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Chernobyl, the capital of the Vampire Nation, in the Reception Chamber of Vlad Drakul. The Lord of the Vampire Nation stands at the end of a long banquet table, while attendants go about their business. 'Ahhh, welcome. So good of you to accept my invitation' Vlad remarks, opening his arms to welcome his guests. He raises a goblet and states that this is truly an auspicious gathering. 'The fates of nations, the outcomes of wars – what else might be determined around a table such as this?' Dracula asks. He states that he has always considered it impolite to discuss politics before dinner, and asks his guests to come sit. 'I won't bite' he adds, before informing the Winter Guard that they are all his honored guests. The mysterious Red Widow, the god Perun, the glamorous Laynia Petrovna a.k.a. Darkstar and her brother, Nicolai Krylenko a.k.a. Vanguard, the bear-mutant Mikhail Ursus a.k.a. Ursa Major and the wicked Chernobog move into the Reception Chamber. Ursa asks if this is obviously a trap, and whether they have diplomatic immunity. 'What did I say about jokes? Just stick to the mission parameters' the Red Widow snaps. 'The Winter Guard thanks you for your hospitality, Dracu – er, Lord Drakul' Vanguard responds.
The Winter Guard take their seats at the other end of the table. The Red Widow sits directly at the head of the table, opposite Lord Drakul. Darkstar and Vanguard sit to the Widow's left, while Chernobog, Ursa Major and Perun sit to her right. The Winter Guard have three objectives: to debrief the informant (Prince Vlad Drakul III) regarding the true goal of Project Snowblind; to uncover what connection – if any – the informant has to the fugitives Alexei Shostakov and Yelena Belova; and to avoid a diplomatic incident with the Vampire Nation... while keeping Winter Guard casualties to the acceptable minimum.
'With all due respect, Your Highness, we're here on behalf of the Russian Security Council' the Red Widow states. 'I think what Red Widow means to say is -' Vanguard begins to say, before the Red Widow cuts him off: 'I mean that these are perilous times, and we have no need of your old-world charms. We need your cooperation. Your information'.
At that moment, outside, two figures run amongst the shadows.
'Tch. In time. I am sorry to see your friend Dimitri is absent. Interesting fellow, for a Crimson Dynamo' Lord Drakul remarks. 'Keep his name out of your mouth' Vanguard snarls, slamming a fist on the table. Darkstar tells her brother to be calm, to which Vanguard declares that he is calm – and polite. 'The vampire's the one being rude' Vanguard exclaims. Dracula offers no reaction, only suggests that a lighter topic of conversation is required. But the Red Widow suggests that they talk more about old friends, and points out that the Crimson Dynamo isn't the only Soviet Super-Soldier that Dracula has history with. Dracula knows that the Red Widow is referring to the Red Guardian. 'I would not call him a friend. We often crossed paths during the Cold War. A worthy opponent, in his prime...not that he ever managed to defeat me' Dracula announces, before telling the Guard that he heard Red Guardian and the White Widow gave them quite the merry chase. 'The glorious Winter Guard – outmatched by two mere mortals?' Dracula asks.
The two figures from outside have made it into the palace now – its Alexei Shostakov a.k.a. Red Guardian and Yelena Belova a.k.a. White Widow.
In the Reception Chamber, Chernobog leans over the table and utters 'Watch your words, little shadow. You sit before gods. A king is but a man, however long he lives'. Chernobog then boasts that Red Guardian's time is almost up, and asks Dracula if he would like to join him.
'Chernobog's shadows?' Alexei asks as darkness begins to envelop he and Yelena. 'It can't be!' Yelena exclaims, surprised.
The Red Widow tells Dracula that he mentioned Snowblind, as of he was confident that that alone will hold their attention. 'You can do better that that, Drakul' she suggests. 'Considering your amnesty deal, we could always force -' the Red Widow begins, before Dracula tells her that, fortunately, the Guard will not embarrass themselves or their nation in the attempt. 'The final guests have arrived' Dracula announces as the doors to the Reception Chamber open, and Alexei and Yelena appear. 'And Yelena was worried that we'd be overdressed' Alexei jokes when he sees the Winter Guard.
Vanguard instructs the Winter Guard stand ready, and the team get to their feet. Darkstar readies her Darkforce power, while Yelena remarks that this is obviously a trap. 'Not exactly a fight we can win' she adds, while the Red Widow raises one of her swords. Alexei tells Yelena that this is not a fight at all, and that he is sure their noble host will explain this misunderstanding. Dracula smirks, and states that there is no misunderstanding. 'You are all my invited guests. Subject to my hospitality and under my protection' Dracula adds. Yelena looks at Alexei and asks him if he was expecting the company. 'Perhaps I should have' Alexei replies. The Red Widow asks if everyone is surprised, and turns to Dracula, pointing one of her swords at him, she asks him if he has turned their manhunt into his entertainment, and warns him that is a dangerous game which won't end well. 'It'll end now. I'll extradite them by hand if I have to' Vanguard exclaims as he starts to move towards Red Guardian and the White Widow, but Darkstar tells him to stop.
Dracula finally gets to his feet and declares that there will be no bloodshed here, at least not without his command. He tells the heroes before him that all he wants tonight is for them all to enjoy his fabled hospitality. 'You must admit, I am an excellent host. After all...I've served up quite a delicacy' Dracula smirks as he lifts the lid off a plate on the table – revealing a hard drive. Yelena asks Alexei why Dracula has a Snowblind hard drive. 'He loves to collect his miserable little secrets' Alexei replies as he sits down at the table. Vanguard suggests that it could be a fake, and asks how they could even tell. 'Schemes within schemes' Perun mutters as he takes his seat, warning everyone that he grows weary of these games. 'Yet we have no choice but to play along' Darkstar points out. Ursa tells Darkstar that she now knows what she signed up for.  Chernobog laughs as he sits down, suggesting that this could be fun after all. 'We're beginning to like you, dead man' he tells Dracula, while the Red Widow announces that even she is not cleared to access the data on that hard drive. 'It needs to be in the proper hands' she adds.
'It needs to be in the people's hands!' Red Guardian exclaims, standing up. 'For now, it is in my hands' Dracula points out. Dracula claims that when he heard Red Guardian was back on Russian soil, he knew he had returned for the hard drive. Dracula reveals that he has safeguarded the hard drive for decades. 'This bauble, like his mission – all but forgotten. Yet somehow valuable enough to make the White Widow his ally. Enough for your Security Council to demand overwhelming force, risk its most powerful assets...all while telling you nothing Dracula remarks. 'Nothing more than they needed to be told' the Red Widow snaps. 'And yet, I would prefer to hear the whole truth' Dracula states, asking Red Guardian to tell them his war story. 'It is not a triumphant one. I am not too proud to admit that' Alexei responds, before he begins his story....
(Flashback images)'Red Guardian may have been a symbol...but Alexei Stostakov was merely a man'. His history – it is clouded with lies. He married Natalia – but she was lied to. The world was lied to. They – his superiors in the Soviet Union, lied to him – and he let them. He remembers marching in a parade with the Crimson Dynamo – benevolent falsehoods inspired their dream of a better world. But Alexei was not naive enough to reject a little necessary evil. So he battled monsters – including Count Dracula – and traded blows with Earth's Mightiest Heroes, like Hercules and Hawkeye. He faced the cost of their dream, and believed it worth paying.
It was then that he was assigned to Operation Snowblind. His handler, in those days, was General Yuri Brushov, and according to the General, his role was simple – to keep what was buried, buried. On one occasion, Alexei parachuted into a facility. He knew that Snowblind was the work of isolated cells of analysts and technicians, with no cells having contacts beyond Brushov. Who did Brushov report to – no one knew. At the time, the Kremlin was determined to digitally preserve every scrap of useful information. Brushov's people embraced a counter-philosophy, though: Keep what is buried, buried. Snowblind took advantage of the chaotic archiving process to destroy phyiscal evidence and edit archives, one analyst at a time, and all to eliminate “dangerous” state secrets, or so Alexei was told. No expense was spared – custom data drives, Vanko-Tech encryptions, all of it. Once the truth was scrubbed clean from the world, all that remained were the project's analysts and a handful of data drives – it was Alexei's job to ensure every last trace was destroyed.
Entering the facility, he found a female analyst going about her business. But she had no military training. He had meant to disarm her, but he failed, shooting her in her stomach. He held her in his arms as blood pooled around them. The analyst had made four imperfect copies of the drives that could only be decrypted all together. He didn't know why – maybe she was a whistleblower, or maybe she was an idealist. She touched Alexei's face as she died. Alexei wondered if her dedication to the truth was so powerful that she would risk her life – risk the prosperous future they dreamed of building – in pursuit of it. He wondered why burying the sins of the past wasn't enough to safeguard the future. He realized he was naive as the woman's blood continued to pool around him. He felt that he owed her – and so he broke protocol.
But as he examined the data, Alexei did not find tactical secrets, dangerous technology or even evidence of darker necessary evils. Operation Snowblind was nothing but a criminal cover-up. Doctored bank statements, Hydra mission reports, secret alliances and false flags – and not just from the USSR. There was documentation on the oligarchs and corporations who would build themselves into billionaires by the dawn of the 21st Century.  Red Guardian knew that if this was leaked, his dream for Russia's future was dead. But he wondered what assurance he had that that future would ever arrive. He set the facility ablaze and departed with two briefcases – and then turned over decoys to General Brushov – who promptly destroyed them in a fire. Alexei never thought that Brushov doubted him.
