Libra's identity a mystery to them all. “I implore you, my mutant friends,” he said, his hands outstretched in a sign of peace, “do not enter that building. To do so will endanger this reality for time immemorial!”

“You know this hobo?” Wolverine asked, an impatient eyebrow cocked toward Storm.

“I do not;” she answered as Libra neared closer, “but he shall not deter us from our mission.”

“A pity,” Libra said as he leapt forward, his hands clutching unexpectedly onto the wrists of the two X-Men, “for then you leave us no choice.”

Colossus rushed toward his friends as they were engulfed by a blinding flash of light, generated by Libra's touch. “Ororo! Logan!” he shouted, but then found himself skidding to a halt as he saw the three figures that had replaced his fellow X-Men. Where they had been now instead stood three of the mighty Avengers: Major Astro, Mockingbird, and the Vision.

Rasputin's eyes narrowed…he was not amused.

Libra leapt backward, the adamantium claws of Wolverine missing flesh in favor of cloth robe. “I am an agent of the Balance,” Libra said as he dodged the feral mutant's second attack, “and despite being trained by the Priests of Pama I will not fight you.”

Logan found his third claw strike blocked, deflected by a sword with the color of midnight. The X-Man looked up to find the regal armor and helmet of the Black Knight staring down at him. “That would be our job, knave…”

Storm took to the sky, propelled aloft by a massive gust of wind beneath her. This was the definition of a tragedy, and she could tell from the ruins that she and Logan had been transported to another part of the city. How long would it take for a cadre of Sentinels to arrive, to murder them with impunity? She looked down at the people that had abducted them – the robed man, another in medieval armor, and one in gaudy red and blue spandex. Who were these people, and why were they damning the one last attempt to halt the Sentinels?

Storm furrowed her wrinkled brow and extended her hand. It didn't matter, she decided as the thunder clouds rolled behind her, this had to be ended quickly. A static charge of electricity collected across her body as she swept past a nearby rooftop, failing to notice the two people standing atop it.

Before the lightning could burst from her hand, she saw the shadow of the man pouncing on her. Ororo turned as he collided into her, his yellow and black costume immediately recognizable to her. This was Yellowjacket, she surmised despite the impossibility of such a thing, an Avenger long deceased at the hands of the Sentinels!

“You got sparks, baby doll,” he said as he grappled with her in mid-air, his costume's wings vibrating furiously to keep him aloft, “well so does the Yellowjacket!”

And with that said, a massive discharge of electricity erupted from Henry Pym's gloves, his bio-disruptors causing an immense shock to the X-Man's nervous system. Had it been a purely electrical burst, Storm would have felt nothing – but the stinger blast of Pym's design instead affected the synapses in its target's nerve endings, forcing pain receptors to fire all at once, causing spasms and convulsions across her body.

Ororo screamed and fell into a dive, her body turning against her, while Yellowjacket kicked himself away from her flailing form. As he bounded against the nearest building, he gave an “a-okay” sign with his hand toward the rooftop he had just left. Libra stood at the edge of the aforementioned rooftop, having appeared there after a single sidestep in the street below.

“This was an ingenious battle tactic,” Gustav Brandt admitted as he turned back toward the other Avenger present on the roof, “divide and conquer.”

Arcana said nothing in reply, her eyes closed in intense concentration as she sat Indian style on the concrete beneath her. It had been her power that had transported the two X-Men to their position, traded along with Libra for three of her teammates to take out the resistance at the Baxter Building . That had been taxing, but nothing close to what she was attempting now. Back in her childhood, her aunt had told her a story of the Mandarin and one of his many bids of conquering the world. The Mandarin had used a mystical artifact called the Heart of Darkness to enclose China within a field that negated all technology. Even with such an artifact, a spell of that magnitude was near impossible to sustain for a period of time…and now Luna Maximoff was sitting, trying to sustain such a field by herself.

This was the only way to keep the Sentinels off their backs while their mission was being completed, the only way to keep them alive to see things through. Libra took a look across the horizon and saw the shimmering field a few blocks away, completely encasing their battleground. A Sentinel flew toward them, and immediately deactivated as it touched the ethereal spell field. Brandt then looked back at Luna and bit his lower lip…just how long could she keep this up?

