HAUNTED INN

The sun is barely shining on the small, little bed and breakfast inn at the cloudy mid-day. A little-old Chinese lady pushes a wagon down a carpeted hallway, looking right and left at the rooms. She stops in front of room #13, and reaches to her belt taking off a ring of keys. She searches through the group of keys, until she finds just the right one.

She reaches down, sticking the old-fashioned key into the large keyhole and wiggles it, until the door unlocks with a "click." She quietly, and silently, wheels the cart into the room and shuts the door. As the door shuts, the walls in the hallway suddenly seem to "bleed," with red fluid slides down the wallpaper.

Inside, the little old lady rolls the large bin-cart over to the bed, picking up the dirty cover sheets and dumping them inside, with the other dirty clothing. As she does so, the ceiling fan turns on, going round slowly and eerily. Without notice to it, the women dumps the pillowcases into the bin, and exits the room.

The walls of the hallway have returned to normal, and the little old women continues to push the rolling-bin down the hall. As she passes to parallel doors, they open behind her, and a bible floats out of one door and into the other. And from the opposite room a lamp hovers across the hall into the other room. And both doors close quickly with a swift "cuh-lick" noise.

The lady turns around, gazing at the two closed and locked doors, she could have sworn they were just opened. But, it must have just been her imagination and she keeps walking, until she comes to room #17, and she unlocked it rolling her cart in. She "parks" the cart next to the bathroom, and she starts cleaning up.

Slowly, the draws of the wooden dresser in the main-room slide open. The clothing inside of them begins to fly out, being flung across the room. The little old Chinese lady walks out of the bathroom, in awe and confusion as more draws open up—but now the clothes are being thrown at her, and hitting her. She lets out a small scream, and in shock runs out of the room.

She runs down the hallway, the lights on the walls flickering on and off. She keeps turning her head, checking behind her to see if someone, or something, is following her. She suddenly turns a corridor, and all we see is her face go pale white in a terrified scream. Her hair is blown back, and a bright light shines on her face from something around the corner as she screams.

"HAUNTED INN"

Written By: Nathan Shapiro
Edited By: Jake

The glass door opens, and gas pockets condensed water seeps out as it opens. And a hand reaches in, taking out a frozen pizza with extra mushrooms, and dumps it in his cart. This man is Rick Jones. Recently merged with Genis-Vell(CAPTAIN MARVEL) at the end of the Destiny War, he now struggles to keep his life in order, patch up his relationship with Marlo and still have time to go food shopping on Sundays.

"Rick, I like the stuffed crust," the voice of Captain Marvel speaks to Rick from the micro-verse, they can communicate mentally through the use of their nega-bands.

Rick Jones closes the freezer door, and looks at the foggy glass, seeing Genis’ reflection. Instead of seeing his own reflection, he now sees Captain Marvels’ and vice versa for Cap. "Yeah, so?" Rick says and continues down the aisle.

"But Rick," Genis says, "we’re ‘living’ together now, can’t you at least buy the food I like?"

"I know, but life isn’t always fair," he smirks, thinking about how much he sounds like a parent. "We’ll get stuffed-crust next week, okay Genis?" Rick takes a jar of Gerber’s baby food off the shelf, and reads the label.

"No Way!" Marlo shouts at the other-red head in the room. She throws her arms up in the air in frustration, "Courtney, there is no way, I say NO WAY, I am going to ask Rick to do this for you."

"Oh come on Marlo, don’t be like that," Courtney protests. "We’re cousins, remember? We used to be so close, the least you could do for me is ask Rick to invite some of his super-friends out to my bed and breakfast hotel for a free weekend."

Marlo groans, pretty upset again she runs her fingers through her hair. With her eyes closed and not looking up at Courtney, she explains her position again, "just because your business isn’t doing to well, doesn’t mean I’m going to lower Rick and his friends to the level of promoting your inn."

"It’s not promotion! I just thought it would be a good way for not getting you guys a wedding present…sure it might tempt some people to come to the inn where the super heroes stayed, but that’s besides the point."