Red Guardian was loyal to a fault – who would suspect this symbol – their falsehood embodied – of failure. Alexei needed to hide the real drives until he knew how to use them. So, he stored one in officers' storage at the air force base where his death was faked, one at the party's administrative office, where he once made small talk with a young ballerina named Natasha Romanov, one in the basement of the church his grandfather helped build – abandoned, but left standing, and the last, he placed in the hands of the most self-invested monster he could think of – because the leverage it offered would be too valuable for him to surrender. Then, not long after, he and Brushov were sent on their first “official” assignment together – to defeat the Avengers once and for all.
(Present)Alexei states that he suspects he and Brushov were to die in the line of duty, and while Brushov did, he assumed that everyone associated with Operation Snowblind died similarly. 'If...if this is true, Alexei, then -' Darkstar begins, before the Red Widow stands up and interrupts her by exclaiming 'Delusions of grandeur and fantasies, nothing more. A traitor – by your own admission'. But Dracula points at the Red Widow and remarks 'Much talk of traitors from you, Widow' before asking her if she ever uncovered the renegade in her own ranks. 'Which member of the Winter Guard helped destroy the Crimson Dynamo?' Dracula asks. Red Widow's eyes can be seen beneath her cowl – and they go wide-eyed. 'Another lie from Alexei, meant to – how could you possibly know that?' she asks. 'My dear, would I really invite any of you into my home and leave a single stone unturned?' Dracula replies. He tells her to forget Snowblind's secrets, as his are dangerous enough. 'Should I start by telling your allies who you are under that hood?' Dracula suggests. 'You're bluffing' Red Widow replies. 'Bet your life on it?' Dracula asks her – but the Red Widow falls silent.
'Now that we all understand each other... shall we discuss the fate of this trinket?' Dracula asks, referring to the hard drive on the plate in front of him. Dracula remarks that he does have some obligations to the ever-generous Russian government. 'But my hope in bringing you together was to find a mutually beneficial -' Dracula starts to say, before Yelena interrupts him: 'Rubbish' she exclaims. '...Pardon?' Dracula asks, annoyed. Yelena tells Dracula that if Alexei actually trusts him, then Alexei is a bigger fool than she could have imagined. 'Your plans benefit you, and no one else'. Yelena exclaims. She declares that Dracula brought them here to play them, to torture them, and maybe gain a little leverage along the way – but that he will just give the drive to whoever he can best put to use. 'Oligarch, autocrat, vampire – you're everything I intend to destroy' Yelena warns him. 'Yelena!' Alexei shouts, but Dracula tells Alexei that Yelena has the right of it. 'You bargain with the devil, and expect to play the angel?' Dracula asks.
'But devil or not... the deal has been struck. Your prize in my hands, to be bestowed or destroyed on my whim' Dracula points out. 'Your whim? Lives are at stake – hell, nations are at stake!' Vanguard exclaims, asking Dracula if he would make himself an enemy of the whole world. 'And you, Alexei? Where does your dream stand tonight?' Dracula asks. Alexei responds by announcing that he will do what he was too weak to do before – decrypt the drives and share all of their secrets with the world. He announces that corporations will collapse, governments – including their own – will buckle under the weight of the revelations. 'But our people will burn with the truth...and they will build a new Russia from the ashes' Red Guardian declares. This causes Dracula to smile, delighted. 'Extraordinary' he utters, before stating that he has heard enough.
Dracula stands up and turns to get something to drink from the back the Reception Chamber, while announcing that he returns to Alexei Shostakov that which he entrusted to his care in good faith, and he grants him amnesty and safe passage through his lands. 'What?' Vanguard shouts, while Alexei reaches over and takes the hard drive. Alexei and Yelena get up and start to run, while Ursa Major calls out to Yelena, asking her to wait. 'This is a mistake, Drakul!' Red Widow exclaims. Alexei tells Yelena that they need to move. 'We need to discuss -' Yelena begins. Dracula is about to sip his drink, when he answers the Red Widow: 'Mistake? No. A mistake would be a member of the Winter Guard assaulting one of my guests -' and at that moment, Vanguard hurls his shield towards Alexei, who turns around and catches it before it strikes him. 'Nice throw. The Russia of tomorrow will need heroes like you' Alexei tells Vanguard, while Dracula points out that his security team will have to respond in kind. Vanguard's shield clangs against the tiled floor when Red Guardian drops it, and countless vampires rush into the chamber at Dracula's command.
'Yessss! Come fight, dead men! Fight and die again!' Chernobog calls out as he engages the vampires. Ursa Major roars as he leaps into battle, too. Darkstar cuts her way through the vampires by striking them with her Darkforce, while Red Widow uses this opportunity to jump up onto the banquet table, and runs towards Dracula. 'The old hierarchies are toppling, the geo-political landscape is being rearranged...and soon it will be time for us to rise' Dracula utters, recalling that he said much the same when he faced off against Krakoa, and decides that he was not wrong. He stands up and turns his back on the Red Widow, who puts the tip of her blade at the back of his neck. 'This is insane. Even for you' the Red Widow remarks. 'Hardly' Dracula tells her. As Chernobog, Perun and Ursa Major tear through the vampires, Dracula states that he fulfilled his promise to Alexei, and decides that perhaps in doing so, he merely hastened the destruction of an old enemy at the Widow's hands. 'Or perhaps he will succeed. Perhaps his revelations will destroy a few governments, a handful of tiresome billionaires. You know the value in cutting away the chaff from the wheat, Widow'.
Dracula then holds up a small remote. The Red Widow recognizes it, and Dracula confirms that it is the weapon Alexei used on the Crimson Dynamo. 'And I know exactly how he acquired it' Dracula claims. The vampires close in around Vanguard and Darkstar. Vanguard hurls his shield into the swarm of vampires, while Darkstar continues to blast them with the Darkforce. 'So tonight was all about leverage?' the Red Widow asks, her blade pressed to Dracula's neck. She tells him that he wins, and asks what his terms are. 'Don't feel too bad about your performance, my dear. When you've played as long as I have, you never truly lose' Dracula responds. Perun slices a vampire in two with his ax, while Ursa Major bites down on one of them.
Alexei and Yelena reach the outdoors, and Alexei reports that the chopper is on autopilot, but they have a chance of reaching it. 'Alexei, listen to me!' Yelena calls out as she runs alongside him. 'All your cat and mouse nonsense. All your vaunted talk of dreams and redemption. How could I have been so blind?' she asks.
Back inside, Darkstar, Vanguard, Perun, Ursa Major and Chernobog regroup as another swarm of vampires looms before them – when suddenly, Dracula instructs his minions to hold. 'Just a misunderstanding, my children' he tells the vampires, before suggesting they escort the Winter Guard to the border.
Alexei and Yelena have reached the chopper, which flits above them, a rope ladder can be seen hanging from it. 'You've convinced yourself that you're on some populist crusade, but it's all ego, isn't it?' Yelena asks. She tells Alexei that it isn't about Russia's redemption, it's about his own. 'And it's damned us!' she exclaims. Alexei begins to climb the rope ladder and tells Yelena that a people's dream may begin with one man – but that it mustn't end there – no matter the cost. Darkstar, Perun, Vanguard and Chernobog can be seen flying from Dracula's castle, while Red Widow rides on Ursa Major's back as he races forward. Alexei tells Yelena that he is sorry, but that he has to see the rest of this through alone. 'What?' Yelena asks, before Alexei kicks her off of the rope ladder. 'How did Captain America phraise it? I am loyal to nothing but the dream' Alexei announces, while Yelena lands on the ground below with a thud.
Yelena rubs the side of her body that she hit the ground with. 'When I get my hands on him -' she begins, before the Winter Guard appear. 'Do not worry about Alexei' Darkstar tells her as she hovers in the air. 'He is still our prey' Chernobog grins, while the Red Widow, swords at the ready, informs Yelena that as far as she is concerned, this is the end.


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untitled
Twelve hours east of Chernobyl, inside the Uragan, the Mobile Command Center of the Winter Guard. 'So, Red Guardian uses you to recover his Cold War secrets, offers you data to use in your crusade against the world's oligarchs... but now – after he betrays you in front of literal vampires – you claim you didn't know his plan to “redeem Russia” is an infosec apocalypse?' the mysterious Red Widow asks the White Widow a.k.a. Yelena Belova. She tells Yelena that this is not an especially satisfying interrogation and asks why they should believe a word that she says. Yelena sits on a chair, her wrists cuffed as she announces that Alexei kept a great deal hidden from her and that she underestimated him. She explains that she could have used Snowblind's secrets to seed revolutions and destroy plutocrats for the next decade, while Alexei will blow all the whistles at once and put his faith in anarchy.
