He looked down from the visitor's gallery at the scene before him.

Hauptmann was surrounded by eleven of the Hellios super-soldiers. One man against the genetically enhanced warriors, and he knew there was very little he could to help the man, but he knew he had to try. He'd managed to find a fire axe, a javelin and a ceremonial sword and he hoped that would do all that he needed. He just had to cause a distraction and hope that Excalibur got here in time, but before he could do anything, Hauptmann vaulted one of the desks, and jumped at the nearest Hellios.

He couldn't fault the man's courage and that was for certain and he struck Iota and slammed the man to the floor before he could react. Hellios was more or less invulnerable, but he hadn't been prepared for that and Hauptmann obviously had a lot of strength to spare, and then he remembered the man absorbed kinetic energy to either boost himself or redirect at others. It was quite close to the powers of Maverick of X-Force and he wondered if the two of them were related in some way. Before he could ponder it further, Hauptmann was being pounded on by Kappa, Omicron, Pi and Sigma and after a moment Hauptmann threw them all of using the power of their blows against him.

"Stop wasting your time," ordered Alpha and Beta grabbed hold of Hauptmann's left arm and Gamma grabbed hold of his right, and they both held the man tight and he was trapped. "Now we'll see if his energy absorption will save him from our solar blasts." He could see their eyes glowing with power and he knew if he was going to make a move it had to be now and he smashed the glass of the gallery and the Hellios soldiers looked up.

"Who the hell is that?" Omega asked as they looked at the masked man who jumped down, landing foot first on top of Gamma, bouncing off the man's head and giving Hauptmann the chance to turn the man's hold against him and slam him in to Beta.

"Someone who doesn't like terrorists," he said.

"Fool," said Alpha and fired his eye beams at him, but he moved. He may not have had his powers anymore, but he was still in shape and though the beams only just missed him, they still missed him. He smiled thinking of the time he fought Hauptmann Englande. No costume, intermittent, and completely out of his mind for doing it, but it was what needed doing.

Except this time, he knew his powers were gone and they weren't going to come back. He threw the javelin at Alpha who got it between the palms of his hands and shook his head and he threw it right back at his attacker. It flew through the air with incredible speed and it struck him in the arm and he felt the bone snap.

"You should not have thrown away your life," said Alpha coming over to him and he looked down at him and pulled the mask away from him. "Do I know you?"

"No," said Brian Braddock as he looked up at him. "But they do." There was a shimmering in the air and then they appeared. "Guess HERMES is back online."

"Excalibur," said Alpha and threw Braddock as hard as he could, slamming him in to a wall.

"NO!" cried Union Jack as he watched his mentor impact hard, the sickening crack echoing. 

"Take 'em down," commanded Bridge's voice from the Armory unit and Excalibur went to work. In the corner of the room, Brian Braddock coughed and looked at his hand to see blood and he realised something was very badly wrong.


She dashed across the skies, needing to get there, knowing that her help was needed. She needed to go faster, fly faster than she had ever flown before. She had covered such a great distance already and it would only be moments before she arrived and then there would be a reckoning.

Nobody would deny her what she wanted and she would fight the gods themselves to get it. She just hoped she wasn't too late and she pressed on, pushing herself beyond the limits of her powers, changing shape as she moved.  


Bridge landed the jet a short way from the building and contacted SHIELD for a HERMES teleport inside to join the rest of his team. He knew Hauptmann had gone one on one with the original, but Armory was the only member of the project to have taken Hellios down and so he needed to get in there. The energy field surrounded him and then in a moment he was inside and he watched. There were eleven Hellios soldiers and there were only nine members of Excalibur. They needed back up but there was nobody to help and there wasn't much eh could do either, except formulate a plan of some kind.

However he had noticed that the members of the European Parliament were taking advantage of the situation to get out of the chamber, which was good. It was one less thing to worry about, but then Bridge saw Brian Braddock and he dashed over to him. Forge had mentioned to keep an eye out for him.

"Braddock!" he said, but Braddock seemed to be in shock and Bridge checked his pulse. His pulse was weak and his face was pale and Bridge knew that something was definitely wrong with him. He looked over to his people and wondered what the hell he could do to help them. He wondered if he ought to call Forge and get the reserves sent in, but they weren't the dedicated team, and how much could someone like the Black Panther do against these people? What he knew of Hellios was that they were granted their powers through a serum made of an alien culture and it somehow altered them, allowing to living solar batteries.

Bridge had used Armory to drain Niko Hrisalis of his energy in Alaska and hit him with it. It had been lucky, because there was nothing else that seemed to affect him. However that was the original Armory and Forge had worked hard at ensuring that the flaws in it's design were taken out. If they found more flaws, they'd have them fixed as well. He could see that forge used that aspect of the Directorship to relax, but then he focused back on the issue at hand.