"Bull Bull Bull!" Marlo’s voice gradually gets louder with each "bull", "you know that’s a downright lie." She groans again, and before Courtney can say another word she goes on, "and we are talking about SUPER HEROES here, right? Just think of the property damage. They have Super-villains chasing them around 24/7, with weapons the size of Vancouver…"

Courtney makes a pouting face, and in baby-like talk, "pretty please?" she asks.

"I…don’t make that face, I’ve never been able to say no to that…oh, all right! But I’m not asking him, you are! Let me just dial his beeper #" Marlo picks up the phone and starts dialing.

"Oh thank you thank you thank you!" Courtney shouts with joy, and hugs her cousin.

"Don’t thank me yet," Marlo presses a few more buttons on the telephone and hangs up, "Rick still has to agree."

Rick pushes the cart down another aisle, looking for some cake mix, when he suddenly feels his beeper vibrate. He reaches down and picks it up, looking at the small screen, seeing Marlo’s number, "woo-hoo!" he shouts.

"Marlo just beeped me!" he shouts again, seemingly at no one. He gets some glares from old ladies doing their weekly shopping. He just ignores their stares, too over come with joy.

"Hey, when a women like Marlo beeps you, there is no such thing as ‘over excited.’" Rick jogs over to a store-employee and taps him on the shoulder, asking politely, "excuse me, where’s your pay phone?"

"Uh…right outside the store, sir, but it’s out of order," the pimple-faced store clerk says.

"Sorry, only for employees," the clerk says, and goes back to do what he was doing.

Rick turns, and shoots towards the end of an empty aisle, speaking to Genis, "All right, we’re just going to have to go use our phone at home," without a second thought, Rick taps the golden nega-bands on his wrists together.

He is suddenly engulfed in a swirl of light and energy. He blows some boxes of twinkies off the shelves, and scorches the ring-dings. When he is done, Rick stands there no more, now there is – CAPTAIN MARVEL!

"Subtle, Rick," he says, as he flies up and over the racks of food towards the exit, he lands, and walks through the automatic doors and takes off again.

"Yeah Yeah, I really don’t feel like being subtle right now, at least no one saw us, right?"

Genis looks down into his nega-bands, seeing Rick’s reflection, and speaks to his face that way, "Yeah I guess." Captain Marvel keeps flying over the skies of L.A., until he reaches Rick Jones’ apartment. He flies in through hole#1(created by Drax in issue #3) and lands in the middle of the living room.

Genis nods, and he slaps the nega-bands together and the process starts again, and he is almost instantly replaced by Rick Jones, wearing a black T-shirt and shorts. He runs past Moondragon, who is tied up with headphones taped to her head, "heya Moony, how are things?" he says with a smirk, lifting up the telephone.

She gnarls on her words, and says with a angry tone, "Do not call me Moony, Jones. When these infernal batteries run out I will—" he is cut off by Rick, who decides to intercede her little threat.

"You’ll what? I’ve got Limp Bizkit playing in one ear, KoRn in the other, you can’t even concentrate your psionic powers on me, or anyone!" He jokes, dialing Marlo’s number.

"You insolent little…" she begins to speak, but is stopped when Rick kicks his shoe off, peeling his sock off of his foot and shoving it in Moondragon’s mouth. All she does is muffle a few words you might see written on the wall of a High-School bathroom.

Rick taps his fingers as the phone rings, and his face lights up the instant that Marlo picks up the phone saying, "hello? Who is this?"

"Rick, are you using my body to cut down time in traffic?" Genis asks Rick, while he’s on the phone.

Marlo keeps talking, "actually, someone else wanted to talk to yo—" Marlo is cut off as Rick unconsciously speaks back to Genis in the phone.

"Genny? Oh just a friend staying with me for a few days…" Rick covers for himself, not in the best fashion though.

Courtney sighs, holding on to the phone tightly, "unn, am I ever going to let that down? Anyway, Rick, I’ve got a proposition to ask, y’know how I didn’t get you that wedding present? Well how about a free night in my inn, you can invite all the friends you’d like. How does that sound to you?"