Yelena assures the Red Widow that she has told her everything she knows. 'Except for where he's headed' the Red Widow points out. 'The same direction we are, Red Widow. Specifics mean I lose my only bargaining chip' Yelena declares. The Red Widow is with other members of the Winter Guard team. Major Mikhail Ursus stands to her right, while the god Perun stands at the back of the room, arms folded, Chernobog, another god, stands to one side, while Laynia Petrovna a.k.a. Darkstar is seated next to him, and her twin brother, Nicolai Krylenko a.k.a. Vanguard stands opposite the Red Widow, arms folded as he stares at Yelena Belova. 'If this is about some kind of pardon request -' the Red Widow begins. 'This is about damage control' Yelena interrupts her. She states that Red Guardian's “revolution” is just another populist fantasy – dangerous, but desperate, the kind of scheme he would gturn to with Russia's super heroes under the Kremlin's thumb.
'His actions aren't our fault!' Darkstar exclaims. 'You don't feel used? The Security Council threw you at Alexei like petrol at a bonfire' Yelena replies. 'Get to the point' Vanguard tells her, slamming his hand on the table. Yelena supposes that Alexei may have planned to betray her from the beginning, noting that this operation should have been simply and clean. 'We knew what we were after – and where to get it' she points out, referring to the four hard drives. Yelena points out that Alexei wanted loud – and the Security Council saw an opportunity. 'They don't send a few dozen spetznaz to shut us down quietly – they send you. And you escalate everything. The Crimson Dynamo gets sabotaged? There's a traitor in the Winter Guard?' Yelena recounts the events of the last few days. 'Now you can really justify turning your super heroes into a hit squad' Yelena adds. 'See where I'm going with this?' she asks.
'Enough! Alexei's exact location now, or I'll start -' the Red Widow begins, threatening the White Widow, she raises a hand as if she was preparing to slap Yelena – when Vanguard suddenly grabs her wrist. 'Let her finish' Vanguard snarls. The Red Widow spins around: 'Oh, don't stop being a good little soldier now, Vanguard' she tells him, when Perun speaks: 'Too long have I held my tongue' he calls out. 'Too long have I watched you children bicker and lie, while our homeland rots from the inside out' Perun declares. Vanguard turns to his teammate, confused, before Perun suggests that, perhaps, Red Guardian's success will not be their failure. 'What are you saying, Perun?' Red Guardian asks. Perun announces that he disagrees with this mission. 'Your goals...are not my goals. But Alexei? That first mission – he found me in the fog. I did not aid him, but we spoke like old men sharing old dreams' Perun reveals, remembering the mission at the border control center. Perun continues, informing his teammates that when the storm threatened Red Guardian's village, Red Guardian listened to him, while his teammates wouldn't, and Red Guardian helped him save those people. Finally, at Dracula's castle, he reveals that he had the chance to kill Red Guardian – but instead, he did not take it, and let the Red Guardian run past him.
Perun closes his eyes as he states that this land, the people – they are his, and he has felt their disappointments, their dead dreams – for centuries. 'You cannot understand this. Red Guardian does' he adds. Vanguard and Darkstar become wide-eyed, while Chernobog looks unimpressed, and Mikhail Ursus looks shocked. 'You call yourself a god? I call you a traitor! You're Alexei's man on the inside!' Red Widow snaps, pointing at Perun. Perun opens his eyes and looks back at his teammates as he replies 'What? That's not what I'm saying'. Mikhail switches to his Ursa Major bear form and exclaims 'The old man all along!' while Chernobog moves in closer to his fellow god, 'Well, well, well...' he utters. 'You gave him the remote? Alexei never mentioned a traitor before that day, and he never said -' the White Widow begins, before the Red Widow spins back around and points at her: 'Silence!' she declares.
'All these lies! These secrets have turned you all -' Perun begins, before Chernobog interrupts him, declaring that secrets are their domain. 'No more words from you! No more thunder!' Chernobog exclaims, moving forward, he attacks Perun, slashing him with his claws. 'Chernobog! Stop!' Darkstar cries out. 'Heed my words. I am not another mortal, blind and deaf and tangled in widow's webs!' Perun booms as he slams his ax into the table in front of him, shattering it and causing lightning to crackle around him. 'I am a god, and I will suffer no more scheming! I throw lightning and call thunder! I am the truth carved into the firmament!' Perun boasts. The lightning intensifies so much that it causes the Uragan to buckle and crash. 'I am Perun, and by the storm -  YOU WILL HEED ME!' Perun shouts as he vanishes as thunder roars.
'I'm going after him!' Darkstar calls out as she opens a portal and teleports away. 'You, Darkstar – and your shadow' Chernobog utters as he follows Darkstar through the portal. 'So reckless, Laynia' Vanguard mutters about his sister as he emerges from the wreckage of the Uragan, pushing a large piece of the train up off of him and the Red Widow. He asks the Widow if she is hurt, but the mysterious woman tells him that there is no time for that, and to forget his sister and forget Perun. 'We need to know where Alexei -' the Widow starts to say, before going wide-eyed beneath her cowl and gasping, as Yelena emerges from the wreckage nearby. 'Lukomorye! You want Alexei, right? That's where he's headed!' Yelena reveals. '...like in Pushkin?' Vanguard asks. 'No. she means  Lukomorye Park' Red Widow explains, adding that there is an art installation near Baikal, and that they are close.
Yelena tells the Winter Guard that they can still catch Alexei if they hurry, and that they shouldn't waste time chasing her, as she rushes off into the mountains. 'I could fly there now, but -' Vannguard begins, to which the Red Widow tells him that she is coming with him. 'But Yelena! She could -' Vanguard starts, only for Ursa Major to appear, and tells his teammates to go. 'Ursa, if you're hurt...' Vanguard tells his friend, but Ursa Major just tells them to go, as he and the White Widow have unfinished business.
Darkstar emerges through her portal and finds Perun standing on a ridge atop a snow-covered mountain terrain. 'That devastation. That took almost all of your strength, didn't it?' she asks the old god, pointing out that he can fight or flee, but not do both. Perun acknowledges Darkstar by telling her that she understands, that in her hear, she feels that the Winter Guard are not on the right path. 'I pray that all is not lost' he adds. Suddenly, 'You want to pray? Pray for a swift death!' Chernobog suggests as he rises up above Perun. 'No, not now! Not now!' Darkstar exclaims. 'Been looking for an excuse for millennia, haven't you?' Perun asks as he turns to Chernobog. 'So be it. Today's a fine day for slaying monsters!' Perun booms as he raises his ax to Chernobog, lightning crackling around him.
Meanwhile: 'I know Siberia better than you, Belova. That gulag they left me to rot in – we are almost close to it, here' Ursa Major calls out as he runs across a frozen lake, towards some icy caves. Yelena is hiding in the caves, behind some icicles as Ursa Major lumbers into the cave. 'as close as any two places can be in this wasteland' Ursa Major remarks, before shattering the icicles with his powerful claws – only Yelena has vanished. Ursa looks around the cave and asks Yelena if she will hide forever. 'If I fail here, they will send others. She will send others' Ursa points out.
On the edge of the ridge, Perun raises his ax and summons more lightning, while Darkstar comes between him and Chernobog. 'Stop fighting and listen!' Darkstar calls out. But as the lightning is released, Chernobog moves in front of Darkstar. 'Not her! Won't let you hurt her!' he tells Perun as the lightning strikes him and knocks him to the ground. 'Chernobog...he sacrificed himself?' Perun asks, shocked, as he drops his ax and looks down at he fellow god. Darkstar crouches beside Chernobog and tells him that he is a stupid devil, always lurking and pestering. '...and now this? Why? What do you see in me?' she asks him. 'We...admire you' Chernobog utters, before revealing that their human vessel, Darkstar once rescued him from a fire. 'It was before our time, but still, whenever you're around...everything seems so bright' he utters. Darkstar seems to take control of the Darkforce energies seeping from Chernobog, while Perun stands behind her and remarks 'He almost died for you. I never thought him capable'. Darkstar tells Perun that if the God of Blood and Darkness can be heroic, then it might not be too late for the rest of them.
Back in the cave, Yelena suddenly drops down onto Ursa Major's shoulders, a sharp icicle in her hand. 'Sorry, Mikhail -' Yelena begins, before Ursa tells her that he is sorry, too, as he throws her off of him, slamming her into some ice, which shatter around her as she falls to the cave floor. '...you're not going to kill me, old friend' Yelena tells Ursa as he positions himself over her, preventing her from escaping. 'I can't kill you. But I can't help you, either' Ursa replies as he stands up. 'You can come with me' Yelena tells him as she sits up. But Ursa turns and runs from the cave, remarking that he is still a prisoner in Russia – even unchained, he knows no other way, no other place.
Lukomorye State Park, near the Mongolian Border. Vanguard and Red Widow have arrived. 'It's not like Pushkin's Lukomorye at all. Gives me the creeps' Vanguard remarks as he and the Red Widow make their way through a dark and damp forest, with statues appearing in several clearings. Red Widow tells Vanguard to stay alert, because if Alexei is waiting for a pick up, he will stay hidden. 'The coward could be anywhere...' the Red Widow remarks, coming to a stop when she looks at a cloaked statue, only to be slammed backwards against a tree. 'That's where you're wrong, I'm afraid' Alexei Shostakov a.k.a. Red Guardian tells her as he stands on a rock nearby, catching his boomerang as it returns to him after slamming the Red Widow backwards. 'I've never been much for hiding' Alexei declares, before telling the Red Widow that if she is expecting a surrender, he will disappoint her there, as well, as he has come too far to give up now.