“Where are my friends?” Colossus bellowed as he threw forward his massive fist, directed at the center of the Visions' chest. The Russian's steel hand collided furiously with the synthezoid's breast, but the Vision remained standing in his typically rigid position.

“I have altered my density to its highest setting,” the Vision stated, the concrete under his bare feet beginning to crack from the stress of his multiplied mass, “and am hence an immoveable object. Will you listen to us, Mr. Rasputin, or will this continue to come to blows?”

“Three of us just for this guy?” Mockingbird quipped as she moved around the fallen Sentinel in front of the Baxter Building . “Seems like a bit much, considering who just got teleported out of here…”

As she rounded the discarded metal sentry, however, Bobbie Barton's eyes lit up with the sight of two women hunkered in hiding. The younger girl was holding the older woman in her arms, protecting her behind a shell of timidity. “Uh, hey, gals,” Mockingbird said with a slight wave, “are you X-Men?”

“Stay away from us!” Rachel Summers yelled, slamming a telekinetic force blast against the Avenger's body. Mockingbird flew backward onto the street, her body turning in mid-air just in time to allow her to roll with the blow. She somersaulted before hitting the ground, landing on her haunches with the battle staves at the ready.

“Okay, kid gloves are officially off,” Mockingbird commented as she leapt back toward the two women, her staves connecting into a telescoping staff that further propelled her in a pole-vault fashion. Imagine her surprise when she stopped in mid-leap, held fast by Rachel's mental power.

“Katya?” Peter asked as he turned away from the Vision, concerned with nothing but the safety of his spouse. He stomped toward the hanging Mockingbird, determined to end the threat to his family and friends, but instead found himself halted in mid stride.

Major Astro stepped in front of the metal X-Man, his own telekinetic power holding him fast. “Our mission is to kill you,” he admitted to the hero, “but I don't like to commit murder without trying a different approach first. Have you heard of a man called Kang the Conqueror…?”

Wolverine and the Black Knight circled one another, their eyes locked as time was spent sizing the mettle of each's opponent. Nervously, Mr. Immortal stood in the background, unsure of whether he should intervene in a battle that would inevitable end in bloodshed. The Black Knight's sword lowered to the ground, the blade scraping lightly against the broken concrete, while Logan sparked his claws together.

“My claws are forged o' pure adamantium, boy,” the Wolverine advised, “they can cut through damn near anything. You sure you want to lose such a nice sword by being stupid?”

“Your weapons are manmade, lout,” the Knight replied, “while my Ebony Blade was forged by almighty Merlin himself. Nothing of this Earth can withstand its steel, including your vaunted adamantium. I will ask only once…yield or perish.”

“We don't got time for this,” the elder X-Man answered, “so I'm gonna bleed you quick. Consider it a mercy kill…”

And with no other words left to say, the Black Knight pulled his sword back and ran forward, lunging at the diminutive X-Man with all his strength. Logan sidestepped the parry and swept his arm in a wide arc, catching Whitman's back. The chain mail armor adorning the Knight's body was rent in a hail of sparks and blood, giving little protection to the mutant's blades. The Black Knight moved with grace, swiping the Ebony Blade up and back, catching Wolverine just under the chin. The mutant was fast, though, and a strike meant to slit his throat instead just bloodied his chin, carving a slit of flesh from his profile.

The two men stepped backward, facing one another once again. The Ebony Blade sang out to Whitman's soul, the blood of the mutant dripping from its tip, further cementing the curse laid across any who wielded it. The curse was causing the madness to overtake the Knight, a bloodlust that would only be sated when his opponent was dead and his soul captured by the mystical weapon. Similarly, Logan circled around with a noticeable twitch in his right eye. He was fighting a bloodlust of his own, an animal berserker rage that he had long fought to keep contained. It had been many years since he had lost control, but the stress of the mission and the obstacle now standing in his way had shattered the barriers he had erected in his psyche.

The two men were ready to lose control, and only one would emerge alive. They stepped forward, the last advancement of their final, brutal battle…

“Stop it, you two!”

And in the biggest mistake of his life, Mr. Immortal stepped between them.