Rick places his forefinger to his lip, thinking then nods even though Courtney can’t see him. And he says to her, "it sounds great…is Marlo coming?" Rick asks, eagerly awaiting a yes.

Courtney glares over at Marlo, mouthing the words, "are you going to come?" and watches her for the reply.

Marlo hesitates answering, but then Courtney gives her "puppy dog" face and Marlo gives in. "I’ve got work Saturday morning, and it takes 4 hours to get out there…sooo… I’ll be there Saturday afternoon, happy?"

Courtney smiles, and returns to her conversation with Rick, "she’ll be there Saturday, think you can get your friends to L.A. by Friday?" she asks.

"Sure should be no problem…Give me the details later, gotta go!" Rick shouts, slamming the phone down with a cheer, "YES! I’m going on a trip with Marlo, going on a trip with Mar-lo."

"Oh right, well Cap America should come, She-Hulk," Rick counts off on his fingers the amount of people he wants to invite, "think we can contact Silver Surfer?"

After struggling, Moondragon finally spits the sock out of her mouth. "Rick Jones, I DEMAND you bring me on this trip," Moondragon shouts over the music playing in her ears.

"That’s utter crap, Rick," Moondragon protests, "give me one good reas—ACK!" she screams, as Rick cranks the volume on the music up again, and she knocks the chair over with a sudden jerk.

Courtney, who is extremely excited right now, asks Marlo, "don’t be so cynical, Marlo. Besides, what can go wrong?"

"Ok, let me take ONE last headcount," Rick Jones shouts out among the bustling group of Super-heroes. "Ok, Captain America, She-Hulk, The Wasp, Warbird, Songbird…did I miss anybody?" Rick asks, and they all shake their heads no.

"Rick, I understand you inviting some of the Avengers, they are your good friends after all, but why Songbird?" Genis asks.

"Oh, no reason, Marv." Rick grins mischievously, from what he learned from the Destiny War, Genis and Songbird hit it off in the future. Maybe if he’s lucky now, he can get Genis to stop "advancing" on Marlo.

"Well, everyone is accounted for." Rick says, "Okay everybody, onto the bus." Rick Jones leads, as the group of Super-Heroes climb up the steps into the bus that will bring them to Courtney’s inn. Everything seems normal, for them, but for the bus driver – he has a confused look of awe on his face.

The next four hours are fun; the group of six spends the time reminiscing about old times, and chatting about recent events. Rick chats with Captain America about the time he used to be his sidekick. Jan and She-Hulk sit in the front of the bus, talking about guys and such forth.

"Jan, did I thank you yet for thinking about me when forming the new team?" Jennifer Walters, AKA She Hulk, comments to Jan Van Dyne, AKA The Wasp.

"Yes, and about a thousand times. Enough already! Now it’s my turn to thank you. Thanks for coming with me on this trip, if the new lineup wasn’t enough—Hank’s changing identity is no piece of cake either. Whenever he goes through one of those ‘periods’, something bad happens."

"Don’t worry about it Jan," She-Hulk says, "everything’s just going to turn out fine!"

"How are things with you and Captain Marvel going? There’s nothing wrong, is there? Because if you ever need any help you can always come to me…" Captain America continues to say.

Rick Jones shakes his head, "no need to offer, Cap. I’ve got it handled, I’m a tough guy, y’know? Besides, it’s not like this is the first time I’ve been atomically merged with someone."

"Thanks." Rick smirks, looking over the seats towards Warbird and Songbird, "So…what do you think they’re chatting about?"

"I swear, I can drive a time-traveling dune buggy, but when it comes to women, it all goes right over my head," Rick jokes, and the two friends get a good laugh.

"I like your hair," Songbird says, trying to stir up a conversation between the two.

"Yeah, I like yours," Warbird takes a second to think of what to say next and they stare at each other awkwardly…and laugh.*

Several hours later, the bus pulls up to the parking lot of a small inn, and it stops. There is a swish sound as the buses door opens, and the small group of five makes their way towards the front lobby. Rick turns to Jan, with a worried look, "Hey Jan, ever have a feeling something bad is going to happen?"

