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Universe 1206
The blackness of deep space

Death was not a new sensation to the being known as Thanos, nor was it one he feared. Each time the life had faded from his powerful form, his beloved would welcome him into her arms like a lover returning from war. This time, though, things were different; there was no warm welcome, no comforting light, no nothing. There was only the cold loneliness of space.

It was clear his beloved had shunned him due to his failure. He had deliberately freed Galactus from Annihilus’ doomsday weapon, ending the Annihilation War and saving billions of lives. Surely this displeased Death, resulting in the Titan’s spirit floating listlessly in space beside his own corpse rather than being accepted into the afterlife.

The spectre cried out in despair but his own ghostly voice had no substance. He screamed in rage and begged Death to accept him, before focusing his incredible will in an attempt to relocate his spirit to a more suitable location. Instead a tear formed in the fabric of reality, not unexpected considering the death energies radiating from his form and his attempt to bend reality.

From within the tear came a small black item, a ring, flying like a bullet toward his corpse. A foreboding voice accompanied the ring, one devoid of any emotion.

|(Thanos of Titan. RISE.)|

---

The Panoptichron
Nowhere, nowhen

Axel Asher nearly fell out of his chair when he sensed the massive surge of energy piercing the multiverse. He clasped his head as the pain lanced between his temples.

“Axel Asher, are you well?” asked a nervous Timebroker, the stick insect-like creature timidly approaching.

“Get away from me!” snapped Asher, slapping the creature away. He didn’t trust the creatures one iota and he definitely wasn’t letting them near him in a moment of weakness. He caught a glimpse of himself in a crystal monitor: gaunt, haggard, a shadow of the man he once had been. The Monolith had done this to him; he hadn’t slept in weeks because everytime he closed his eyes he could feel the beast searching for him. If it did, it would use him as a means to destroy not one, but all of the multiverses.

Apparently, though, the entity had grown impatient and was searching for other means with which to wreak destruction. With its phenomenal power, the Monolith had punched a gateway through from one multiverse to another. Something was passing through, something extremely dangerous.

“Send the Exiles to Earth 1206 now!” he shouted at the Timebreakers.

“But Axel Asher, the mission on Earth 1984 is not yet complete!”

“DO IT!”

---

Earth 1984

To Frankie Rayner life had never been normal, but in the past week things had taken a turn for the downright bizarre. Take right now for example: the young woman was in the thick of combat with a yeti Captain America upon an elaborate temple atop the Empire State Building.

Her companions, the Exiles, were an even more eclectic group than her companions back home, such as Doctor Strangefate, White Witch and the Skulk. They too fought valiantly against Xemnu the Titan’s various yeti thralls, though Frankie was in the best position to complete their mission.

The goal was simple: destroy Xemnu’s crown (actually advanced alien technology that transformed every human on Earth into a facsimile of his yeti-like form, under his mental control). Unfortunately, that involved fighting their way through every superhuman on Earth, complete with extra yeti superstrength.

Flashes of pink light burst repeatedly all about the temple; Blink, the team’s leader, was trying to teleport towards Xemnu but found herself constantly blocked by yeti Nightcrawler. Meanwhile, Power Princess, as haughty as she was strong, was grappling with the Thing on the far side of the building while Sabertooth and Longshot were fighting back a horde of yeti Multiple Men. Morph was the only other Exile close enough to get to Xemnu, but even he had opponents to get through.

She struggled to pull Captain America’s powerful hairy arms from around her throat when suddenly the pressure was gone, along with yeti Captain America, the temple and even the sun.

“What the--did someone get the crown?” asked a surprised Morph, the shapeshifter posing as King Arthur to emphasize the question.

Longshot and Sabertooth sat down in the dirt, back to back, exhausted. It was actually kind of cute, except for the fact they were all sitting in a dark graveyard.

“No, it was still there when we teleported out,” replied Jade Nova, rubbing her bruised throat.

“Victor, what’s Asher saying?” asked Blink.

Asher. Just hearing that name made Frankie sick. To think the rest of the Exiles mistrusted her, thinking she was a plant placed on the team by Axel Asher. Well, except for Longshot, who had been nothing but accepting since Asher wrenched her from her world and dumped her on this team of misfits.

Sabretooth suddenly clamped both hands to his head and snarled in pain. “The ass is screaming in the Tallus! Calm down!” he yelled into the golden bracelet on his muscular arm. After a moment he seemed to relax. “Ok, there’s some sort of major crisis about to unfold, doesn’t know what…okay, now he’s babbling something about a monolith.”

