"So let's get this right," said Forge as he reviewed the papers and looked up at the man standing there, his arms folded impassively across his chest. "You're Hellios."

"In manner of speaking, yes, I am. My name is Achyls Nianias, and I am Hellios Prime."

"I don't understand," said GW Bridge, who was also here to listen to the latest hero from Greece present himself. "You look exactly like Niko Hrisalis. In almost every detail."

"My eyes," said Hellios. "I know."

"I meant mannerism, but now you mention it, yeah," said Bridge. "Explain to me how."

"Since the events of the battle in Greece some time ago, my government have been trying to repeat the super-solider program that created the original Hellios, however to eliminate some of the flaws that the original possessed."

"His rude, bad manners being the first to go?" suggested Bridge and Nianias smiled. 

"Not quite," he said. "If there were any side effects to behaviour they haven't been discovered this time. I meant the increased susceptibility to telepathic assault and influence. They believe that they have revised the formula to do so."

"Formula?" asked Forge. "I don't understand that myself." Hellios nodded, knowing that this may have been the case. Not everyone had been informed of the background of what had become known as the Hellios Project.

"It may have been omitted from the original report, however I have been authorised to tell you about the Greek Super Solider programme. Many years ago an alien craft crashed in Greece, or more precisely the Mediterranean. It was recovered but there was no sign of the alien visitor, but there was a great amount of vials containing various alien cultures."

"A great find," said Bridge. "Not a public one though."

"No," admitted Hellios. "With all the publicity surrounding the Fantastic Four and the arrival of Galactus on Earth, it seemed unwise at the time to do so. Also, Greece lacked the technology and scientific understanding to develop the cultures, but that changed over time and they realised that the cultures could be used to adjust the cellular structure of the test subjects."

"And the changes created the powers you possess, or Hellios possesses?"

"Yes," said Hellios. "However the human nervous system is not one hundred per cent compatible with the cultures and the body can reject the serum that has been altered, so we are required to be periodically recharged by the Ministry of National Defence, whom the project falls under. It keeps us... under control."

"I see," said Forge, interested in the alien cultures and wondering what race they were from and perhaps he could find out. It would be difficult...

"Wait a sec," said Bridge. "You said 'us'. You mean you and Hrisalis?"

"No," said Hellios. "There are now a dozen Hellios operatives at work in Greece and it's territories, restoring the damage done after the war. As I said earlier, I am Hellios Prime and it is I who will be stationed with the Excalibur Project."

"A dozen super soldiers?" said Forge, steepling his fingers. "Now that is impressive."

"Yes, the reasons behind the further revelations of the Hellios Project shows how proud our scientists and politicians are of the achievement. It is the one thing that Europe has lacked since the disbanding of the British Excalibur team and it is hoped that our fellow European Union members will come to rely on Team Hellios as the tool they deserve to be used as."

"Team Hellios?" said Bridge. "All made up of people called Hellios and look like you?"

"Yes, and no," said Hellios. "However they do all look like me, as I look like the original Hellios. He used to be a brown haired man, but the serum changed him in to what you saw, and see now. I used to be blonde myself, and the beard just grew in to place. It's a side effect our scientists have been unable to explain."

"And you're all call Hellios?" asked Forge and Hellios nodded.

"The other eleven members of the team are referred to by the designated letter. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Iota, Kappa, Omicron, Pi, Sigma and Omega. It is not all the letters of the alphabet, and we have eliminated letters that sound similar such as Theta and Upsilon."

"Good thinking," said Bridge. "I guess we'll meet them in due course. Forge?"

"The papers and documents are in order," said Forge. "He's been given leave to operate within all member countries of the United Nations, so his clearance is in accord with the Project Excalibur charter." He stood up. "Welcome aboard, Hellios," and he extended his arm, which the young Greek man accepted and then he shook hands with Bridge.

"I hope I last longer than the last one," he said with a wry smile.


"For God's sake, get off me," said John Walker, as he pushed the nurse away. "There's nothing wrong with me." He jumped off the bed and did a handstand, which while painful was nothing he hadn't taken before. "See all better, now leave me alone."

"Hi," said Neal Sharra as he looked in to the room as the nurse stormed out, glad to see the sonic burst hadn't affected the Agent too much. "Having fun?"

"What the hell do you want?" said USAgent, flipping back to his feet, holding back a wince as he did so.

"I was passing by on my way to work," said Savitar. "Figured I'd call in."

"Keep passing," said Walker. "I'm fine. Power Broker gave me super strength and stuff and years of training mean I can get up after a pasting."

"Doc Doom, though," said Neal. "Guy's a legend..."

"Yeah, a dead legend. Glad Richards drowned the bastard in the Arctic..."

"You've been watching E! again haven't you?" said Neal. There were conflicting reports over what had happened there and as Richards was refusing to comment the various agencies were making up their own stories. A minority view was that Richards had drowned von Doom and his armour had taken the dictator of Latveria to the bottom of the Arctic Circle. 