“Release me, villain!” Colossus shouted, frozen as he was under the power of Vance Astro, Guardian of the Galaxy and current Avenger. “We do not have long before the Sentinels detect us, fool, and our mission is too important for us to fail!”

“That, my Communist friend,” Astro replied, “is exactly what we're here to achieve: your failure. If you stop the Sentinels tonight, then there will be nothing in place here to stop the coming of Kang. I understand the hardships and tragedies you've suffered at the hands of these monsters – I'm a fellow mutant, and this pains me as much as you – but this is paradise compared to what Kang will do!”

“Let him go,” a shaking voice said as Rachel Summers approached from behind the destroyed Sentinel husk, her own telekinesis holding Mockingbird in the air, unable to move or fight, “or I'll kill her! I don't care why you're here, we can't fail…we can't live like this anymore!”

Vance's eyes dropped, twisted beneath his mask into a visage of sorrow at the young woman's impassioned pleas. Unconsciously, his power dropped from around Colossus, who immediately felt the energy holding him begin to fade. Hating himself as he did it, Rasputin forced his fist forward, connecting as hard as he could with the back of the Major's skull, knocking him into blissful unconsciousness before he could hit the ground. “Rachel,” Colossus said as he allowed himself only a moment to linger on the man he'd just struck down, “we do not have time to wait for Logan or Ororo. I have to go inside, I have to finish this.”

Rachel nodded, but failed to notice the ghostly form of the Vision passing from the ground beneath her in his intangible state. As he slid up behind her, he slid his ethereal arm inside her chest and solidified slowly, causing a painful shock to her system – biological disruption, painful for every human that felt it, but more so for a psychic sensitive like Summers. She screamed and fell to the ground, Mockingbird falling with her to her feet as her power dispersed. “You are right, Mr. Rasputin, we have little time for this to continue. Surrender or die.”

Colossus rushed forward, his rage building to a boiling point while his fist crushed forward, striking the Vision's cybernetic form directly in the face. The synthezoid staggered backward, ill prepared for the mutant's brutal assault, and then immediately felt another incredible punch to the face. “Fall, monster!” Colossus bellowed as he landed blow upon pulverizing upon the Avenger's durable – but not indestructible – body. The Vision attempted to halt the furious strikes with a blast from his solar gem, but this – even coupled with Mockingbird's ineffectual strikes to the X-Man's back with her staff – was nothing compared to the anger rising in the once-peaceful warrior.

“Peter?” a weakened voice cried from nearby, causing Colossus to pause in his rampage. Kate Pryde stumbled forth on uneasy legs, her mind having returned to her body from its journey into the past. “What are you doing?”

“Katya?” he asked, stepping toward his wife. “Then it did not work, your mission in the past. It failed, as I have failed.”

The Vision returned to his feet as Colossus stepped past him, lost in the despair as to what was happening to their last ditch effort to free their planet. “We warned you, Piotr Rasputin,” the Vision advised as he again multiplied his density and mass, becoming as hard as a diamond, “therefore this is the only logical avenue.”

Peter turned back toward the Vision as the synthezoid delivered a punch of his own, shattering the organic steel that covered every inch of his body. Colossus fell backward, his neck broken as his head had spun nearly 180 degrees around his body from the force of the Avenger's blow. The ground shook as he landed, and the Vision merely glanced at his knuckles, his artificial skin ripped and shredded from the fury of his attack.

“Peter!” Kate Pryde Rasputin shrieked, but any other words were lost in the sounds that descended upon them from the heavens.

“Oh, this is not good,” Mockingbird commented as she turned her gaze skyward. A dozen Sentinels descended down upon them, their battle having finally caught their attention.

Death was falling like rain.

“Just do us both a favor and stay down, doll face,” Yellowjacket advised as he walked up to the recovering Storm, who had hit the ground hard following the attack on her nervous system, “don't do something we're both gonna regret.”

Ororo raised her head, lightning dancing in her fierce blue eyes, and with a snarl she leapt to her feet. “Do not threaten me, little man,” she commanded as she took to the sky, propelled by her naturally generated winds. Yellowjacket felt the force of the wind hit him, nearly knocking him backward as the air twisted and flowed around him. A funnel of wind quickly surrounded him, spinning him at an incredibly fast rate as he was lifted into the sky alongside his opponent.