“The guy’s bat$#!t crazy,” replied Morph, in a straight jacket. “Hey, is that the Avenger’s Mansion?”

Morph was right, the group had been teleported into the graveyard of the Avengers Mansion, which looked to be in ruins. Was Asher trying to freak them out? Frankie wondered. Suddenly, Sabretooth was on his feet, causing Longshot to tumble backwards.

“Asher says its happenin' now.”

Almost as soon as he finished the sentence something whizzed past like a bullet, followed by many more. Frankie instinctively threw up a shield of green energy to protect the team from whatever was attacking them and quickly the assault eased.

“Is someone out there?” asked Blink. “Victor, what do your senses tell you?”

“I’m more worried about what’s going on down there,” replied Victor, pointing to the ground nearby.

|(Scott Lang of Earth. RISE!)|

|(Anthony Druid of Earth. RISE!)|

|(Vision of Earth. RISE!)|

The strange, ominous voices kept coming and seemed to emanate from the ground itself. Suddenly the graveyard erupted with activity as several figures burst from the soil.

“Undead fiends!” gasped Power Princess.

Frankie rolled her eyes, though the woman was right; they were being confronted by several dead Avengers. The corpses displayed varying levels of decomposition (except for Vision; he was missing the whole lower half of his body). They also all appeared to be wearing similar black uniforms with a matching logo: an upsidedown white triangle, with several lines coming off the top.

“Put them back in the ground!” ordered Blink, after getting the nod from Sabretooth that that was the mission.

The pink skinned mutant hurled her crystal javelards at the zombies but the central creature, the Ant Man, raised his hand and created a wall of black energy from an obsidian ring on his right hand.

“Oh god, Lanterns!” gasped Frankie. What were they doing here?

“Do you know these beasts?” asked Longshot, and Frankie cursed the handsome man’s lucky hearing.

“Ah, no, my mistake,” she lied as she hurled emerald flame at the black wall.

Jade Nova was one of the unfortunate few who knew the truth about her world; that she and everyone else there was in fact an amalgam of two people from two different universes. She cursed the day Doctor Strangefate told her she was an combination of a woman named Frankie Ray and a man named Kyle Rayner, who was something known as a Green Lantern.

It was psychologically damaging enough to know your whole existence is a lie without finding out half of your existence comes from a man. She’d once slapped the White Witch when the bitch had insinuated she played up her sexuality in an attempt to compensate for the fact she felt she wasn’t all woman.

It was impossible to see beyond Ant Man’s black wall so the group were caught by surprise when then zombies suddenly erupted from the ground behind them. The desiccated hand of the female Yellowjacket grabbed her by the throat and punched her so hard stars danced before her eyes. It did, however, give her the chance to see the black ring up close. It was certainly similar to a Green Lantern ring. Did Asher send them here for her?

“Fear,” stated the Black Lantern coldly and sunk her talonned fingers into Frankie’s chest.

An instant later she disappeared in a flash of pink light, leaving Jade Nova to fall to her knees, clutching her wounded chest. Thankfully the creature hadn’t sunk her claws in too deep.

“Frankie, are you ok?” asked a concerned Blink, helping her to her feet.

“Just a scratch,” she replied. Blink was gone in a second, rejoining the battle; there was no time for talk.

“Get your head in the game Rayner!” shouted Power Princess as she crushed Doctor Druid’s head into powder.

Once again, as agitating as Zarda was, the woman was right; normally she would never be careless enough to let an enemy get so close. Shaking the fear from her mind she flew into the air and fired an energy blast at Black Lantern Vision, who had Longshot ensnared in a series of black energy chains. The blast seemed to genuinely hurt the synthezoid as it knocked it aside.

Longshot’s chains quickly faded, “Thanks,” he said with a smile.

“Any time handsome.”

From the air she was able to better assess the situation: the Exiles were outmatched by the undead Lanterns. Along with their own abilities each foe also appeared to possess flight, super strength and similar energy constructs to herself, not to mention the fact they seemed unkillable. Doctor Druid was already back on his feet, despite losing his head just a few minutes ago.

“We’re not going to win this fight!” shouted Blink. “I’m getting us out of here!”

BLOOONK!

For the second time in five minutes the Exiles were teleported during the middle of a battle, at least this time it was by choice. They stood on top of a building in New York City where, even this late at night, the city was still noisy.

“What the hell was all that?! It was Night of the Living Super Dead back there!” exclaimed Morph.

“Asher, you useless creep, you nearly got us killed back there!” growled Sabretooth into the tallus.

“I’m sorry, I panicked,” replied a snobbish English voice from behind them.