"What is it Rick?" she asks, thinking about him and Captain Marvel being merged together now, "Cosmic Awareness?"

Rick nods, "yeah something like that." Rick continues to the front door, opening it and the five super-heroes walk into the lobby. Rick walks up to the clerk’s desk, "hello Courtney," he says to her, who was waiting for them to arrive.

"Hi Rick, you’re all checked in. The rest of your party is waiting in the lounge," she smiles, dropping the keys into Rick’s palm.

"Rest of our party? Who…" he says, and he leads them into the lounge, where The Rhino is sitting on a couch, chatting with Crusher Creel – The Absorbing Man – and his wife Titania is sitting in a recliner facing Vector and Vapor from the U-Foes, discussing recent heists, "…else."

Thom Cruz walks out of the bathroom, waving towards them, "hey guys, don’t use the bathroom, toilet’s clogged."

"THOM CRUZ?" She-Hulk pushes through Rick Jones and Captain America, looking at him. "Rick you didn’t tell us…"

"Yeah," he says, pulling on his mask, He pulls off his vacation-attire and underneath is DeadPool’s costume.

"What’s going on here," Rick asks the group of super-villain’s, "how did you villain’s get here?"

"Villain? Rick…words hurt," DeadPool says, grinning under his mask, "we got a message from you on our machines."

"Rick, this is starting to shape up to look like your wedding," Captain America says, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Songbird steps up, looking at them all, Warbird is standing right next to her and says, "I think we can take ‘em Cap."

"Hey! Don’t go crazy now," Rhino says, looking at Warbird, "we’re only here for a lil’ R&R, us bad guys need their vacations too."

"Ok, there seems to have been some kind of mix up," Rick says as he takes control of the situation, "I want everyone to go to their rooms right now. And we’ll figure this out later, but right now – THERE WILL BE NO FIGHTING!" he shouts at the end, to enforce his authority.

Whether it’s fear, respect, loyalty or just because they fear the vein bulging out of Rick’s head is going to eat them (crazy old DeadPool!), they scatter and all travel up to their rooms.

Rick looks across the room at the mirror sitting above the mantle, "I don’t know, Marv, I don’t know."

That night, no one will get a good night rest. When you mix heroes and villains, their natural instincts are to fight. That’s why senseless violence happens…really DeadPool told me! But, the heroes had promised Rick they would not destroy Courtney’s inn, and all they had to do was wait until everyone leaves, then they can fight.

But one person especially is not getting much rest, he is the Rhino, and for good reason too. He had DeadPool as his roommate. He stuffs a pillow over his ear, and digs his head into the mattress and shouts, "STOP THAT!" to DeadPool.

He has been pacing back and forth in front of the door all night, singing the words to the Spider-Man theme song all night, with an AK-47 machine-gun in his hand. "Spider-man, Spider-Man, does whatever a Spider-Can—What’s your problem now Rhino?"

"I can’t get any sleep with you pacing back and forth singing about that damned web-crawler!" he throws the pillow at DeadPool’s head with a frustrated groan.

"Well, Aren't you afraid She-Hulk is going to sneak in here and make mad-hot love to me in my sleep?"

"The thought never crossed my mind," Rhino says, turning over to attempt to go to sleep.

"Well it would if you looked like Thom Cruz, ah well." DeadPool continues his pacing, singing to him quietly. When suddenly a wailing wind blows down the hallway, that seems to whisper his name.

"Nevermind," he says, opening the door slowly to get the full creaking-potential out of it, and slowly tip toes across the hallway. He hears the breeze again, whisper her name. He creeps past a closet and looks around. "Shulkie, I’m here—take me now!" He utters under his breath.

Suddenly, the closet swings open and about 10 bone-arms reach out of the shadows, grabbing DeadPool from behind, and pull him into the closet and the door slams shuts.

For the next few seconds, lots of banging and rumbling goes on inside the closet. Then, gunfire is heard – and lots of it too. Bullets fly through the closet door, making it look like swiss cheese, and suddenly, the door is kicked open and a skull rolls out of the closet. Behind it, stands DeadPool triumphantly. "Frisky," he says, chuckling.