Darkstar and Savitar seemed to be holding their own. Darkstar's darkforce was more than a match for Iota and Kappa, while Savitar was able to keep out of Gamma's reach and was hitting him with his flames, generating intense heat and even Hellios was having to back away.

Hellios Prime was taking on Hellios Alpha and that was a grudge match beyond anything he had ever seen. Two identical warriors attacking each other with all they had - one fighting the madness of his twin, the other fighting the foolish idealism of his brother. If the cameras were still on the audience were getting one hell of a show out of it all.

Then he looked over to where Armory was and saw the suit wrestling with Hellios and smiled, thinking he was doing quite well with the suit so far. The adamantium finish it had been given ensured that Hellios' blows were doing nothing to the outside of it and Omicron was getting more infuriated by the moment, because the suit should have been easy to crush and he couldn't understand why it wasn't working.

That was four of the team doing quite well, but the others were not so advantaged. USAgent had enhanced strength, but it was nothing compared to the power of Hellios and he was being forced to use the energy shield to protect himself from Epsilon. His handguns had proved useless and he was being backed away, trying to find some kind of edge. He was supposed to be the replacement Captain America, but this was akin to facing the Hulk or someone single-handed and not even Steve Rogers could do that for long. 

Union Jack was in the same boat. His body armour was good but it was little protection and his weapons too were of ho use. However Bridge could feel the intensity coming from the man and while he was at a decided disadvantage, he could feel the man planning something special. MI6 agents were pretty damned good, and Rock had proven himself time and again. It was going to be a close one and while he favoured his man, Bridge was unsure if he could last long enough against Omega to figure something out.

Sabra was also at a disadvantage. Having only recently recovered from her injuries, thanks to some medical devices, she was still not 100% in the field and though she had done well in Pakistan, this was a different arena. The edge she brought to the table was her experience and skill to match the pure power of Hellios Beta. So far she was doing well and her ability to strike at nerve points was helping her out, but Beta was recovering quickly. Bridge shook his head, thinking how this would be a lot easier if they had a telepath of some sort, someone who could attack the minds of their enemies to distract them long enough. They didn't have that on the team and after Alaska, he should have considered it, but with the disbanding and then the battle in Greece it had been a long time.

Then a cry caught his attention and he turned to see Hellios Sigma fighting against a portal that had opened. Honey Lemon had reached to one of the pouches on her Power Pockets and pulled something out that had created a wormhole. The wormhole was sucking the man in and even with his great strength he couldn't fight it - he was simply too close and because of his bulk he was ensuring that the suction power of the vortex was only pulling in papers and not anybody else. Then in a moment he was gone and the portal closed and Honey Lemon smiled.

"Nice one," Bridge commented.

"Would have done it sooner," she answered, "I just forgot which pouch I placed it in."

"Any more?" he asked and she shook her head. "It's good for one trip every twenty four hours."

"Where is he, anyway?"

"I'm not sure," she replied. "I've never been able to get anything back to tell me..." Bridge's eyes went wide as he realised it. Hellios Sigma could be anywhere, literally. "It's not ideal," Honey Lemon continued, "but I had no choice. And there is one of them missing."

Bridge looked around. He could see Hauptmann dancing with Pi, but Delta was nowhere to be seen.

"He's gone after the MEPs," he said. "I've got to do something."

"Forgive me," said Honey Lemon, "but what can you do? You're just one man."

"I know," said Bridge, thinking of how much his hand ached the last time he'd hit Hellios and then the man had let him to show Bridge how ineffectual he really was. "But I have to try."

"I'll go," she said. "If you're hurt then we lose Armory as well." Bridge nodded. That made sense, but he had the need to make a difference and even though he was out of his league here, he wished there were something he could do.

"Okay," he said, "but have you anything to help him?" He looked down at Braddock, who seemed to be getting worse and Honey lemon gave Bridge something.

"Try that," she said and Bridge saw it grow and become a medical stabiliser. SHIELD had been working on one for years, but this was an actual model.

"Thanks," he said and fitted it on to Braddock's arm, and he hoped it would keep him alive long enough to get proper medical aid. 


At the United Nations, the Secretary General watched the scene unfold before him as Excalibur took on the Hellios super-soldiers. Even he was impressed by what he was seeing, for even the lesser and non-powered people were keeping alive for longer than he expected. And it was also impressive that Honey Lemon was the first to dispatch one of the super soldiers. He had chosen well, though they would make excellent warriors in the New Order and he turned for a moment and looked outside the window at the world.