Within moments, the two figures reached the tops of the nearby buildings, and with her acute eyesight she spied two of her enemies atop one of the roofs. With a smile that betrayed how much she had missed the thrill of combat, Storm commanded her winds to toss Pym away, sending him sailing toward the defenseless Libra and Arcana.

“Gangway!” the nearly nauseous Yellowjacket shouted as he was sent sailing toward his teammates. With the briefest of warnings, Libra easily sidestepped the flailing Avenger, though he quickly realized his mistake. Her concentration focused totally on maintaining her magical force shield, Luna Maximoff failed to notice the approaching Yellowjacket. He struck her sitting form with the force of a speeding car, sending both of them rolling across the roof with their senses stunned.

“Oh no,” Libra whispered as Luna rolled to a stop, nearly unconscious. The anti-technology field supported by her magicks faded with her concentration broken, and it wouldn't be long before the Sentinels arrived to overwhelm them.

Oblivious to this turn of events, Storm twisted in the air and moved closer to the war being raged on the ground below her. Thunder boomed in the sky above, the weather changing to match her foul disposition and volatile emotional state. It was perhaps already too late for them to strike against the Sentinel core like they had planned, unless Colossus had been able to do so on his own. She prayed for Piotr, her “little brother”, before returning to aid Logan.

Mr. Immortal danced on the street, desperately trying to avoid the razor sharp claws of the Wolverine before he lost yet another limb. He jumped backward, Logan's claws scraping against his ribcage painfully, only to receive a sharp pain in his back. “Idiot!” the Black Knight yelled as Hollis looked down to find the Ebony Blade punched through his back and out his stomach.

“Cheese and crackers, people,” Craig declared as he pulled himself free from the sword, “you're lucky I can't die.”

“We'll see about that,” Wolverine growled as he punched a fist of adamantium claw through Mr. Immortal's neck, nearly severing his head from his body. He wrenched his claws free, casually tossing Hollis to the ground at his left, but was unable to dodge the Black Knight's next sword stroke. The Ebony Blade came down upon the mutant's left arm, striking it at the elbow joint – where the adamantium coating his bones was the weakest. The Blade cleaved through the X-Man's arm like it wasn't there, severing Wolverine's appendage at the elbow.

Logan screamed and propelled his remaining arm forward, striking the side of the Knight's helmet – a helmet which, thankfully, managed to barely deflect the killing blow. Dane Whitman fell backward, staggered by the metal-on-metal strike that was now causing his head to ring and vibrate, and his sword fell from his grasp. Wolverine was upon him in an instant, his right hand pressed against his chest. It would only take a little pressure, a little push, to end the Avenger's life, and this Wolverine – this man who had watched everyone he loved fall around him at the hands of the Sentinels – wasn't inclined to hold back anymore.

“Stop!” Mr. Immortal yelled from directly behind the X-Man, causing Wolverine to turn his head and look over his shoulder. The bloody Craig Hollis stood defiant, the Knight's Ebony Blade clutched in his hands. “Don't make me kill you, man!”

Wolverine turned while a growl escaped his lips. Mr. Immortal quivered where he stood, but nevertheless raised the sword above his head. Whitman, having recovered enough from Logan's attack to understand what was happening, raised his hand toward his teammate and screamed with a voice ragged with terror. “No, don't use the sword,” the Knight yelled as he attempted to stand, “the curse will take you!”

Wolverine moved closer, but before Hollis could swing the mighty blade…the unexpected happened. A bolt of lightning descended from the storm clouds above, guided and directed by Ororo Monroe, and it struck the enchanted metal of the Ebony Blade. Millions of volts of electricity were conducted into Mr. Immortal's body, causing his skin to burst into flames across his body. He stood, paralyzed by the electricity coursing through his body while a scream ripped from his throat, for several moments until the lightning barrage stopped. He fell to the ground, a charred and smoldering husk, while the Ebony Blade was released from his grasp.

The Black Knight jumped forward, knocking his way past Wolverine, to catch the sword in his hand. As he grasped onto the hilt of the blade, he twisted his midsection and swiped the sword backward. The cursed blade sliced through the air, catching Logan at the base of his neck. The X-Man's much vaunted adamantium skeleton proved no match for the Merlin-enchanted blade, and the Wolverine's head was removed from his shoulders.