"Wouldn't put it past him," said Walker. "Most scientist types go psycho at some point and Doom's been askin' for it for years. Anyway, I'm fine and if they call us to the Helicarrier, I'll see you there."

"As long as you're okay," said Neal. Agent nodded and Neal headed back to the Tachyon office. The place was still in a state of shock over what had gone down between Jim Hammond and the Hulk in while he was in Vegas and they were still getting used to it. 

Then there was his relationship with Lindsay McCabe. He'd seen a lot of her, and he liked her a lot and he knew she was getting to know Jessica Drew again, and he'd not seen a lot of her. Things were changing and he wasn't sure where he quite fitted anymore. Excalibur... that made sense. They fought the good fight, stopped the bad guys and that was that. If it ever changed... He had amends to make for his past actions, he knew that, but he was starting to wonder what the true price would be. 

He wished he could be like the Agent - brash, inflexible and keeping everyone at a distance. He had seen in the Agent's eyes how many times he had been let down, or rather he had let down, people who had depended on him. The story of the closure of the Avengers West Coast was something people hadn't been able to avoid on the news and Excalibur... were intended to be bigger players than the Avengers. How and why the Agent had joined up was his business, but still... Neal sighed and stopped by a Starbucks. He needed a coffee.


Hauptmann returned from the soccer club to his apartment. He'd spent most of the morning training and getting ready for the first team match, but there was a lot of concern from his coach over his commitment to the team. Excalibur duties had meant he'd not been around a lot, and he'd missed some of the big matches. It had been a lot easier when he'd been a simple hero for the country instead of an international hero for the world. 

There was a time coming when he was going to be forced to make a choice between his life and his responsibility to the world and he was beginning to get tired of being a hero for the world. It had been fun, for a while but he wasn't paid to be a hero and he was for being a soccer player. It was how he made a living and he had no other skills. It was a simple career progression - player to manager. It was all he had ever wanted to do, and then he had developed his powers and things had changed. Germany did not have a great deal of heroes to it's name, or at least not a great deal of heroes who worked within Germany and he had become a name when all he wanted to play soccer.

He sighed as he sat in his apartment, and weighed up his options, debating what was the best thing for him to do. There wasn't a choice really, so he sat down and began to draft his letter of resignation. The time had come to make a choice and that was what he was doing.


"Welcome back," said Brian Braddock as he met Percival Rockford at Heathrow, and the hero and his mentor shook hands.

"Good to be home," said Rock. "Hello, Meggan." He lightly kissed Mrs Braddock on the cheek.

"Hi, Rock," she said. "It's been a while."

"Yes. How is the Eden Project going, I've been a little busy to keep up to date."

"It's going well," she said as the three of them walked. "We've just got the funding to expand the project and create some new domes, which is great. The eco-systems are thriving and there's not really anything like it elsewhere."

"Anything to do with a certain elemental?" said Rock, with a smile, knowing that while she was involved she was not using her abilities to make things work.

"No, silly," she said. "But I've never felt more alive when I'm there. I'm connected to everything there from the moment I walk in and it's like being in my true form every minute."

"So how long are you home for?" asked Brian as they made their way to the car.

"Until the next emergency kicks in, I guess," said Rock. "HERMES can teleport me direct to the Helicarrier, but Excalibur's UN sanction means that we're only called on if needed. We're not like the Avengers, or SHIELD. We don't have the autonomy that we'd like. Forge got raked over the coals over an unauthorised mission the other week."

"Ouch," said Brian, opening the door and allowing the others to get in before he did.

"Yeah," said Rock. "Last week would have been downtime as well, but for the stuff with Doom."

"He was a tricky customer," said Brian. "I remember when he tried to take over Limbo."

"Are you boys going to talk business all day?" asked Meggan.

"Just a little more," said Rock. "Forge has been looking in to a new SHIELD mandate, a special operation for them to undertake, but it's going to need support."

"What is it?" asked Brian.

"Doom's new Doombots used sentinel technology. The Mutant Underground Support Engine was recently taken out by sentinels, and Project Wideawake was ransacked for technology."

Brian went pale and Meggan closed her eyes.

"The Sentinel Dawn scenario..." said Brian. He had seen visions of the future when he had been lost in the timestream, he had seen the world where sentinels took over the earth, and he had even visited it with Excalibur one time.

"Yes," said Rock. "Forge wants to decommission the sentinels. Permanently. But the idea can't come from SHIELD because of the mutant angle of it directorship, so he was wondering if..."

"If I could pull some strings," said Brian.

"He wondered if I knew anyone who might," said Rock. "I've not told him about us, as yet."

"I see," said Brian. "But, and this is going to come up, how do we control renegade mutants."

"This," said  Rock, and passed Brian a file, with three letters stamped on the cover. 

XSE.


"And do you, Laynia Petrova, take Dimitri Gryzlov to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do," said Laynia, dressed in white rather than the black that was more familiar to the woman also known as Darkstar.