Over the city a storm had gathered and lightning crashed from the sky. It was a sign. It was the first sign and he watched as a bolt of great power flashed from the sky. He watched as he saw it strike the top of the Empire State Building, striking the building's lightning rod and sending the sheer power of the bolt 1,454 feet downwards and he could sense that it was no coincidental bolt of lightning that had struck. The spot had been marked and the Secretary General smiled.  The first sign had occurred and then there was a knock at the door. 

"Come in," he said and Tracy, his personal assistant came in. "Yes, Tracy?" he asked, turning away from the window.

"We've been asked about the situation in Europe," she asked coming across to him. "The Daily Planet wants to know if we feel that Excalibur is doing more harm than good?" Then the lightning flashed again and Tracy screamed.

"It's just the storm," soothed the Secretary General.

"You're not... you're not him..." Tracy gasped, fear in her eyes. "You look like him, but you're not..."

"I see," he said, softly and looked on her and Tracy stopped shaking under his gaze. "That's the problem with storms like this. They often reveal too much... I'm so very sorry, my dear." Fear was in Tracy's eyes and then her eyes went wide as intense pain shot through her.

"Tracy!" he shouted as she fell to the floor. "God, no!" It was then people rushed in to see what the commotion was about. "The lightning," he said. "There was a large flash, she screamed and then clutched her chest."

"I'll call the paramedics," said someone and another person checked her.

""She's not breathing, there's no pulse..."

"I know CPR," the Secretary General said and they started to work on her and try and bring Tracy back to life.


Dr Stephen Strange was in his Sanctum Sanctorum on Bleeker Street when the storm came and as the lightning flashed, he felt a headache forming. The Sorcerer Supreme didn't just get headaches and he knew that something was seriously amiss, but he couldn't quite place what it was. 

Just then a bolt flashed and struck the Empire State Building he had to close his eyes as the pain hit him hard. He steeled himself and opened his eyes. Something powerful had just occurred, something great and he knew that as Master of the Mystic Arts it was up to him to find out what had just happened and he left the privacy of his home and headed up Fifth Avenue.


Honey Lemon ran quickly outside, thinking that it was going to be an interesting thing to take on Hellios Delta. His brother had been very powerful and she had gotten very lucky, having just the right thing to send him on his way, but she was unsure as to what she had that would be able to deal with a second one. She was similar to Bridge in that she had no powers, but the items in her Power Pockets would have to do. 

She had such a wide variety of equipment she would find something that would work well enough. There were times she missed the Pouch because she had just reached in and grabbed it but with the belt she had to remember where she had actually put things. It was at times quite annoying and then she saw Hellios, standing there, taking down some of the MEPs who had not gotten very far and she put her fingers in her mouth and whistled and Delta turned around.

"You want to pick on someone your own size?" she said and he dropped the man he had been attempting to pull the arms off and he laughed.

"You will make a fine concubine," he said.

"I doubt that," she said reaching in to a pouch, pulling something and throwing it at him. It struck him in the middle of his face and exploded on impact, sending a metallic dust in to his eyes and Hellios cried out as he was blinded.

"Run!" she cried to the people who were simply standing and watching. There was something about super-battles that made people stand around and watch, because they thought they wouldn't get hurt. "NOW!" she shouted as Hellios fired energy blasts from his eyes, clearing the dust from his eyes and he flew at her. Honey Lemon reacted quickly, pulling a net from her pockets and throwing it, but Hellios blazed through it as if it were little more than paper and Nyoko wondered which net she had used. It certainly hadn't been the vibranium one she had been working on, because it had torn too easily and in a moment Hellios was on her.

"Before I snap your neck, I want to hear you cry," he said and she scrambled to find something in her pouch, but he used his other hand to tear it away from her. "Not this time, little girl," said Hellios. "I've always had a thing about Asian women..." Honey Lemon kicked him in the crotch, but Hellios simply laughed it off. "The perks of invulnerability," he said and pinned her against the wall. "Good job you wore a mini-skirt, it'll make it quicker." Honey Lemon was suddenly scared. Death didn't scare her, but rape did and she called out for help but Hellios simply laughed and she knew she was in serious trouble and then there was a loud crash and Hellios turned.

"Who the hell are you?" he said looking at the young woman who had just crashed through the wall.

"Let her go," she said, looking directly at him. "Or I'll hurt you."

"What can you do?" he said and then he felt the energy inside him rebel against him and he let go of Honey Lemon as pain filled him. "What are you doing to me?"

"Your powers are element based, and I'm an elemental," she said walking over to him and then with one punch she laid him out on the floor and Hellios didn't move.

"Thank you," said Honey Lemon as she retrieved her belt. "Thank you so much, Miss...?"

"Braddock, but you can call me Megan."