“Logan! Goddess, no!” Storm shouted as she swept down toward her fallen teammate. The Knight jumped back to his feet from where his leap had landed him, and with another wide arc of his arm tossed the sword into the sky. The Ebony Blade struck the descending Ororo Monroe in the stomach, punching through vital organs before exiting out her back, cutting her spine in two. She was deceased before she hit the ground.

Cautiously, Libra and the still-stunned Yellowjacket and Arcana approached while the Black Knight retrieved his sword. As he wiped the mutants' blood off the blade with the edge of his cape, he glared at his teammates from beneath his helmet. “They fought like warriors,” Whitman, his voice infused with the accent of his ancestor Eobar Garrington, said, “and died as such.”

“Your mission is complete,” Libra said as he looked to the sky to see the approaching Sentinel army, “and with a touch I return you four to Limbo, while I brave this world to rescue our allies.”

Before they faded away, Yellowjacket looked down at the regenerating Mr. Immortal, his skin healing the massive burns across his body. "Useless..."

Kate Pryde was the first to fall in the Sentinels' wave of brutality, her intangibility having long been countered by the robots' defensive systems. Her mangled and crushed body had been dropped from the palm of a blood-soaked Sentinel, while the rest of the monsters worked toward surrounding the four remaining humans.

“We must vacate this area,” the Vision advised as his solar gem exploded with energy, melting an approaching Sentinel's face, “or we will be overwhelmed in approximately 32.20 seconds.”

“This is all your fault,” Rachel Summers declared, tears streaming down her face as she cowered behind a telekinetic shield erected to protect the fighting heroes, “I could feel my friends dying, their thoughts ending so painfully. You people killed them!”

Major Vance Astro stepped in front of the girl, his own telekinetic power merging with Rachel's to further strengthen the energy field surrounding and protecting them. “You're right, girl,” Astro said as he saw Libra appearing from seemingly thin air in their midst, “and what we've done this day will haunt me for the rest of my life…”

“The mission is a success,” Libra told Vision and Mockingbird, his hand placed on their shoulders, “and to Limbo we must depart.” The two Avengers faded away at Libra's touch, his power returning them to Immortus' realm. “Come, Major,” Brandt ordered as the Sentinels closed around them, the space of the telekinetic barrier being pushed smaller and smaller with each arriving robot. “We have no time.”

Vance looked down at the whimpering Rachel Summers, who had wrapped herself in terror around his leg. “No, Mr. Brandt,” he said without hesitation, “I will not leave this child to die alone when it was we who brought this death to her. If Immortus was true, I will return to my proper time upon my own death…let us test that theory, shall we?”

Libra paused and then nodded toward the Avenger. “Godspeed, Major Astro,” the blind master of the balance offered, “give these bastards Hell, eh?” Then he, too, faded away.

“On your feet, Rachel,” Vance said as he grabbed the girl by her arm, lifting her to stand beside him, “let us face our deaths with dignity.”

Thirty Sentinels were surrounding them now, their telekinetic shield being pummeled on to its breaking point. There was no escape, no way to fight their way to freedom. Vance narrowed his eyes and straightened his posture, then took Rachel's hand in his. “Take us, monsters,” he said defiantly as their telekinetic power finally failed, allowing the Sentinels access to the small space in which they stood.

The two mutants were dead a moment later, the last of the X-Men...heroes to the end.

An Uncharted Island
The English Channel
1944 A.D.

“Where the hell are we now?” Mockingbird asked as she snapped her battle staff back into its two separate components, readying herself for anything unexpected. She looked over her similarly confused teammates, and immediately noticed they were short in their number.

“Where's Libra?” Yellowjacket asked as he turned his head to and fro, looking over his disheveled team. “I thought that creepy bastard was sending us back to Limbo!”

“I am here,” Libra said from behind them, causing Yellowjacket to jump in surprise.

“Gah!” Pym shouted, turning to wag a finger at his blind guide. “Don't do that, man!”

“Gustav,” Luna asked, trepidation evident in her voice, “where is Vance?”