'If you were telling the truth about Snowblind, maybe you have a point. Maybe the worst of us stole the government – the world – and covered up the details. Maybe you failed to save Russia in your time...but I won't let you destroy it in mine!' Vanguard calls out as he hurls his shield towards Red Guardian, who responds by flinging his boomerang. The two weapons clang together, then dart away from each other. Vanguard uses this moment to release some of his mutant power at the boomerang, before Red Guardian punches him in the face – an instant later, the Red Guardian's own boomerang strikes him in the face, knocking him backwards. 'How -?' Red Guardian asks. 'Kinetic energy. I have actual super powers, remember?' Vanguard declares as he retrieves his shield. 'Impressive! And yet...it's too late now. No other way' Red Guardian replies as he kicks Vanguard in the stomach, knocking him over.
The Red Guardian remarks that Vanguard may have done better in his place. 'You are less naive... but still, I think you have a good heart' he tells him. There is a beeping noise, and Red Guardian picks up his briefcase. 'Ah. Right on schedule' he states, as a rope drops down from above. Red Guardian takes hold of the rope and announces that he awakens Russia – the world – from this dream, that Vanguard's heart will serve him well. 'There will be chaos, but that is the best time for heroes. Be steadfast' he tells Vanguard. 'Your shield' Red Widow snaps, attempting to take Vanguard's shield from his hands. 'Can't – dizzy – concussion' Vanguard replies, wearily. The Red Widow tells him that she will throw it, and he can use his powers to guide it. 'Amplify the force and velocity' the Red Widow tells Vanguard, who goes wide-eyed as he watches the Red Guardian and the briefcase be pulled upwards into the air on the rope.
'Your aim doesn't have to be perfect. This close, you'll rip through him like tissue. Shostakov must die. There's no other way' the Red Widow announces. Vanguard releases his mutant power onto his shield, while Red Guardian goes wide-eyed, and utters 'Yes, there is' before the shield slams into the briefcase, shattering it – and the Snowblind drives. 'No!' Red Guardian cries out in shock.
Several weeks later, in Moscow. 'A commendation?' a surprised Vanguard exclaims, wide-eyed. 'But I let Shostakov get away' he remarks. He and the other members of the Winter Guard are in a meeting room at their HQ, and the Red Widow tells Vanguard that by destroying those drives, he completed Operation Snowblind, and that as far as the Security Council is concerned, he has claimed up his predecessor's mistakes. The Red Widow adds that she has been told Red Guardian has fled to Madripoor, but that her people will eventually find him. 'Then I consider the matter settled' Dimitri Bukharin a.k.a. Crimson Dynamo announces as he and the synthezoid member of the Winter Guard called Vostok enter the meeting room. 'Dimitri! Vostok! Recovered already?' Vanguard asks as the team turn to their returning teammates. 'Recovered and ready to get back to work...as the official leader of the Winter Guard' Crimson Dynamo declares, while looking at the Red Widow.
Chernobog, Perun, Ursa Major and Darkstar gather around as the Crimson Dynamo thanks them all for their hard wor in his absence. He notes that they have all been fully debriefed, but has something else he wants to say. Everyone listens as Dynamo tells them that if they are going to move forward, it must be with trust. 'As far as I'm concerned, there are no traitors on my team' he declares. He acknowledges that Perun may have acted against the mission, but that these were extenuating circumstances. 'He was not the only one who acted poorly to secrets and lies. Otherwise, no evidence of premeditated sabotage has been presented. Other than that remote'. Dynamo turns to the Widow and asks her if she ever figured out where Alexei got the remote from. The Red Widow pauses, before telling him that she is afraid not.
The Widow then stands up and claims that she has an urgent call, and that she will be back next time the Security Council has need of them. Perun and Dynamo shake hands, while Vanguard goes over to Darkstar and tells her that he is sorry he hasn't been much of the hero she wants him to be. 'Really, brother? Because I think you might have saved the day' Darkstar replies.
Outside, the snow falls as the Red Widow approaches a vehicle. She is in communication with one of her superiors. 'Now we can focus on real threats. Drakul, and now the She-Hulk...' Red Widow begins, before telling her superior that she agrees it could have gone much worse. 'If Crimson Dynamo hadn't been wounded...he might have sided with Shostakov'. She opens a file in the vehicle, and an image of the device that was used to take control of Crimson Dynamo's armor is seen. 'We may want to take similar countermeasures again' she suggests.
Back inside, Darkstar and Vanguard look out the window of the conference room, while Crimson Dynamo asks about the White Widow. 'You're sure she's dead?' he enquires. 'I know what it takes to survive out there. If Yelena wanted to escape, she'd have called for help' Ursa Major responds as he takes a drink.
Siberia, several dozen kilometers north. The White Widow climbs up a steep rocky cliff face, using nothing but her own hands. 'Perfect timing' a voice calls out. 'I just made coffee'. Yelena looks up and sees a handsome man standing over her – Bucky Barnes the Winter Soldier. 'It better not be decaf' Yelena mutters as she sits on a stool next to a table that Bucky has propped up on a small ledge jutting out from the mountain. 'Tovarich, please – it's Starbucks' Bucky exclaims. A hang glider can be seen next to a small tent, and Yelena tells Bucky that it will do, and that when she can feel her fingers again they can leave. 'Good' Bucky replies, telling Yelena that he hates it here. He adds that he is sorry to bring her home empty-handed, but Yelena holds up a hard drive labelled “Red Guardian – Operation Snowblind” and shrugs as she tells Bucky that she's not entirely empty-handed, as she managed to steal her consolation prize. 'It's not the revolution, but hey – it's a start'.


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[Assistant]
The Rudiments of Wisdom – Part one: The Day the Fairies came out
(Grimsdale’s narration:)
The first casualty was in Brighton. A young woman has been horribly slain: the assailants – tiny winged fairies. She’d seen them as a child. Left them wine in acorn cups. The boyfriend who ran says she screamed when she saw them on a rosebush. The assault lasted five hours. She died from loss of blood.
A painter on the South Downs was torn apart by a fairy swarm. As were archaeologists at a Long Barrow. These are unprovoked assaults by foreign nationals on British soil. They are in effect at war. “In effect” because very few people know about it. And that’s rarely true of wars. Lat night, some sort of huge monster took a baby from a nursery in front of his mother. The child of a cabinet minister.
(The present)
The Joint Intelligence Committee in Portwell House, Whitehall:
Bloody fairies, Sir Mortimer Grimsdale, J.I.C. chair finishes his narration. He continues that Otherworld has never taken responsibility for its nationals. It’s ruled by some bloody pantheon. Braddock used to be involved. Establishing diplomatic relations has always been seen as an ecumenical matter. This enchanted land of Avalon would be regarded as a valuable national treasure. If it were any sodding use.
He turns to Pete Wisdom, intelligence officer of MI-13, telling him that his team will be entering what some allege is the British collective unconscious. England’s dreaming. Get the child, make them hurt. Force them to the table. This moment is what justifies an entire division of military intelligence with one senior officer. This is why Wisdom reports only to him now.
He continues that they like it that MI-5 and 6 take an interest in “weird happenings.” They like it that the pages of the red books are sometimes stained with aliens, fairies and if Wisdom will excuse his French, mutants. But they like it even more that 5 or 6 do not fight their wars with those things. For that they have 13.
Pete Wisdpom speaks for the first time. Bloody fairies, he remarks mildly.
Waiting in the MI-13 ops room is Wisdom’s team, a motley crew. Tink, a punkish young woman with a Mohawk, remarks this is going to be awkward for her. She’s not supposed to go home. It’s gonna be awkward when she slaughters a few of the sluagh fey. They’re gonna pay for pissing on her new life.
The Skrull calling himself John looks surprisingly like his namesake, John Lennon. As he sips from a Beatles cup, he remarks that they have a collective unconscious where he comes from. He means the Skrull homeworld? asks Tink. He means Liverpool on a Friday night. Thank yer very much, ladies and gentlemen. He’ll be back after the stripper.
They are joined by a bitter looking elderly man, “rambling” Sid Ridley aka Captain Midlands. He informs them that his bus was delayed and so he had to walk from Clapham. But Mr. “high and mightie mutie” hasn’t shown up yet. Typical.
Elsewhere, said mutie is on the phone talking to Emma Frost (who is clearly not the person he wants to talk to). Emma knows about the answer phone messages, he realizes belatedly. She said that? Well, yeah, he was. A bit. Could Emma tell her… Oh, she has.
 Bloody telepaths, he mutters as he finishes his conversation.
I beg your pardon, comes the angry question, mouthed by an attractive but currently aggressive looking woman with auburn hair, dressed in a conservative business suit. Bloody what was it now? she demands.
Wisdom recognizes her as the newest addition to their motley crew, Maureen Raven. She’s a clairsentient, not a telepath, he points out. Doesn’t help, he realizes. He suggests she read his thoughts to see. Whether it’s helpful or not, Wisdom thinks she’s a bit of all right. Changing the subject, he remarks that the others are waiting for them.
Wisdom explains to the team that they are going to have to attack Otherworld. It’s going to be tough for Maureen’s first mission, so sorry. They will show the little gossamer bastards how they respond to aggression, no offence, Tink, he adds belatedly. Good-natured, the elfin woman suggests he just buy her a vodka and Red Bull.