Suddenly, a low growling is heard behind him, and DeadPool blinks, "uh-oh" and a huge claw reaches out of the closet, mauling DeadPool until his costume is in shreds. Then he is dragged into the closet by the claw, and it slams shut.

An instant later, Captain America runs out of his room wearing Pajama’s and a nightcap, his shield being held in his right hand, Rick follows behind him in a T-shirt and boxers. From across the hall, Warbird and Songbird runs out of their rooms, dressed in nightgowns. Last but not least, little Wasp sized Jan buzzes out of her room, and She-Hulk comes out right after her dressed in a revealing nightie.

"I heard gunfire!" She-Hulk says, looking at the crowd settled around the closet. The five of them look at the claw marks on the carpet for about thirty seconds to a minute, then the non-caring group of villains come out to see what happened.

"Ok, who woke up Th’ Absorbin’ Man?" Crusher Creel asks, rubbing his eyes and looking at the heroes. Then he looks down seeing the torn shreds of DeadPool’s costume, "and what did you do to DeadPool," he asks while he prepares to fight. Then he notices She-Hulk in her nightie and begins to drool.

Titania, with a groan, smacks Absorbing Man across the head, knocking him to the ground, "stop that!" she shouts with jealousy.

"Hey, we agreed there would be no fighting," Vector says, staring at Rick Jones and the group, his body prepared to fire bursts of matter at them.

"Nobody jump to conclusions! Something happened…but we didn’t do it. I swear, now go back to your rooms and we can all figure this out in the morni—" Rick Jones is suddenly cut off. He grabs his throat, and begins coughing.

"We’re not holding back anymore, Jones, me and Vector are ready to fight – I’m sure we all are!" Vapor says. She had been able to sneak up to Jones and turn herself into a thick gas, and is now using herself to choke Rick Jones.

Rick falls backwards crashing through the weakened closet door and into some kind of portal. He falls, seemingly for a really really long time. As he is falling, Vapor continues to cut off the air around him, while he is trashing, the golden nega-bands on his wrists hit together.

Suddenly, the air around him is engulfed in a swirl of energy, which seems to dissipate and blow Vapor away from him. He is surrounded by smoke as his body is exchanged with that of Captain Marvel’s. And he lands on his back with a thud.

"Swell, we’re trapped down here in another dimension while there is a huge battle going on ‘upstairs’ and we can’t help out. Any ideas Genis?"

"That wouldn’t work, it’s not physics that operate here. Flying up wont bring us anywhere. We’ve got to find a exit," Rick says.

"My Cosmic Awareness is attempting to adjust to the new environment, and I think I’m actually seeing ghosts! Remember that Leader guy you told me about…well he’s here."

"Jones? Richard Milhouse Jones?" The sinister voice calls out. "Wait…you’re not Jones," he says.

"Yes, I know of course. Him and I, we have a special connection, I know he can hear us. But would you mind if we spoke, face to face?" he asks.

Genis shakes his head, and with the gentlest touch of the nega-bands, and tiny chime, he again engulfed in smoke and energy, and replaced by the form of Rick Jones. Rick stares at The Leader for a moment.

"Maybe, but dead is so relevant to ‘us.’ You should know, all those times you should have died, but didn’t. You have even over-come the impossible, you’re walking after you shouldn’t ever be able too."

"Cut the garbage, Leader, and tell me what the heck is going on," Rick says in his most demanding voice.

"All right, but try not to act shocked. The dead are attempting to getting back into the real world through Courtney Chandler’s Inn, hmmm, what are the odds that you are related to this woman? It’s not surprising, since it is you they need to escape."

"Not you, specifically, but the bands you wear on your wrists contain the ability to channel the energy needed to open a vortex large enough for this dimension, to spill over into yours."

Rick looks down at his nega-bands, then back to "The Leader." He glares at the ghost for a moment, "who called the bad-guys, and why?"