Libra lowered his head and sighed. “Major Astro is the reason for your unexpected arrival in this time, Ms. Maximoff. He fell to the Sentinels, by his own choice, and we are therefore expected to pick up his replacement.”

Libra then raised his hand to the horizon, pointing out the giant stone castle looming in the distance. “The year is 1944 and we are on an uncharted island in the English Channel that is currently a secret base for the Nazi force. It is here that we shall retrieve our newest Avenger…”

The faces of each Avenger, save the Vision and Yellowjacket, lit up at the knowledge passed to them via their guide. There was only one man that fit the time and criteria of their mission.

“Great,” Doctor Pym grumbled with a crack of his gum, “there goes my spot as team leader…”

That man was Captain America, and this was the day he died.

To Be Continued....

Next Issue: The Avengers have had to make a stop-off on their way back to Limbo to replace the fallen Vance Astro, and their new member is none other than Captain America! But will this Cap, decades before the formation of the Avengers, be willing to come with them when he's got more important things to do…namely, the capture of Baron Zemo?

Time Out!

Ah, it feels so nice to finally have a name for this lettercol! Thanks to Bowie Sessions, who came in right before this issue went up with the last minute suggestion that, admittedly, rules all. Now everyone go read his Midnight Sons series!

The first order of bushiness is to talk about Avengers Immortal # 1 winning the 2006 Editor's Overall Choice Award, which was just down right awesome. This is not only a series I'm immensely proud of, it's also easily the most well-received title I've ever debuted. Thanks to everyone who's read it, and double thanks to the M2K editors for choosing it as the best issue of 2006!

On to the letters!

The first is from a much-appreciated fan of the series, Rena, who is now starting to dabble in writing for our loveable little community:

I just read it today and rest assured the series didn't lose anything from the first issue. From Kang fighting Days of Future Past sentinels (coolies!) to everything else it was again a great read. There are only one or two writers like you who can perfectly portray these characters and make me feel the fun and magic of a real Avengers story. That you read all those comics really does show! I literally laughed out loud when the Vision says "I'll be back in 1.2 minutes"! This is the John Byrne Vision? Love it. I heard of when Henry Pym was insane (I never read the actual issues) but I doubt he was this entertaining at the time. I can't wait to see where this is all going. That the Black Knight is going to be more prominent in the next issue also makes me happy. I always liked him and Barry Reese made me even more of a fan. Kang is also a big favorite of mine, though he's no Doc Doom. Any chance Doom will show up? With how this series is I guess there's a chance anyone could.

Thanks kindly, my dear! I'm glad you're enjoying the John Byrne Vision (which is more than most people did when he first debuted back in '89, lol), and I highly suggest at least picking up Avengers Forever to see Yellowjacket in all his lounge lizard glory (or, you could also pick up the currently running Earth's Mightiest Heroes II, which is supposed to shed more light on Pym's breakdown).

As for Doctor Doom, hell, there's as good a chance of that as anything else in this series! I've added him to the "possible appearance" list, as per your request, so we'll see what happens in the future. Thanks again for the letter, Rena!

Our next letter comes to us from frequent letter-writer Greg Cruikshank:

Greetings, Mr. Munn, Once again, I find myself prompted to write you in regards to one of your fanfiction titles. And while I am presently starting second year university, and should probably be focusing more on my newly-assigned projects, I think I can afford a few more minutes of doing other stuff. Such as reading Avengers Immortal. Let me first start by saying: yes, there was a bit of a wait between first and second issue, which was kind of annoying. However, experience in reading your work has taught me that it's usually worth the wait, and sure enough, that is once again the case.

Thanks for being patient with the series, Greg. I highly regret the huge gap in time between issues # 1 and # 2, and it was no one's fault but my own I'm sad to say. Thankfully, there wasn't quite as long a wait between # 2 and # 3, lol.

