Feb 9 - The End of the World as we Know It.

[Will Stanton]

"That's a little sharper, aye...but I've never been to Australia and have no plans of going--sounds like you have me confused for another me. Who is this?" Will said, fiddling with the comm some more.

[Rick Ferguson]

"Oh don't you DARE try to run away from me!!," Rick shouted at demons that tried to escape him. New life flared into his power, crisp sky blue, as he trailed after them, almost ignoring the new ones that had beset him. Though if their attention was also focused on him, he was quite alright with that for now.

[Calvin Strong]

"Another y- I watched you get on the plane myself." There was a hiss of static for a moment. "Sorry... bad connection on my end, this big tower just appeared in the middle of Central Park and it's spitting... I don't know, shadows or something out. They're playing havoc with our gear. Where did you say you were?"

[Will Stanton]

"That's a very good question I bet a lot of scientists would struggle to answer. We were fighting a 'Doctor Tomorrow'--one M--and I got tossed into his machine by Closer---now I'm in this mysterious white void. He's trying to destroy the universe."

[Narrator]

"Hold on for a minute, Taliesin."

There was a moment of silence, then the voice resumed. "This... tower keeps flickering in and out, like it's only half there, and your signal's matching it. Who did you say you were fighting? And do you have any idea how he's affecting New York from Australia?"

[Will Stanton]

"...I'm in London, so no.

And I'm not Taliesin. I go by Gwion.

Hold up, who am I speaking to? And do you know a "Mailaika Gabriel"?"

[Narrator]

The voice, if anything, sounded offended. "It's me. Thomas. Come on. And... no, doesn't sound familiar. Is that one of Ryan's cousins?" There was an explosion in the background. "Damn it, we- wait, what did you say your codename was?"

[Will Stanton]

"I don't know a Thomas, but if there are shadows popping out watch out, they are trouble, and quite possibly a dimensional ripple from the assault on this London.

And this is 'Gwion'. With a G."

[Narrator]

"Dimensional-" The voice was cut off by a quieter voice in the background.

"...yeah. Dimensional flux, and that signal's just dripping with temporal energy."

"You said something about a machine? Does it look like a big metal tower by any chance?"

[Will Stanton]

"It looks surprisingly like one, yes."

[Narrator]

"Copy that. Stand by." Again, Will could hear background conversation, with a buch of names that meant nothing to him being called off.

A moment later, a tiny speck of light appeared between Will and the ball.

[Will Stanton]

Will floated over towards it.

"I've got some kind of speck of light here."

[Narrator]

A second later, the speck exploded into a starburst of light. When Will's vision cleared, he'd see a young man, roughly his age, in an X-Uniform rolling slowly in the space in front of him. "Wow. I almost didn't think that'd work..."

[Will Stanton]

"Hi there. Will Stanton. And you'd be?"

[Narrator]

"Alex Ross. Starbrand. I- wow, holy crap you look young, I almost didn't believe him when he said what was in that tower." Starbrand looked around a little, then back at Will. "All right... I can tell you aren't from our world. You've got the same feel as the tower that popped into our world. What is that thing, though?"

[Will Stanton]

"Robert West, aka Doctor Tomorrow, is trying to get back to his home universe. This apparently requires the destruction of mine, and is causing bleeding into a thousand other universes or something.

And I'm against that."

[Narrator]

"Oh. Oh. Oh hell, that's not good. So this thing's destroying your world, then it pops up on mine... if it doesn't destroy our world too, it's at least going to screw it up. A lot. And I'll bet ours isn't the only world that has these things popping up. Hang on. They didn't send me just because I'm indestructible."

The... well, not air, but space around Alex seemed to shimmer, and glowing trails shot off in different directions. "I'm... feeling two... three... at least five other worlds that he's bleeding into pretty heavily. This... Wow."

He nodded, getting his game face on. "All right. What do you need?"

[Will Stanton]

"I need to blow up the machine, but, um...I don't exactly see a machine here. Like I said, the plan was for Closer to toss me into here so I could smash things up, but there's...really nothing to smash.

I turned my beacon on in case they were wondering where the hell I was. I mean, I'M wondering where the hell I am."

[Narrator]

"Oh, that? You're stuck in an extradimensional rift. Like, if each dimension is a brick in a wall? You're swimming in the cement holding them together," Starbrand said, dismissively, like it was an obvious answer. "So... a smashing crew, then? I think we can manage that."

[Will Stanton]

"If, that is, we can find what to smash. We gotta take it down, we're at.....well, I'm not sure, but not very much time at all, and my team was getting beaten down in there by those shadow things.