Pointing to a screen, Wisdom explains that there are several different races with territories in Otherworld. The fairies are only one of them. The screen shows several objects with prohibition signs. Wisdom lays down the rules. If they run into King Arthur: Do not hurt him. Do not tell him they could do with him. Do not join the Round Table. Don’t eat anything. Don’t pull anything (particularly swords) from anything (particularly stones). Don’t marry anything.
Wisdom stresses that he doesn’t want to hear about “zapping” or “tagging.” They are special forces. When they kill, they say kill, but they kill arms-bearers. If they lay hands on a civilian they are staying there. Questions?
Later, a smiling MI-13 scientist equips a gruff Captain Midlands with a special anti-magic gloss on his shield.
John the Skrull is given a plasma holoprojector for pretend magic powers. He’ll pretend it suits him, John replies. A doubtful Maureen receives a crystal to focus on other minds in a magical atmosphere, while Tink is equipped with a flechette cannon. Not waiting for the explanation to go with it, she shouts to go kick some reactionary fairy arse.
A little later, a helicopter carrying the heroes is lowered over a pentagram on the ground. Inside, John the Skrull wistfully remarks he’d like to be back for the alien duplicates get-together at the Bull and Whistle. Everybody who’s anybody will be there.
Captain Midlands tells him he met the real him once. He is meeting the real him now, John points out. He told him to get his bleeding haircut, the Captain continues, walking down memory lane. Thank God nobody cares about the length of hair nowadays Wisdom interjects. It weren’t long ago, the Captian points out defensively. Only 1969. That’s how you know you’re getting old, John replies. Nowadays starts to be a long time ago.
Operation Summerblues is a go, comes a voice, as the next moment the helicopter rematerializes in a medieval-style world. Home, sweet home, smirks Tink. She had no idea, Maureen marvels. She is only a civil servant.
Castle… fort… peasant village, where an orphan boy doesn’t know he’s a prince, observes Wisdom. It’s like they invaded Riverdance. Is he saying something about Ireland? Maureen inquires. He’s saying their bloody “collective unconscious” is medieval, he retorts. It’s this weight that stops Britain from getting on with the future. He is saying something about Ireland, Mo concludes with a smile. Nah, he is saying something about himself, Wisdom corrects her.
Why is she with them? Before they found her, she thought she was going mad. So she’s grateful and… okay… she’s from Ulster. She believes in Great Britain. She believes in duty. Apologetically, she adds that she is not raving. With a soft smile, Wisdom assures her that sentiment is wonderful. Smiling back, Mo thanks him.
Back in real life at the Crown Pub in Soho, London, Sir Clive Reston, MI-6 officer, is discussing matters regarding weird happenings with fellow MI-6 employee Jack Tarr. Sir Clive observes that all weird happenings organizations from STRIKE to the RCX to Black Air failed because of a lack of conceptual depth, a lack of history. Tarr grimly adds that ragtag gangs of mutants and freaks have no discipline. The stuff they look into ends up eating them always. Sir Clive mentions Maureen Raven as an example. She’d get much more support folded into Stuart’s intelligence team within 6. And as for putting Wisdom in charge after MI6 got Stuart… Wisdom’s got history, all right, but the wrong kind.
Grimsdale overheard the last part and tells Sir Clive to sod off. Wisdom has something better than history; he has loyalty. Loyalty to MI-13 or to his own code of honour, asks Sir Clive.
Fairy Hillfort. The castle wall explodes courtesy of Tink’s very big gun. Morning. We’re MI-13 and we haven’t had our breakfast, Wisdom informs the fairies. Wisdom charges ahead, bellowing orders. A moment later, he stops, beginning to cough while the others effortlessly pass him. Should’ve given them up years ago, he mutters darkly, referring to his former nicotine habit.
While the others are battling, John – appearing as Merlyn (complete with his own brand of hippy shades) – announces that he is Merlyn the magic man. There’s no need for all this conflict, like. He commands them to… Tink finishes his order, shouting an obscenity as she shoots fairies. He was going to say “Give peace a chance” John remarks.
Grabbing a tiny fairy by the wings, Wisdom orders her to shows them the map room and nobody else dies. Comprendez? Why is he speaking Spanish? comes the dumbfounded answer.
A little later, the team finds itself in the strategy room of the fairy hillfort and the tiny fairy informs them that the child they seek is with Oberon, king of the fairies. A while ago, he locked Queen Titania inside a mountain. He has been a lot wilder without her.
Great, so all this is down to a lack of fairy nookie, Pete mutters, before asking Mo if she can get into Oberon’s head. He tells her to compose herself and breathe. She gets ready to lash out at him, before she realizes he really knows how she feels. Mollified, she raises her crystal pendant and tries to establish contact.
She sees a giant being, wearing a helmet and cradling an infant. She can feel his mind. He’s not what they’d call a King. He’s like the bear in the cave: the monster. But, as she is his mind, he perceives her as well. Mo breaks contact too late. The next moment, they are teleported into a forest, where Oberon wants them to be.
I think our past just caught up with us, observes Captain Midlands as they find themselves surrounded by dozens of fairies.
While the battle rages on, Mo kneels, staring at her crystal. She is in Oberon’s thoughts and cannot believe it. What is so important about her?
Firing hotknives, Wisdom asks if anyone has a plan. Using an invective, Tink calls out to Oberon, calling him “father,” to stop this!
And he does, explaining that he took the baby to be raised as an ambassador to Earth. A covenant between worlds. Fairies have become tainted. Changed by humans’ fear and rage, They brought this wrath on themselves. “Brought it on ourselves, my arse!” Wisdom shouts back. Oberon could have called them back. Now he’s going to. Or Wisdom will show him rage and fear. And he adds a message from her majesty’s government: “This is a young country.”
Oberon considers his words and suggests a different kind of covenant, if his daughter is willing.
Some time later Wisdom and Tink are lying together after a hot round of sex. The things he does for England, Pete sighs.
One week later, Pete visits Maureen at her flat in Kew and reveals that Grimsdale considers their operation a huge success. The fairy attacks have stopped. But Tink keeps smiling at him. If he chucks her, they are at war with fairy land, so “no pressure.” But hey, it can’t be binding in law.
Noticing her evasive look, he asks Mo what she saw in Oberon’s mind. It’s complicated, she sighs. Something terrible is coming. And she’s in it. She’s important to it. Course she is, he tells her cheerfully. She’s probably going to save the world. She’s with his firm now. They’re all heading for the future together.
A young boy suddenly stands in the kitchen doorway. Calling him “Jonathan,” Mo asks him to say “hello” to Pete. The boy stares at Pete, an unreadable expression on his face, while Pete tries his best to be kiddie-friendly, asking him what he likes. He bets Jonathan likes Captain Scarlet. Before Jonathan’s inner eye, he sees Pete killed horribly by tentacles. He says nothing.
The strong silent type, eh? Pete inquires. That’s what the ladies like. Give it a few years, he’ll find out.
Jonathan still stares coldly.


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[Assistant]
The Rudiments of Wisdom, Part Two: The Village that Walked Like a Woman
Wisdom’s dream:
London’s devastated, the sky is red. Before him stands Maureen Raven, the upper part of her head missing. This is a dream, she warns him, but it will come true.
reality:
His recent “Wife,” Tink, sleeps on. Grabbing a terryrobe, Pete “informs” her that he is going to see Blatley and asks her not to wake up.
A little later, he sits in the office of Jonathan Blatley, head of military applications research, who informs him that the local villagers are leaving in droves, and they can’t recruit anyone in the service to come here. But the weapon they are testing has no subtle effect on the human brain… at least it didn’t when they tested it in London.
He bets the wise old country folk say there’s a reason for that, Pete mutters, as he stares into his hot beverage. The tossers.
Pantagruel village:
Pete and Maureen tour the village, marvelling at the scenery. Mo points out that Pete looks bad and already knows the reason for that: bad dreams. She has them, too, Mo admits: She’s seen her little boy floating off into space. But they are just dreams. Pete remembers that his mother used to live near here. Doesn’t she think there’s something about ancient Rolling Downland that’s just…? Nah, just him then.
Is there nothing about the past he likes, she wonders. Dinosaurs! He’s got to love dinosaurs.
Pete begins a word association: Dinosaurs… dragons… oriental adventures…innocent natives… “Whoops, I killed them all…”
That’s his problem here. He’s a sitting duck for bad dreams. He knows who’s gonna pop up sooner or later. Changing subject, he wonders hopefully whether that pub is open.
A little later in the pub Maureen muses that clairsentients have other people’s dreams. They see themselves as others see them. “You know if your bum looks big,” Pete offers helpfully. But they still need to ask. Mo continues. It doesn’t, not in the slightest, Pete assures her. How’s Tink enjoying the arranged marriage? she asks, changing the subject. It’s “when Gnomes attack” again if they don’t, Pete replies, so… they do.
At St. Christopher’s Church in Pantagruel, the reverend, a middle-aged blonde woman assures the other members of MI-13, John the Skrull and Captain Midlands that the audience at the parish council meetings is usually one man and a dog, not one Beatle and one superhero.