A diminutive man dressed as a butler had manifested behind them; the Timebroker, a holographic image employed by the operator of the Crystal Palace. The Exiles never had been able to figure out how to change the image.

“What were those things? What’s going on?” demanded Blink.

“They’re called Black Lanterns and they don’t belong in this multiverse, let alone on this world. The…creature that tried to use me to destroy the multiverse, it sent them here and, like introducing foreign animals into an ecosystem that can’t handle them, they’re going to spread and destroy everything.”

A piercing scream broke the night air and the team ran to the edge of the building. Several stories down a middle aged woman frantically climbed out of a window and tried to scramble down a fire escape. A Black Lantern burst through the wall behind her and grabbed the woman by the hair. Before the team could do anything the undead beast said, “Fear” and rammed his hand into the woman’s torso, ripping out her heart.

An ominous voice, the same one they heard when the dead Avengers rose, said |(15 Percent!)|

Though they were too late to save the woman, Blink hurled a javelard at the creature, teleporting it somewhere far away.

“I sent it to the bottom of the marriana trench,” she explained, before turning back to the Timebroker sharply, “What was that about? Who was that voice?!”

“I…I don’t know. The bugs can’t get a read on the world the Lanterns came from; they can only glean the most basic information. All I know they kill and they kill until they bring something very bad into the world. Armageddon bad.”

“And what are you going to do about it!” snapped Frankie.

“I’m going to send you to do your job! Don’t forget our deal, Rayner!” snapped Asher right back as the Timebroker faded away.

Five sets of eyes fell upon her with varying expressions of rage, smug satisfaction, disappointment and confusion. Frankie’s heart sunk; they already mistrusted her enough, without Asher seemingly confirming their fears.

“What deal, Frankie?” asked a concerned Longshot. Despite his naivety and instant trust, it was heartbreaking to see that even he was becoming suspicious.

“It’s not what you think…”

“This’ll have ta wait,” interrupted Sabretooth, though he looked like he’d rather be ripping Frankie’s guts out, “cuz Asher’s sent his orders through the Tallus. We need to go somewhere called Greenwich Village”

---

Moment later…

“The Santcus Sanctorum is becoming a Starbucks?!” exclaimed Morph.

“That is what the sign says,” stated Longshot, “What’s a Starbucks?”

“Could Asher have made a mistake?” Blink asked Sabretooth.

“Nah, he’s adamant this is the place.”

“It’s a spell,” stated Jade Nova, before explaining, “My ring lets me see various forms of energy, including mystical.”

“Ok, let’s go in. Jade, warn us if you see any traps,” ordered Blink, though it was clear she was hesitant to put her life in Frankie’s hands.

The group cautiously entered the large three story mansion only to find a large, completely empty entrance hall within. A thick layer of dust suggested the building had been abandoned for several months.

“It’s an illusion,” stated Frankie, “though I can’t tell what’s beyond it.”

“Doctor Strange, please don’t be afraid, we’re here to help you!” yelled Blink to the empty room.

An instant later the air shimmered and the room transformed into a clean, fully furnished den. The occupancy also doubled, as the Exiles found themselves surrounded by Doctor Strange and his allies; Wong, Spider-Man, Ms Marvel and Luke Cage.

“Speak quickly child, the world is going to hell and I have little time to spare,” stated Doctor Strange, “and know that I’ve cast enchantments that will prevent any form of violence.”

“We don’t have time to explain, but we know you’re about the cast a spell to try and stop what’s happening. We’re here to protect you while you do it,” explained Blink.

“Thanks for the offer, pink pixie, but we’re already on it,” stated Spider Man. “Besides, do you really think we’re going to trust a bunch of strangers that randomly show up out of the blue looking like Xena, Gumby and Sabretooth-lite?”

Victor was incensed. “Sabretooth-lite? I am Sabre-mmhhm!” but suddenly found Morph’s hands wrapped around his mouth.

“Trust us, Spider Man, you’re going to need all the help you can get,” replied Blink.

Longshot stepped forward. “Please, Doctor, cast any spell you believe would show our truthfulness.”

“That won’t be necessary,” replied the sorcerer with a weary smile, “the truth spells have already been cast. Your assistance is welcome. Please, make introductions and follow Mr. Cage’s directions while I make preparations.”

Longshot took the opportunity to take Frankie aside. “Please Frankie, explain to me this deal Axel Asher referred to.”

The young woman sighed in resignation; she might as well explain. “My world, it’s not like any other. It’s actually an amalgam of two very different worlds and all the people are amalgams for people from those two worlds too.”