[Narrator]

"Well, we can't even touch this thing on my world, because it's... well, it's not really there. We've got to do it from yours. So yeah... my guys'll definitely help out, but we can't exactly bring many people, or those shadows'll go nuts without us holding them back." He hesitated. "Then again, if we don't do this, your world's toast, and it looks like six more Earths will follow suit."

[Will Stanton]

"Yeah, that'd be bad. We'll take anyone you can get.


This is kinda an X-Men Assemble moment, I suppose. I don't suppose you've got anyone with a history of stopping universe-destroying reality warpers, huh?"

[Narrator]

"Not really... I'm the big "cross to the other side of the wall" guy, and I've never seen anything this big. We had a few people pop in from whatever other dimensions last year, I think they had, but they all went home after they helped us beat Kang and then had a few beers."

[Will Stanton]

"Well, maybe we could use your help after this is all over; we've got some people trapped in our dimension from other dimensions--it's how this all started, Dr. Tomorrow trying to find his way back home."

[Narrator]

"Let's get this cleared up first. Stay right- er... I mean, I'll be right back." There was another starburst-explosion of light, and Will was once more alone.

[Will Stanton]

"Should have brought my dsQ," Will muttered.

[Robert West]

Meanwhile, back in Tomorrow's lair, the shadows had obeyed Rick's request not to run. He found himself suddenly surrounded by them, even with Cal helping him pick them off.

"Well, as fun as this is to watch, I think it's time that this little game ended. I do have a plane to catch, once I get my favorite thorn in my side back into her cubby." Anyone who had a chance to look up would see Tomorrow on a catwalk above them, tapping his staff on the ground.

[Narrator]

Will only had to wait a few moments before the burst of light heralded his extradimensional ally's return. This time, there were four others with him. One was a short and stocky man with skin made of black stone. Another seemed... mostly human, save for having four eyes offset like a spider's, fangs, and four spiderlike limbs emerging from his back. A taller girl engulfed in blue flame stood next to the stone man, and in the rear of the group was a lean, long-haired man whose power wasn't readily apparent. "All right... we've gone with quality over quantity here. Brute force, energy, healing, crowd control, we've got it all. Lock and load, X-Men."

[Will Stanton]

"Nice to meet you. Now, if you don't mind, let's go save the universe."

[Janice Gilbertson]

"Not likely, Tomorrow!"

Pulling Malaika back into her forcefield, Captain Britain made for... the ceiling. Apparently she was aiming to get Malaika out of there.

[Rick Ferguson]

"That's more like it," Rick said to the shadow-creatures, a scornful smile at the corners of his mouth. He performed a flying tackle into no less than three of them at once, recovering from that with a whirlwind kick to another...that actually had force of wind moving just ahead of it.

[Nick Varkan]

"Hey shadow dudes! If your pissed at your nest being disturbed," Nick said, pointing at Doctor Tomorrow, "There's your guy." Assuming that, in fact, the creatures didn't understand English, he also attempted to rattle the catwalk to draw the monsters' attention to the scientist.

[Calvin Strong]

"Great. First our big gun is gone, now she's jumping ship," Cal muttered, letting loose a torrent of electricity to drive the Shadows back. "Anyone got a plan here?" he added, glancing at Nick and Rick quickly while focusing on the job at hand.

[Robert West]

"Brilliant. Let's run off while your world ends. Sorry... that would be too much of a waste to allow," Tomorrow said, raising his staff. As if on cue, half of the shadows swarmed up at Janice, surrounding her and blocking her exit.

[Nick Varkan]

"Okay, I've fucking had it with that damn staff!" Nick shouted, sending out all of his destructive force to break the thing.

[Robert West]

Dr. Tomorrow didn't drop the staff, nor did it break. It did, however, knock him off balance, focused as he was on Janice. For his efforts, Nick got an icy burning hand to the chest from one of the shadows.

However, when the staff was slammed to the side, one of the demons charging Janice was thrown forward, too. It slammed into Janice and let out an inhuman shriek as it slammed into the Star Scepter and... well, exploded.

[Malaika Gabriel]

Malaika sent a blast of electricity at the staff. She didn't like being the damsel in distress, but she knew that she needed to get as far as possible from the machine.

[Janice Gilbertson]

"...well then, that changes... everything." Janice said, a grin in her voice.

She set Malaika down on one of the catwalks.

[Malaika Gabriel]

"Yeah." Malaika said electricity crackling between her fingers"On second thought, I'll stay and help you kick his ass."

[Janice Gilbertson]

"Then let's do this," she said as she charged at the shadow barrier around the machine, Star Scepter outstretched.