Sitting back relaxed, John the Skrull asks her to carry on. They are here to be irreverent. Or irrelevant. If they had bad dreams when they were kids they’d get a good hiding… the Captain remembers a better past.
John asks the others to ignore the Captain and asks about their problems with the collective unconsciousness. It’s the military, one of the citizens replies accusingly. Who else is ever down here? For him the dream is his old dad. All night, every night, talking about the war all the time. It’s only a matter of time before someone… That moment someone shoots through the windows.
Outside a young man with military clothes and a machine gun is running amok. He seemingly spouts gibberish. “The weight. The hills. History! Geography! Physics! Biology!” Does he think he is trying to teach them a lesson? John the Skrull wonders. Captain Midlands addresses the man. Before he can threaten them, hotknives – courtesy of Wisdom – sever the man’s hands, thus keeping him from shooting or blowing up anything else. Sorry, Pete adds while Maureen phones for a military ambulance. The Captain stoically assures Pete it had to be done. Pete curtly agrees. Tink joins them. Curiously looking at the victim, she inquires whether he is meant to look like that.
Later at the base hospital, the members of MI-13 question the man who apologizes. He’d gone to sleep and thought this was a dream. This is a dream now, isn’t it? Maureen touches the stump of his arm to find his nervous system. Making contact with something she remarks that they’ve met the sleeping giant in their dreams. The others are also affected, having visions while still awake.
Wisdom’s dream:
Pete dreams of hanging off the edge of a highrise, hundreds of people hanging on to him, foremost his mother whom he asks to let go.
Captain Midland’s dream:
Captain Midlands sees himself as an old man sitting helplessly on a bench as he watches neo-Nazi youths pass by. But I was Captain, he ventures helplessly. But we won.
Tink is puzzled about what’s going on with the others. She perceives nothing.
As for John the Skrull: Groovy, he exclaims, its The Skrull Beatles in: The British Invasion.
John’s vision:
The fours Skrull impostors (looking like the Beatles in their very early career) have arrived in Liverpool. “Lovely day for a bit of a conquest.” “All hail the mighty Skrull Empire, like.” “You should tell them that about the weather down here. It’s all hail.” “Come on, lads. We’re gonna take the Beatles’ places and rule the world!”
Later, Skrull John and Skrull Paul discuss matters while playing the piano. John wants to do more than an alien invasion. Gerry and the Skrull Pacemakers could do an alien invasion. Skrull Paul suggests he sell it to their bosses if he knows where they’ve gone to. Pointing at a cow, Skrull John remarks that Daisy says it’s okay. And does anyone fancy a pint of golf top?
Later still, Skrull John introduces the others to his new flame, Captain Boko of the Free Kree Liberation Army. Skrull George is going off on a pilgrimage with the Dread Dormammu, while Skrull Ringo finds he really likes money and power. Frustrated, Skrull Paul wonders how Gerry and the Skrull Pacemakers are doing.
reality:
John ponders whether he should give Skrull Paul a call. He could. He might. But he won’t.
With the contact Maureen made, the dreams intensify for everyone in Pantagruel. Zombielike the citizens turn violent.
Pete walks to the weapon room, followed by his vision of his dead mother. The shot corpse reminds him to ask about the weapon. Mum, I know, he replies exasperated. He’s an adult, he’s an intelligence officer and she’s obviously just a dream, okay?
He is expected by an officer who is relieved to see him still acting normally. He explains his own conscious state that, when the shared dreaming started, he threw back seventeen tabs of Dextroamphetamine sulfate and a can of Red Bull. He believes he is going to die. Eventually. He doesn’t care whether the weapon can do this or not. Wisdom has to help him switch it off.
Ask him what it does, Pete’s mother tells him. How come he isn’t dreaming, the officer asks, He is, Pete replies, but he has his duty. She is so proud of him, Wisdom’s mother commends him. The officer explains that it’s a sonic weapon. Like radio waves bouncing off the ionosphere, it’s designed to reflect off the inner layers of the Earth and back up onto a target.
The other MI-13 members join them. A glowing Maureen explains that it connects everyone to the dreams of some dreaming underground mind that is now projecting through her. She apologizes, as the continued contact forces her to climax again and again. In the meantime, they find that they can’t shut the sonic weapon off.
Tink finally gets what this is about. She’d wondered why they were all acting weird. It doesn’t affect her because she doesn’t dream. Has nobody told them about the sleeping giant?
Later outside, they sit in a circle, holding hands as Tink explains that Pantagruel is one of the giants of Britain. They were defeated, put to sleep and buried by the Celestials or Asgardians or someone like that. “Thanks Mum,” Pete comments. “Don’t call me that,” Tink retorts. “Sorry, Mum,” he apologizes
The flavours of the British giants’ dreams gently determine the character of British life, like in every nation, Tink continues. But Maureen sticking her fat nose in this sent the effect off the scale. Maureen resents that but is shut up by another passing orgasm... But if she is channelling one way, she can channel another, Tink explains. So she wants them all to look at Mo and think: ”Hello, Pantagruel! Quieten your sleep.”
They begin to channel, the first effect they notice being that they now share Maureen’s orgasms. The effect is not quite the desired one though as a giant hand rises from the ground. All right, Tink asks accusingly. Who thought “Wake up?”
Skrull John protests that he wanted to do more than just keep a sleeping giant sleeping. Gerry and the Pacemakers could…
However, the positive effect is that the people are waking up. The citizens and heroes stare helplessly as they begin to rise. This is very bad, Tink remarks. Bad in some other way than the whole village being on top of its head? Pete asks. It’s worse, Tink explains. Whoever buried Pantagruel buried guardians, too. Other giants with towns on their heads begin to rise. The reverend identifies one town as Little Bremmington. They’ve never really liked them.
The two guards begin to fight Pantagruel. Pete orders Tink and John to help while he tells Mo to inform Pantagruel those are innocent people she is endangering. John and Tink begin flying people caught in the crossfire away. Tink reminds John this is his fault. She wants him to feel bad. That’s beyond him, he shrugs.
Mo states that Pantagruel wants to know whose sided they are on. Say “hers,” Pete replies. Can he truthfully tell her that? Mo asks. With people falling into the sky out of their back gardens? No. He can, Captain Midlands interjects. She’s England. She’s been buried and overwritten and shat on. She’s angry. He’s not too P.C. to tell her she’s right. Mo channels him and is getting through to her. Captain Midlands marvels that he’s never met anyone like her… apart from her majesty…
Panatagruel puts down her foe’s head with the village on it. Pantagruel takes out the other guardian. Pete suggests they evacuate the town, then take her out with missiles. The reverend protests that this is their village. Mo adds that Pantagruel is already on the move. She’s going to where she can’t do any harm. Pete insists the villagers can’t stay there. The reverend replies it’s what they are meant to do. If the English subconscious is moving, they have to move with it.
A little later, Pantagruel is in international waters and out of MI-13’s jurisdiction. Mo remarks to Pete that she sounded a bit tarty under the influence. He liked that, Pete assures her. She was just about the only woman he didn’t call “Mum,” she points out as she gets into the helicopter with him. Did he see his mum in his dream? If she lives in Wiltshire, maybe they could….
Pete corrects her: his mother died in 1987. She was shot. She was waiting for him. Standing by her window. But they’d had this row, so he stood her up… The Hungerford Massacre. Bit of local history. A Spree Killing. Sixteen people. Hence his distaste for nostalgia, she realizes. And a distinct lack of joy in his own killing sprees, he adds. And if you don’t have that, what have you got? He wants to tell her about this dream he had about her. With a smirk, she suggests he doesn’t tell. He being married and all.
They fly off while on Pantagruel the parish meets, discussing the fact that they’re going to have to establish diplomatic relations with Greenland. One citizen wonders about the effect this will have on the cricket season while Mr. Thompson is trying to look up SHIELD in the yellow pages.
And all the way to the mainland, John the Skrull was singing, “You’ll never walk alone.”


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[Assistant]
The Rudiments of Wisdom – part three: Enter With Drag On
Soundtrack: Goldie Lookin’ Chain: “Guns don’t kill people, Rappers do” :
Austin Powers’ dad, now there was a wise man, Pete Wisdom pontificates as he empties a pint of beer. And to paraphrase him: There are two kinds of people in the world I don’t like: Narrow-minded xenophobic bastards who don’t appreciate other peoples’ cultures… and the Welsh.
Wiping his mouth, he continues, asking what the Welsh have given them. Bit of coal, once, yes. A decent rugby team, once, yes. Ivor the Engine. Charming Children’s animation. Okay. And a few good jokes about shagging as related to wool production… But now they’ve sold their arses to the Japanese industry, and it’s all Jones-Chan this and Rurilo-Bach that… not so much a culture, more a tourist tea-towel production center, isn’t it, boyo?
He downs another pint and flashes his audience a rude gesture. This to the lot of them. The “We’ll keep a welcome in the hillsides cottage burning, cheese-eating leek-growing male voice choir collapsed lung bunch of degenerate half a civilization” cavemen. But hey… what do they think?