“Including you?”

She sighed and hesitated, before answering, “Yes, including me.” She refused to tell him about her Kyle Rayner half though; he was just too damn cute to know.

“So what does this have to do with your deal with Asher?”

“Asher’s the one responsible for creating my world. Originally he merged two whole multiverses to save them from destroying each other but reversed it when the problem was fixed. He kept my world though, one universe from each multiverse, as a means of forever bridging the two multiverses. One day, I was doing a job for my employer, Doctor Strangefate…”

Longshot glanced over at Doctor Strange, who was painting runes on the floor and Jade Nova stated, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure he was part of my boss’ amalgam. Anyway, one day I was doing a job for my boss when my associate, the Skulk, suddenly split into two people; a raging green monster and a white zombie giant. After that everyday people on the street started splitting as well. An instant later Asher shows up. He threatens to destroy my world, split it back to its original components, if I don’t work for him.”

“Frankie, I don’t see why you needed to hide this from us…”

“There’s more. Asher said that the time would likely come where I would have to betray you all. He knew you would do everything in your power take him out and he needed someone on the inside.” Her head dropped. “You were all exactly right about me.”

Longshot placed a reassuring hand on the blonde woman’s shoulder. “I know in my heart you would not have followed through with Asher’s plans for you.”

“And now my world is doomed. He's probably already undone the amalgamation,” she cried.

Longshot smiled. “Something tells Asher’s a little distracted at the moment. Besides, you have luck on your side.”

Doctor Strange called out from the center of the room. “I’m ready. Please take your places.”

The group took their various places throughout the mansion, guarding doors, windows, any possible entrance into the building. Despite the powerful magical wards, Asher had been adamant that as soon as Strange began his spellcasting the Black Lanterns would converge on them.

The sorcerer crossed his legs and began to chant. “Shivum kae’l dae’strith…” The magical words seemed to blend into each other and sounded like a thousand spiders skittering all over each other. It almost made her nostalgic for the old days working for Doctor Strangfate.

A strong red glow emanated from the runes painted on the floor and Strange was surrounded by a corona of energy as he levitated off the floor; the spell was really starting to kick up steam.

A ruckus could be heard upstairs and a moment later Ms Marvel flew down the hall, with three Black Lanterns hanging off her.

“I’m on it!” shouted Spider Man, leaving Jade Nova and Longshot in the main den with Strange.

The main doors burst down behind Frankie and several Black Lanterns tried to force their way in, only to be blocked by a wall of emerald energy.

“Green Lantern,” snarled one undead, whom Frankie recognized from a previous mission as the Scourge, a murderous vigilante. The Scourge should have no idea what a Green Lantern was, which suggested it was the ring pulling the string and the corpse was just a puppet.

“Jade Nova actually!” she screamed, engulfing the Lantern and his horde with green flames.

Despite Longshot’s good luck, he was having less success holding back the hordes of superpowered undead, and from the sounds emanating from elsewhere in the building, neither were the others. Luke Cage smashed through the floor, crushing an undead beneath him and pounding it a few times for good measure.

“Sweet Christmas these goons are tough!” he exclaimed.

Suddenly the entire mansion shuddered and a large section of the upper floors collapsed down upon them. Only due to a combination of Frankie’s dome construct and Longshot’s luck did the quartet avoid being crushed.

“Oh god, Bill! Not you too!” gasped Luke.

Above them, looking down through the hole, was a gigantic Black Lantern. The dead man was a giant with a massive hole in his chest. He reached down to crush them but the fist was intercepted by Power Princess, who pushed it back with great strain. The powerful woman quickly shot around and flew full force into Goliath’s face, knocking him out of view from the hole.

A horde of Black Lanterns swamped in through the newly created hole and Jade Nova held them off as best she could. The strain was intense as a multitude of undead pushed against the green brick wall she had constructed before the hole. It was too much for her and, slowly, Black Lanterns began slipping inside. Longshot and Luke Cage took as many as they could and Frankie split her focus to summon giant fists and chains to ensnare the creatures.

One managed to slip through though, a bulky minotaur-like creature who made a beeline for Doctor Strange. The sorcerer hesitated for a moment when he saw the Lantern.

“Rintrah?” asked the shocked Doctor Strange, “Oh, my apprentice, what did they do to you?”

“Stop him!” screamed Frankie, who was unable to make a move.

“Get away fiend!” cried a voice from the upstairs balcony. Wong leaped the railing and delivered a devastating kick to the Black Lantern Rintrah, surely enhanced by magical forces.

