BOOK ONE, CHAPTER 10

Ultimus charged at Wonder Man, his momentum propelling the two of them through the opening in the ship’s hull.

While Deathbird and Korath exited the ship in search of battle, Iron Man and Shatterax fought each other on right on the ship’s bridge. Iron Man’s attack was far more vicious than their previous encounter had led Shatterax to expect, but he had greater speed and mobility on his side, enabling him to dodge Iron Man’s heavy fire...for the moment.

Outside, the battle was reaching fever pitch. “Korath,” called out Mockingbird, “I’ve been briefed on you. Your staffs may be fancier than mine, but I can still wipe the floor with you.”

“Insolent Terran! You shall regret challenging me!” barked Korath as a prelude to their clash.

Deathbird, for her part, was finding Spider-Woman and Super-Patriot a formidable double team. “Yes,” she shrieked, “fight! Fight like true warriors!” She punctuated this with a savage swipe at Super-Patriot’s chest. Her sharp claws tore into his costume, but left only scratches on his chest. Still, this did not defuse Spider-Woman’s concern for her less agile teammate. “It’s time for a more direct approach.” she declared as she tangled up Deathbird’s limbs in her psi-webs and knocked out the villainess with a good right hook.

The battered form of Shatterax went flying out of the ship and landed next to Spider-Woman. She webbed him up, too. Iron Man followed out of the ship and gave Spider-Woman the thumbs-up. And Mockingbird had Korath in a chokehold with one of her staffs.

This left only the evenly-matched Wonder Man and Ultimus still fighting. They wrestled each other on the ground for what seemed like an eternity, until Wonder Man came out on top and began strangling Ultimus. But then, Ultimus’ ocular beams zapped Wonder Man in the face, causing him to loosen his grip, which Ultimus broke free of. He punched Wonder Man in the mid-section, then picked up the blinded, flailing Wonder Man and tossed him straight into the middle of the Inhumans’ city of Attilan. Ultimus leaped in a clean arc that followed Wonder Man’s trajectory, and the fight resumed, leaving tremendous damage to several of the Inhumans’ artfully constructed buildings.

Black Bolt now knew he and the Inhumans could no longer stand by, and he whispered a simple command to the All-Mighty and the Shi’ar in front of him: “Stop!”

Of course, a whisper from Black Bolt carried the power to knock down all the combatants at once, and then some.

It was now Medusa’s turn to speak. “How DARE you humans interfere in an affair between the Inhumans’ and the Shi’ar?”

“Because,” said Iron Man, “the Shi’ar broke their pact of no longer using the Stargates and staying out of our solar system. A show of force was needed, and, no offense, but you Inhumans have a reputation for being soft.”

“That shows how little you know about the Inhumans.” came the admonishing voice of Mr. Fantastic, leading his newly arrived team.

“QUIET, BOTH OF YOU!” yelled Deathbird, who had regained consciousness and was no longer trapped in Spider-Woman’s psi-webs. “We came to the Inhumans to offer them the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to the Shi’ar Empire, where they could serve the true purpose they were created for by the Kree.”

“As what? Cannon fodder?” inquired the Invisible Woman tartly.

“You have no idea what our empire is facing at this moment!” was Deathbird’s reply.

Before Deathbird could elaborate, Ultimus and Wonder Man erupted from the rubble in the heart of Atillan. Ultimus had triumphed, and Wonder Man was enveloped in a cloud of unstable ionic energy. Ultimus tossed Wonder Man straight up into the sky, where an ionic explosion illuminated the grim tableau on the blue area of the Moon.

To everyone’s surprise, Wonder Man’s body turned out to be intact, and gravity brought it back down to the surface. The impact was tremendous, causing a slight quake. Then Wonder Man lay still. Ultimus strode silently to his nemesis’ fallen form and stood victorious with his arms folded and his head held high.

This was the opportunity that the Inhuman Timberius had been waiting for. He lunged at his king, Black Bolt, and pinned back Black Bolt’s arms. Deathbird then glided over swiftly on her wings, and slashed Black Bolt’s throat, leaving him powerless and fading fast.