His audience in the pub are a group of very pissed off Welshmen, most particularly a muscular bald guy displaying, among several tattoos, that of a red dragon. He gestures the others back and replies that he thinks, “Nil by mouth.” He thinks Wisdom is gonna be pushing his bollocks around on a little trolley. Does he know who he is? Oh, he’s that bloke, Pete replies. The one’s that rose to the top of the “Cardiff underworld.” Sorry, he still can’t say that with a straight face.
The other man is about to attack him with a broke bottle. This is combat then? Pete asks. A “combat?” the other man asks, confused. Yeah, it’s a combat. Great, Wisdom enthuses and tells him to wait as he looks for a certain pergament in his suit. Pulling it out, he reads it: I claim the ancient rite of dragon duel, you’re bound by its rules and I nominate my second who will fight you on my behalf: Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung-Fu.
Shang Chi muses that once more he is called on to play these games of deceit and death. To meet in combat a creature who in other circumstances… Wisdom interrupts his reverie as he cheerfully informs them he’ll leave them to it.
Soundtrack: Manic Street Preachers: “Life becomes a Landslide.”
“Dragons?” What’s he on about? one of the patrons asks the challenged, Dave. Shang-Chi recognizes the other man as a dragon, as he was told. He has surrendered to his human form. Shockingly so. But he has not become fat. Shang-Chi addresses Dave, asking him if he’s forgotten who he is.
Wisdom interrupts him and tells him thanks, before heading outside, where he meets the other members of MI-13 as well as Welsh CID Commander Dai Thomas, an old acquaintance. “Petawn I’n Meddwl am eiliad dy fod Ti’n golygu unrhw ran o hynny” Thomas remarks in Welsh.
“Ti’n gwybod nad ydw I, Dai, my friend,” Pete replies.
Dai looks up at the symbol of the pub, a red dragon. With a frown he remarks that the Welsh Red Dragon, “Y draigg Goch” is the symbol of the nation. He’s bloody real. And this is how he ends up.
Soundtrack: Shirley Bassey. “History repeating”
Dai’s narration / flashback:
In the Mabinogion, he fights the White Dragon of the Saxons, fights him so hard, cattle lose their milk and women miscarry until King Ludd trapped him in a pit full of mead. The young Merlyn freed him, rather than be sacrificed by King Vortigen.
Since then, it’s claimed he was seen at the defense of Rorke‘s drift, where seven Victoria crosses were won. And at many other significant Welsh conflicts. Then people start saying they’ve met him in pubs. That he rambles that he knows things nobody could know and then forgets them. And then, at the turn of the century comes Dave Griffin… taking over all the drugs and prozzies and protection, and the photos and the insights of the mystics all match. The “dragon” is snorting his own supply and slitting throats.
The Present:
My heart bleeds, Pete replies, before he orders John the Skrull, Sid aka Captain Midland and his wife, Tink, to observation post two, while he and Maureen Raven will take post one. Tink with them? John observes. Now there’s a coincidence. Shut up, unreal person, the fairy spits back.
Inside the pub, Shang-Chi realizes that the dragon has forgotten his true self. He would understand if he wished to pass as a beggar to humble himself. But to be a king in this tiny world, to use his power to be a petty criminal, that is meaningless. Raising his fist and calling him “Chinky,” Griffin asks what he is on about. Meaningless? Tiny? Does he know who he is? As he becomes cruder and more insulting, Shang-Si begins to smile. His turn of phrase is… amusing.
Observation post two, the Owen Glendower Bed and Breakfast. Pete and Maureen share a passionate embrace, though she is more nervous and asks him to tell Tink. And then they are at war with the faerie nation, he predicts.
Just because terrible stuff happened to him in the past doesn’t mean history is always going to repeat itself, Mo points out. If he is honest, Tink might understand. They were never a real couple. Joining Mo at the window, he promises he will tell Tink. Soon, he promises at her insistence.
Just her luck, Mo sighs. As a single mum being in a hotel room without a cot in it is the height of romance. But duty calls. Surveillance and all that. Getting an idea, Pete tells her to keep an eye on the target and keep the binoculars steady. The next moment he crawls down.
Soundtrack: Stereophonics. “The Bartender and the Thief”
In the pub, the dragon’s men are trying to fight the Master of Kung-Fu, who muses that Wisdom chose him because he believes Shang-Chi is noble. He does not recognize the word a applied to himself. But he sees how his form of combat may awake the memories of the dragon.
Griffin angrily shouts at his men to shoot him. The barman tries and Shang-Chi twists out of the way, evading the bullet. Care to try again? he asks. Wisely the man chooses to flee instead.
Soundtrack: Tom Jones. “Sex Bomb”
Back in the Bed and Breakfast:
While Pete is busy pleasuring Mo, she observes what’s going on outside, only to remark that nothing much is happening down there. Correcting herself, she adds that she certainly didn’t mean that. She sighs that Pete is going to hell for that… in the middle of a mission, but she hurries to tell him not to stop. A little later, she asks him to stop. His mission is accomplished.
Observation post one. The Gruffydd Yonge Bed and Breakfast:
Soundtrack: Superfurry Animals. “God! Show me Magic”
A frustrated Tink announces that he should just tell her. He thinks then she’ll tell her father and boom. He thinks that little of her. It’s like she’s not real. Kids these days. In his day, you knocked a girl up, had to marry her. Married for life, Captain Midland adds unhelpfully. Then she dies in 1963. And that’s it.
That’s the old old story John the Skrull remarks, hugging both of them. Being real, is not all it’s cracked up to be. Living like Wisdom does… Afraid that for every action there is an unjustly evil and opposite reaction… Now that’s not living like a real person. They should put a copy of him in every hotel room, he decides. Looking at Tink, he advises her that the fairy has to leave the boy who won’t grow up. That’s the only decision she has to make. That… and he supposes a shag is out of the question?
Back in the pub, only Shang-Chi and Griffin are left conscious. Shang-Chi tries to explain that the truth will set him free. That’s what Wisdom tells him. Oriental Wisdom like? Griffin asks. Bollocks to that! As Shang-Chi places a kick to his face, he muses that he would tell him he meant Peter Wisdom. That he has implied that a noble and selfless Welsh dragon, horrified at remembering his crimes, would be forgiven. But he doesn’t have the breath.
Griffin furiously asks again if Shang-Shi knows who he is before breathing fire at him. Standing upside down, hanging from the ceiling, Shang-Chi calmly observes that they are making progress with his mind. Can he remember his body? In response, Griffin screams and sheds his human skin to reveal the red dragon underneath.
Back at the hotel room, Maureen offers to reciprocate but Pete declines. Suddenly, they both feel sleepy. Mo mentions that Pete talks in his sleep, always mentioning one word: “Pride.” Comes before a fall, he guesses, Wisdom jokes weakly. Before realizing how unnatural that is, both of them fall asleep on the ground, cuddled against each other.
The same effect has spread across the entire city, as the dragon has taken energy from every person there to effect his transformation. Only the two combatants are still awake.
Shang-Chi tells his foe that he is a dragon. His nature is essentially noble. As he will witness in the battle they are about to have. Or have always had.
Soundtrack: The Velvet Underground: “I’ll be your mirror”
The battle takes them through space and time, the stone age, medieval times, feudal Japan WW I as Shang-Chi reminds the dragon that he fights not to win but to show him the fullness of his existence. Across history, always as something good. Until now, he’s sorry, Griffin replies. It’s too late.
He smashes Shang-Chi through the ceiling. Shang-Chi is hurled upward and the Dragon follows. Seeing Shang-Chi fall, he comes to his senses and, as they fall into Pete’s and Maureen’s hotel room, he manages to shield him from the brunt of the impact at the very last moment.
Pete and Maureen awake next to each other. Tink and John see them from above and Tink finally has proof for what she only suspected before.
Griffin turns back to his human form, clearly relieved to see that Shang-Chi is alive. And pleased, the Master of Kung-Fu assures him, to know that Griffin knows who he is. Turning to Wisdom, Shang-Chi reminds him that he promised this noble creature his freedom. Well, Wisdom replies somewhat embarrassed, about that… the truth will set you free… he meant it kind of metaphorically.
Not much later, the military takes Griffin into custody. Cymru am Byth! Griffin snarls angrily at Wisdom. And up yours, the agent replies maturely. Commander Thomas muses that they made an enemy here. Yeah, but only a Welsh one, Wisdom replies. Thomas shoots him a withering glare. Hey, he’s only… Wisdom begins. Thomas tells him to shut up.
Soundtrack: Catatonia. “Bulimic Beats”
Later at the beach, Pete and Tink have a long overdue talk. He should have told her, she starts. Turning away, she tells him what’s gonna happen: She’s gonna think he’s a weak selfish man. She’s gonna hate him. And her. She’s gonna refer to this every time he gives her an order… No, she’s not gonna let him give her orders. But she won’t cause a war that will kill both their people. Turning away, close to tears, she calls him a shit, for thinking her capable of doing that.
From some distance away, Maureen Raven watches the two. Shang-Chi, all packed up, joins her, telling her cryptically to remember when it happens: The men in power think they’re doing the right thing. What? she asks confused. He is telling her this because he feels sorry for her. She can tell Wisdom. He cannot sympathize with a man who has engineered his own karmic downfall. Good-bye.