Here we see one of the most diverse Avengers casts ever assembled. Mind you, that's kind of a given where alternate realities and timelines are involved, but consider who you've assembled: a heroine fresh off her rape in the Old West; a man trapped in his ancestor's body, enduring an unquenchable bloodlust; a synthezoid only JUST robbed of his emotions and memories; a largely-useless idealist; a slightly creepy sorceress who left the Avengers for unknown reasons; a guy who missed out on 1000 years of Earth history; and Yellowjacket. If that doesn't spell team conflicts and great characterization, then I don't know what. And then of course, there's Kang. And who doesn't like Kang?.....Well, maybe those people who loathe time-travel stories...whatever, I just hope there's more going on than we know. I mean, I'm familiar with the Busiek-era-honourable-military-tactician-and-general version of Kang, so the idea of his JUST being out to conquer stuff is a little uninteresting. Any chance he has an ulterior motive? Like, say, luring Immortus out into the open.....?

I'm glad you're digging the diverse cast I've assembled, even if one of them didn't make it out of the first story arc alive, lol. As for Kang, I'm one of those who really dug the "honorable general" personality given to him by Busiek, and that's honestly the version that you're most likely going to see in these pages - though that's not to say that Kang isn't going to be a ruthless son of a bitch.

Regardless, I'm sure this will prove to be an interesting series. This is the kind of freshness and originality which has been VERY SORELY declining in Marvel's Exiles title, and I look forward to seeing what other f***ed-up alternate timelines you can come up with. So, until Spider-Man and Wolverine join the Avengers in fanfiction as well as in reality(and I pray to every god that ever was that this will never happen), make mine M2K!

PS. Vote Chris Munn for new writer of Marvel's Avengers title! Restore the Scarlet Witch's honor, integrity, and chaos-magic!

Greg, you are too kind to me! I hope you stick with the series through the long haul, because I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at some of the tricks I have up my sleeve. Oh, and Spider-Man and Wolverine are scheduled to join the team with issue # 10...just kidding!

Next up is a review given to # 2 by Brent Lambert, the rock of M2K:

THE GOOD: I really am enjoying the cast in this issue.  It's oddball
but at the same time it feels right.  Mockingbird was always a
character I wish I could have seen more of so I'm glad she's being
written here.  And the Vision…oh how we have missed thee at M2K!  If
anyone was to write him I think Munn is the best person for the
job.  The initial scene of this issue was just perfect.  Kang's
ending line sealed the deal there.

THE BAD: Admittedly, after reading Bowie's Midnight Sons I can't
help but to compare here and Munn's Craig seems a lot drier in
comparison to the character in Sons.  Now this is a future version
of Craig so it can easily be written off as some massive life event
changing his outlook on things.  Libra also seem to just come a
little out of the blue for me.  Why did he specifically need to be
their guide?  Couldn't Immortus have just told them where to go when
he briefed them on the situation?  He seemed to know everything else
going on in the timeline.

OVERALL: A good issue. This title really pulls off being a mix of
Avengers Forever and Exiles, which is what I think Chris was going
for here.  I definitely intend to keep reading the series.

Finally this month is a review for # 2 by Tony Thornley, who has been one of the biggest supporters of the series on the Heroes list and the M2K forum:

This is a review of an issue I read last Thursday, so excuse me if I'm hazy on the details. There's a few constants in fanfic though. One is Chris Munn + Avengers = Great reading

Avengers Immortal #2 proves that again.

The team of time-lost Avengers are given their overall mission by Immortus as Kang makes his move. When they're sent after Kang to stop his move into a particular timeline, the Avengers discover they're going to have to do something that goes against everything they stand for.

The good- It's a strong issue. There's a lot of good character interaction throughout the issue, especially as the team considers the two moral choices before them- working with Immortus and the dilemma faced once they reach the timeline they're to rescue. Mockingbird is already my favorite, and Mr. Immortal is working towards that spot. There's also a good scene of action, which is something I consider a must in any story.

The bad- This issue is still mostly set-up. It's not terrible, as said set-up provides for some great interaction between Avengers, but sometimes you just want to see the ass-kicking that you know is coming.

Overall- A fun read and the next issue promises to be better.

Rating- 3.5 punches thrown of 5

Tony, you are a scholar and a gentleman for taking the time to review this series with each new issue. Thanks for all the comments, and something that's just dawned on me is how each person I've talked to have their own personal favorite Avenger so far. That's really good, because it means I'm not letting one character or two dominate in favor over the others, lol.

Thanks again for everyone that wrote me about # 2, and to everyone who caught me via instant message to talk to me about it. I promise that # 4 will be coming soon!

~ Chris Munn
01/13/05