"Then," the minister continued, "I pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride." Dimitri looked in to Laynia's eyes and smiled, and they leant in to each other and kissed, much to the delight and applause of the audience. Many of Russia's greatest heroes were here, as they comprised her colleagues on the Winter Guard. Laynia had asked Dimitri to push ahead with the wedding, because of the recent experiences she had been through in the Darkforce Dimension and on the alternate reality.

Dimitri had agreed and now she was Mrs Dimitri Gryzlov. It made her happy and as they broke the kiss, her brother came over and shook Dimitri's hand. He was not dressed as Vanguard, but as Nicolai Krylenko. There was doubt as to what had happened to him in the events of the Starblast battle where he was supposedly killed, to his return, shortly before confronting the hero Daredevil. There was a period of time missing from his life that as yet nobody had accounted for and no amount of searching had been able to resolve the mystery, but for today he was content to stop looking for the missing time and share in his sister's happiness.

"Well done," he said to the man. "You've made my sister happier than I've seen her in a very long time."

"Thank you," said Dimitri, knowing how protective of his sister Nicolai was. "My gain is the Winter Guard's loss."

"Yes," said Nicolai and Laynia knew there were still things to be said about that. She had resigned her commission because she felt she could better serve with Excalibur, and she did not know the extent of the alteration of her powers and in the situations the Winter Guard were in, she would be a liability to them. In the downtime between Excalibur missions, she would be able to practice with her abilities and learn just how to use them.

"We have guests," she said. "Let's go greet the crowd." Nicolai nodded and Dimitri smiled and they left the small church to where there was an honour guard assembled and Laynia smiled.


"I've got it!"

Sabra managed to hold herself at a proper level and she smiled. It had been a long time since she'd been able to fly and the braces hadn't helped, but she'd finally adjusted and she was capable of doing things in the air once more.

"Well done," said Doctor Day Vangela as she watched the acrobatics in the air, "but give it five more minutes then rest. You can try again later."

"Yes, doctor," said Sabra glad that she was at least similar to her old self again and kept on flying, travelling through the hoops that had been set up for her to test the limits of her flight and Vangela smiled as she watched the young Mossad agent. There would be a reckoning soon enough, for her and all her people. Some treacheries would not go unpunished. She had given Ruth Bat-Seraph her life back, she would take it away soon enough and she had even told her.

Like her kind, they simply did not listen.


"GW!" called Forge as Bridge walked in to the new Armory command centre, or at least the centre where the new system had been developed. "Glad you could make it."

"You've done it?" asked Bridge and Forge nodded and passed him a visor, which Bridge placed on his face. "I look like Cyclops, don't I?"

"No," said Forge, though now that he mentioned it... "Press the button at the side of the visor." Bridge did so and the Armory system came to life in front of him. 

"Now that is cool," muttered Bridge. He walked around the suit and he could see himself walking around it in the corner of his eye.

"I've made a development or two," said Forge. "See the sensor input from the system in the bottom left?"

"Yeah?"

"That's because you're currently on dual mode. The chip we put in to your head earlier allows us to do this, and I'm glad you agreed."

"I thought it was to make the interface smoother," said Bridge.

"It does, but it also allows you to separate your actions from that of Armory and function as two separate beings. Dual function, or single function depending on what the situation," said Forge. "I had the idea after the Doom thing yesterday and made the adjustments last night. I know it will take some practice to get used to it, and everything you see is routed to a mainframe on the Helicarrier, which will also act as a gateway to the main database. You think of the question, it'll find the answer." Bridge disconnected.

"That's impressive work," said GW.

"Thanks," said Forge. "I've scheduled some field tests for tomorrow, if you're available."

"Nothing much else to do," said Bridge. "Did you have a chance to look over my proposal by the way?"

"Yes. Japan has been contacted and as far as I'm aware there's no problem. She should be arriving soon, as Leyu's replacement. Why her though?"

"Japan is lacking in heroes these days," said Bridge. "I liked her. Honey Lemon will be a good addition to the team and that Power Purse will be a good and useful tool."

"I've read the papers on it," said Forge. "It apparently uses a particle, not unlike the ones discovered by Henry Pym, but they're not Pym particles. They're something else entirely. I'll be pleased to meet her myself. I'll let you know if there's any change, but she should be with us soon enough."

"Thanks, Forge," said Bridge, and Forge nodded before making his way back to his office. Paperwork awaited, but today had been a very productive day, and he was starting to feel that this job was his.


"Is everything in order?"

"Yes, the preparations have been made. They didn't suspect a thing."

"Will he follow suit?"

"There are eleven of us and only one of him. There will be nothing he can do."

"He or his new found allies." 

"Agreed. We will found a new European order and the threats of sanctions from America will be dealt with once and for all."

"If our elected officials are incapable of dealing with America efficiently, then we will show them what can be done if the proper amount of force is used."

"The final stage will commence soon. Be ready."