"A higher order of spirits, who arranged this entire charade did. The plan was supposed to lure you alone here by using the ‘hit first, ask later’ numb-skulls, but the plan was thrown off course when you, and your super-hero friends were invited to stay in the Inn."

Back in Rick’s apartment, where we last left Moondragon, she had been cringing to the sound of Limp Bizkit and KoRn, her situation hasn’t changed much. She is still tied to the chair and being forced to hear the music burn her ears.

But after a few days of practice, she is able to twist her shoulders, jerk her neck and pull the headphones out of the cassette player. She breathes a sigh of relief, and concentrates her telekinetic abilities to break the bonds holding her. She stands up, and makes her way for the door, "Jones, when I find you, I will do the most horrible things—" and she is cut off by the rigging of the telephone.

Marlo picks up the phone, dialing Rick number while speaking to herself, "Hmm, If Rick was lying about keeping a women in his apartment, I swear me and him are through!" Marlo suddenly stops talking when someone picks up on the other line.

"A women’s voice, I knew it," she says to herself, then speaks into the phone, "Is this Rick Jones apartment," she asks.

"It is, and who dares to interrupt me immediately before I was about to go seek revenge on that wretched being?"

"Marlo? Oh, the self-centered wife who does not think of Rick’s pitiful emotions."

"Of course, but why woul—" suddenly, Marlo feels the urge to drive her car to Rick’s apartment, pick up Moondragon and bring her to Courtney’s Inn. And she does so.

Back at the Inn, Captain America is battling with the Absorbing Man, he swings his shield through the air, knocking Crusher Creel’s Ball and Chain out of his hand, and he jumps forward swinging a fist into his mouth.

She-Hulk takes on both Titania and the Rhino at once, she grabs Rhino by the horn swinging him into Titania. But that doesn’t stop her, she climbs out from under him and leaps at She-Hulk, ramming a knee into her gut, "Shulkie! Now I’m going to smell like him for days!"

Vector is facing off with Jan, firing blasts of propelled matter at the Wasp. Each time, the Wasp was able to duck, or dodge the blasts thanks to her small size. But she is tagged by an incoming blast, and tumbles to the floor. Vector looms over her ready to apply the final thing needed to kill her, one last blast. "Where’s Ann? Tell me, or you get it!"

"I don’t know," Jan says, trying to get to her feet holding her small wound, she returns to normal size.

"Wrong Ans—" before Vector can finish the word, or even attack Jan, he is hit with a giant, pink fist which knocks him out almost instantly. Jan looks up at Songbird, who is waving to her with a smile on her face.

"Guys! Rick fell into this closet and disappeared, I’m going to see where this thing leads," Warbird says, and she dives into the closet, disappearing from everyone’s sight.

"We have no choice, either we help him and save the world. Or we don’t help him and the world is doomed," Rick looks back to the "ghost" of the Leader, and nods. "Ok, we’ll do it."

The Leader leads him on, guiding him through the bridges, walkways and unusual other "things" that can be seen in the underworld. But something just doesn’t sit right with Rick and Genis. They feel as if something is wrong here, something critical.

"Rick, do you have the feeling we’re not in ‘the underworld’?" Genis asks Rick.

Rick whispers under his breath back, "yes, where is all the fire and brimstone, you mean? So…maybe it’s a different dimension? Alternate reality or what?"

"Possibly, if that’s true though, this can’t be the real Leader, can it? And why would he be leading us here, of course it’s all fitting together! RICK IT’S A TRAP!" He shouts, wondering what would have happened if his cosmic awareness wasn’t out of tune – he could have sensed it sooner. But now that he has adjusted, he knows what kind of danger they are really in.

"I think you’re right Genis," Rick says, as the Leader morphs into another entity, something extremely large with huge claws for hands, and long fangs in his mouth that seem to hang just like stalactites from the ceiling of a cave. And it takes a swipe at Rick, knocking him to the ground.

"UGN!" Rick grunts, as he falls. The creature grows in size, picking Rick up with his clawed hands. Squeezing him tightly. Rick grunts again, but then releases a powerful energy jolt from the nega-band, causing the entity to drop him.