“Will,” stated Rintrah, clearly sensing Wong’s strong sense of willpower and, before anyone could warn him, the beast rammed his hand into the manservant’s chest and ripped out his heart.

|(Twenty-eight Percent!)|

Doctor Strange’s anguished scream broke through the din of the room with a pain like Frankie had never felt before. Cage was at his side within moments, attempting to convince him not to break the spellcasting. Something he said must have got through, as the sorcerer returned to chanting, though he refused to take his eyes off Rintrah.

The Black Lantern discarded Wong’s heart like a piece of rubbish and stalked toward Doctor Strange. The doctor’s eyes hardened at the sight but he refused to cease his chanting.

“Rage,” snared the undead minotaur, as Cage and Longshot intercepted him.

Strange’s chanting built to a crescendo and the white hot corona growing around him suddenly exploded outwards, engulfing everything.

|(Connection severed!)| stated Rintrah’s ring before the creature turned to ash.

The light continued to spread outwards, having the same affect on every Black Lantern inside the building and nearby, before eventually dissipating.

“Was that it--?” Frankie began to ask, but Strange’s head suddenly snapped back and an intense beam of white light shot up through the roof and into the heavens.

Bliiink!

The rest of the Exiles, along with Ms Marvel and Spider-Man, blinked into the den.

“Is it over?” asked Blink.

“No,” stated Strange, exhausted, as he knelt beside Wong’s body. “My…distraction meant I couldn’t complete the spell fully. I destroyed every undead in New York City but the rest all over Earth remain unharmed.”

“Then we failed,” said Blink angrily, kicking a stray piece of rubble.

“Not entirely. As my spell destroyed Rintrah I sensed a connection to a dimensional rift being severed. I weaved a spell to trace it back to its source to bring back aid.”

Frankie was impressed; Strange had managed to weave a spell in the blink of an eye that could pass into another dimension. She could only imagine what it would bring back.

---

Titan, Moon of Jupiter

Thanos watched coldly as the life faded from Mentor’s eyes. He took no enjoyment from it, as he was beyond emotion. He had not come to his ancestral home seeking vengeance or out of a desire to bring his family back together, there was only one goal: recruitment.

|(Mentor of Titan. RISE!)|

His father’s corpse rose as a Black Lantern, joining his brother Starfox and mother Sui San; a powerful collection of Lanterns, to which the pile of heartless corpses attested to that.

The undead Eternal paid no heed to the dozens of corpses joining his Black Lantern ranks, his attention fixed solely on the tomb directly ahead of him. Mentor’s powerful sciences prevented access to his rings, but ripping the door from its hinges would soon fix that. Within the tomb lay a powerful weapon: a long slain hero who would unleash a horde of emotions within the heroes of Earth.

Emotion was the fuel; snuffing it out like a candle, one heart at a time, was building toward giving death ultimate power. Somehow the ring made him understand that, and he couldn’t refuse it if he tired.

As he placed his hand on the tomb door he sensed a surge of energy far off in space, and immediately knew something was very wrong.

|(Emotional spectrum detected!)|

---

The Sanctus Sanctorum, Earth.

“Asher says it’s happenin' now, outside,” stated Sabretooth.

The group stepped out into the empty Greenwhich Village street and were greeted by a brilliant flash of rainbow light. Far above them seven lines of intense light streaked off in different directions.

“All the colors of the rainbow,” said Morph, while looking like a wide eyed Dorothy from Wizard of Oz.

He was right too, each streak of light represented one of the colors of the light spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

“Nice light show, but what’s some fireworks gonna do to help us?” asked Sabretooth.

Doctor Strange replied, “If the spell did its work, it will save us all.”

“Hope,” stated a cold voice from above, and a hand formed of black energy ripped the sorcerer’s heart out.

|(Forty-one Percent!)|

Thanos’ hulking form dropped to the pavement beside the dead doctor’s body.

“You have made a grave mistake drawing my attention. The emotional spectrum will be no help to you. Death is the absolute power,” stated the Mad Titan.

“Actually, the element of surprise is pretty damn powerful too!” shouted a familiar voice from across he street, which was quickly followed by a powerful blast of green energy. Amazingly, the blast even brought Thanos to his knees, albeit briefly.

The Exiles looked behind them in shock; there, standing on the curb holding a large energy rifle and accompanied by a Timebreaker, was Heather Hudson.

“Who missed me?”

---

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To Be Continued...

Next: In Elixes #8: Rage, Avarice, Fear, Will, Hope, Compassion, Love; who will be chosen? Plus, learn where Heather has been all this time.

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