Rick is then grabbed by two demonoid creatures that hold him down and don’t touch his nega-bands so they can’t be shocked. Then, the large creature shrinks down to Rick’s size, and punches him in the head knocking him unconscious.

A while later, Rick Jones slowly, and groggily, wakes up, and to his amaze, he is sitting on a vertical table. He is attached to several machines. He is strapped to a metal table around his waist, and his ankles are tied together and strapped down to the table. His wrists, and nega-bands, are attached to two long "arms" hanging down from the ceilings, attached to a larger device.

The creature he had faced earlier looks at him, and speaks, "we are prepared to use the energy from the nega-bands to power our vortex crystal." The creature gestures to a large crystal that sits on top of the complicated machinery.

"We have been watching you for weeks, Jones," the creature continues to speak as he adjusts the machinery. "Ever since the new Captain Marvel showed up, we knew we could use him to our advantage – and as soon as we discovered you were bonded to him, we found out as much as possible on you as well."

"Yes well, we used to depend on the mystical natures of our being. But most recently, we acquired the knowledge and skill necessary to enhance our own abilities. Using this machinery, we will induce the vortex crystal to open a huge portal, allowing us to spill over into your world."

"One thing you didn’t think of, dog-face, I can’t channel the energy through these bands, only Captain Marvel can."

"We had imagined that to be the truth. However, we will forcibly cause the nega-bands to channel the photonic energy needed."

"Rick, don’t worry—do you sense that? Help is on the way…" Genis says, just moments before Warbird blasts her way in. Suddenly, the clawed-creature grows to its full size and punches Warbird out of the air.

Warbird grunts, pulling to her feet, "so, is this what we’re up against, Rick?" she says, while holding out a hand blasting the bindings that are holding Rick’s wrists apart. Then he jumps up punching the large creature.

"SHAZAM!" Rick shouts out, right before taking the cue and slapping the nega-bands together with a large "KTANG!" noise, energy swirls around him blowing off the bonds keeping the rest of his body down, and he is then replaced with CAPTAIN MARVEL!

"Shazam?" Genis says confused, but then he leaps up flying after the creature punching him in the back of the head, causing it to stumble forward, where Warbird punches him in the nose.

The creature grabs Warbird, plucking her from the air and tossing her into Captain Marvel. And they both tumble into machinery that seems to explode on contact. They are both buried under a lot of ruble, and Captain Marvel takes this time to contemplate a new plan with Rick.

In the meantime, while they talk, Warbird has already broken free of the rubble, and is attacking the creature with energy blasts. She hits it in the side, then once in the face. But she can’t out-maneuver is for long, and she is caught again in it’s hold.

"Let me go," Warbird says, as she struggled against the hold. But she is then teleported away, and appears in a cell next to DeadPool.

"Heya Warbird, want a twinkie?" he offers her a moldy old twinkie that looks like its been sitting in mud for a week.

Captain Marvel comes flying out of the pile of rubble, his nega-bands charged and ready for action. He fires a burst of photonic energy into the creature’s eyes, blinding it. The creature swings at him blindly.

Captain Marvel fires another blast at him, but the creature turns around grabbing the first thing he can grab onto. He grabs, the vortex crystal, and tears it out of the machinery – with wires and electrodes still attached – and holds it up to block the blast.

"Genis look!" Rick shouts into Captain Marvel’s head. The photon blast hits the vortex crystal, and the crystal begins to hum and glow brightly. Suddenly, a portal begins to form, and it continues to grow.

"Genis, the crystal is charging from the photon blast! Stop firing," Rick warns Captain Marvel.

"I…I can’t, it’s feeding off the photon energy from the nega-bands, they beams wont stop firing. I can’t stop it at all!" he shouts, while the creature laughs evilly, seeing what is happening.

Even in these early hours of the morning, our heroes have been battling it out none-stop. And now, their attention is taken as the closet explodes in a burst of light and energy. They all feel a strong wind pull through them, ghosts flying out through the portal, the gusting winds blowing the heroes back.

The heroes and villains grab onto the floor, holding on tight to make sure they don’t get blown away. "What’s going on?" Songbird says, not sure of what’s happening. Then, along with the ghoulies and winds coming through the vortex, DeadPool and Warbird are "spit out."

"Wee mommy!" DeadPool says, "can we do it again?!" A large pink hand created by Songbird catches him, and then he grabs onto the floor, so he can hold on himself.

"Captain," Warbird says, "Rick and Captain Marvel are still in there, we and DeadPool were able to escape with his teleporter. We have to do something"

Outside, Marlo’s car pulls up, and Moondragon gets out. "now turn around and go home," she says while placing a hand on Marlo’s forehead, "and when you return home you will forget everything that has happened."

Marlo drives off, and Moondragon looks towards the house that now has bright beams of light shining through the windows, and doors.

Back in the spirit-world, Captain Marvel is still firing at the vortex crystal, unable to stop. "Rick, I have an idea. If we can’t stop the crystal, let’s keep firing…"

"And force feed it so much energy it will blow!" Captain Marvel keeps firing, but now more intense than ever. He doubles the energy bolts strength. The portal grows, becoming larger and the larger. The Vortex Crystal glows brighter and brighter.

Suddenly, so much energy is being transferred through the crystal, the clawed-creature cannot hold it without being disintegrated. He suddenly feels so much energy coursing through his body – he explodes. The Vortex Crystal floats in the air without falling, still absorbing Captain Marvel’s blasts.

The whole room seems to glow from the bright white light coming from the crystal, there doesn’t seem to be an end to how much energy the Vortex Crystal could consume, until it starts to crack.

Energy seeped out of the cracks, and more cracks formed in the crystal. Until it was barely even holding together. Within a few seconds, the crystal shattered – and white light engulfs Captain Marvel, and everything else.

Back in the real world, the vortex also reaches critical mass, the entire area explodes in bright light and energy, everything that had escaped the vortex was suddenly pulled back in. Down to every ghost, goblin and spook.

All the heroes and villains, Captain America, Warbird, Songbird, The Wasp, She-Hulk, Absorbing Man, Titania, Vector, The Rhino, and DeadPool, are also being pulled into the Portal.

Songbird creates a large pole in the ground. The Rhino, She-Hulk, and Captain America hold onto it tightly. DeadPool holds onto She-Hulk’s legs, looking up between her legs with a grin under his mask. Titania is holding on tightly to Rhino’s foot, with Absorbing Man onto hers. Lastly, The Wasp is grabbing tightly to Captain America’s mask so she isn’t sucked in.

The white light reaches its maximum brightness, no one can see the person they’re holding onto. The white light envelops the entire house. Songbird creates a force field around them just before there is a huge explosion.

Moondragon covers her eyes, then the bright light fades, she removed her eyes to see the entire inn has been destroyed. And she notices the group of super-powered being lying on the ground, knocked unconscious from the blast, even if they were protected by Songbirds shield.

"Where is Captain Marvel?" she says, looking across the bare landscape, not seeing him anyway. She attempts to telepathically search from him, and she senses his mind somewhere out in the field.

She walks out, taking her pleasant time, until she reaches the spot she sensed him and looks around. She looks down, and suddenly sees something move in the dirt. Several fingers reach out from the ground, slowly but surely, an entire arm has pulled free of the soil.

Moondragon stands by, and lets him pull himself out without helping at all, her own vengeful attitude taking over. She doesn’t feel there is any reason to help him, after all, they had kept her tied up for days.

"Hi Moondragon, thanks for the assist," he says, dusting some dirt out of his hair, "how did you get here?"

"It doesn’t matter, come now, we must go." She turns around, walking away from the scattered heroes and villains.

The tiniest "ktang" is heard, and Moondragon turns around to see Rick Jones standing in some settled smoke, walking towards Captain America, trying to wake him up.

"Jones…give me one reason not to kill you where you stand," Moondragon says to him, getting ready to attack.

"Because I’m your only link to Captain Marvel…and I don’t want to fight you anymore."

"I…oh all right," Moondragon turns her back to him, "but I’m not helping you wake these beings up."