[User]
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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
The Rudiments of Wisdom – part four: Too Many Jacks
Wisdom’s report:
Wisdom and his team find themselves surrounded by a bizarre menagerie of men, mostly dressed in Victorian costumes (and really only mostly human).  So what I should have said, Pete Wisdom narrates, is ” Will the real Jack the Ripper please stand up?”
Whitehall today, a Joint Intelligence Committee meeting of the Weird Happenings Special Interest Group:
He’s amazed Pete didn’t say that, Sir Clive Reston of MI-6 states unkindly. Wisdom reminds him that he was up to his arse in Jack the Rippers. He had misplaced his little book of calm. Do they get a better standard of wit in MI-6? They get a better standard of everything, Alistaire Stuart, scientific advisor of MI-6 remarks. New boy always gets the best stuff, Pete needles. The rest of them, the ones who stayed at their post… they just have to make do.
Sir Mortimer Grimsdale, J.I.C. chair demands the meeting come to an order. They are now on record.
He begins that they are here to discuss the Rippers, at the request of their friends from MI-6. He asks Pete to start from the beginning and instructs the record to delete any further attempts at bonmots.
Pete narrates that their Quartermaster O found it for them.
Wisdom’s report:
One day earlier, O welcomes the members of MI-13. He explains that according to his instruments the barriers between their universe and one of the others is weakening. His I Ching agrees. The I Ching is true? Maureen Raven asks, exasperated. Is there anything that isn’t true? Pete Wisdom, Tink quips. Very droll. Is she doing anything later, asks John the Skrull. Him probably, Tink admits. Unless she’s happy and sober. All donations gratefully accepted, he retorts.
Do they know which universe? Pete asks the scientist, who actually doesn’t. Don’t they have like post codes or something, Pete asks. O explains that they only know there is an energy trace which completes the same circuit of Whitechapel in London, six times a week and twice on Sundays. Captain Midlands observes gruffly that in his day they only had the one universe. Now it’s like satellite telly. There’s billions of ‘em. And they’re all shite.
Today:
Stuart interrupts, asking whether MI-13’s quartermaster conducts original occults physics research? In his sparetime? Pete shrugs. Like he said. They make do. Sir Clive makes a crack about an enthusiastic amateur and Pete abuses him with coarse language. Ignoring Grimsdale’s admonishing Pete shouts whether Reston knows what the problem is with his hidden agenda. It isn’t hidden. He wants his lot in MI-6 to handle the weird shit. “Cos it’s abroad.” So they play him. They send Shang Chi with some half-arsed prophecy about his karma and he brings this traitor… he points at Stuart who jumps up agitated, demanding whether Pete just said traitor. Did he use that word?
Pete is given pause for a moment. Then he clarifies. A traitor to him. And he shouldn’t have said it. He’s been… on unsteady ground lately.
Wisdom’s report:
Yesterday. In the streets of London, Pete and Maureen are walking. She has just dropped a bombshell. Pete insists she can’t just say she wants to break up. What they have is good, isn’t it? Maureen replies that in her dreams there’s a man. She thinks it’s him. If she gets close… terrible things… After what Shang-Chi said about Pete engineering his own downfall… it was like he’d seen this awful fate rushing at her.
He’s heard this before, he replies angrily. “Everything I touch turns to shit.” It’s usually him saying it. It’s not true anymore. Maureen insists she needs some distance. For her little boy’s sake. She needs some stability. A good night’s sleep. Pete points out that he’s had dreams about her too. Impending doom… It’s all bollocks. There’s no destiny. No awful fate.
Hoy, Sidney aka Captain Midlands in his civilian identity calls to them, as he joins them with the rest of the team. He asks them what completes the same circuit of Whitechapel six times a week and twice on Sundays and points to the answer. An overweight man, dressed in black Victorian style garb and advertising for a “Jack the Ripper” walking tour of London called “Rippermania walking tours.”
The man plays it up for the tourists, warning them that his route is not very politically correct, if they know what he means. There is violence and a bit of how’s your father from the outset. All manner of things they’re not supposed to say these days.
An amused Sid remarks his name is James Ransom. Man after his own heart.
Ransom continues his spiel to the crowd that has gathered, informing them that one of the Ripper’s victims, Polly Nichols, was killed in front of what used to be a stable here. Forty-three, she was. Mutton dressed as lamb. They wouldn’t know a thing about her, apart from a certain passing interest of Mr Saucy Jack. Lucky girl.
He continues naming the next victim. Annie Chapman. A drunken whore, who’d just been in a fight. The line between your common tart and your common housewife was a tad blurry. Some things never change. Eh? Eh?
Elizabeth Stride. Swedish. Your untouchable Nordic goddess. In her forties and full of the clap. You wouldn’t want to give her one. But old Jack did.
The members of MI-13 are all disgusted by now. Even Sid admits that’s not right. Tink asks if she can kill him, but it’s Maureen who’s addressing Ransom. Angrily pointing at him, she asks him if it was all right those women were killed just because they werein the game. How things were then, it’s hard to identify which were Ripper victims.
Just a bit of fun, Ransom replies defensively. No need to take it so serious. That’s his career, celebrating a serial sex killer, Mo points out. Is his Mum proud?
She manages to chase him away, while Wisdom, looking at an energy analyzer hidden in his watch, informs Sid that he was right. Ransom is the energy trace link. And it just surged. As Mo returns, even Tink admits that she did well. But she still hates her.
Maureen informs them that there are big barriers around Ransom’s mind, but she could tell without taking him over, that he doesn’t know. He thinks he is the definition of normality. As she gets into a taxi, Wisdom remarks that they know where to find him. He’ll send the readings to O. About those dreams.… She asks him not to go there.
Later, Pete sits down in his flat, dejected and guzzling a beer. He stares at a picture of himself and Kitty Pryde. The phone sits next to it. Nah. History, he decides with another sip of beer.
In Cricklewood, Tink is getting something from the fridge. At her flat in Kew, Maureen tucks in her son, Jonathan, and then gets a phone call from a drunken Pete. She suggests they talk about it tomorrow. Suddenly, both women are attacked from behind by a knife-wielding man in Victorian garb.
Tink shoots him (apparently even keeping a gun in her dressing gown), whereas Mo uses her psychic powers to take out her assailant, forcing him to slit his own throat.
Shocked she tells Pete on the phone that she just killed Jack the Ripper, only to learn that so did Tink.
Hearing her son awake, she tells him it’s ok. She just dropped something. She proceeds to describe her assailant, saying he looks like he’s from the 1960s, an actor in some horror movie. So why does she feel he and she have something in common? Despite her order, Jonathan peeps out of his room and sees the body.
The present.
Wisdom explains that they found the actor in question on the I.M.D.B. He played the Ripper in a minor British film. Seeing Jack Tarr and Sir Clive whisper animatedly, he asks annoyed if he is interrupting them. Did he say something of particular interest? Without replying, they shoot him dirty looks. Alistaire Stuart begins to talk, stating that those were Rippers from other universes. Flesh and Blood. That one was from a universe where that horror movie was real. And the other butcherlike one that attacked Tink, that’s “Leather Apron,” isn’t it? Another serial killer of the time. Some think he was also the Ripper. Sharp as always, Wisdom replies. Took MI-13 a bit more research, that one. At least two clicks on Wikipedia. So next, they did the obvious…
Wisdom’s report:
…Namely attacking Ransom in his bedroom. Captain Midlands wakes him rather rudely. Holding him by his shirt, he threateningly asks Ransom what he did. Nothing, the man replies defensively. He’s just a Ripperologist. A historian. Wisdom asks if anything strange has ever happened to him. Anything involving radioactivity, botched chemistry homework, angering the dark gods?
Ransom recalls being hit by lightning last year. He’s had strange dreams ever since. He begins to grin with realization. Does this mean he’s a super-villain?
The team detains him and returns to the lab where they are informed that the effect is continuing and growing. It’s beyond Ransom’s control now. His unconscious powers are following his hobby across the universes. Dragging Rippers from other realities. Dozens of them all over London.
Wisdom decides they each take a quarter of the map, and this is when Tink will take orders. She gives him a rude reply, but agrees. He orders her, John and Captain Midlands to engage the Rippers and kill as many as they can. Maureen is to go see Ransom, take over his brain and switch off his powers. Then they need to talk about how she feels. He means… about the situation, Pete concludes lamely.
The present:
Wisdom notes that they wouldn’t believe some of the Ripper theories.
Wisdom’s report:
John the Skrull is fighting a monkey Ripper (with a razor blade) keeping him from the panicked crowd by engulfing them in tentacles. He’s fighting a monkey in Oxford Circus, he marvels. It’s like a metaphor for when he was with the band. He thinks he’s starting to miss Skrull Paul.
Elsewhere, an elderly man in a top hat accosts several prostitutes from a carriage. Would they like to join him for some grapes? he tries to entice them. And perhaps a tour of London’s Masonic architecture. With accompanying scary and/or psychedelic lecture?
Tink steps into the light, rummaging through her bag. Now, here’s an offer. Where did she put it? Hold on, he protests, she’s supposed to be scared. Taking out an impossibly big gun and firing it she mocks, ooh, she could crush a grape.
In a disco, several young women are surrounded by a host of Rippers, pulling off their riff: Our main weapon is surprise! Surprise and fear! Surprise, fear, and a misogynistic hatred of gynaecological detail! Rescue comes in the form of the ever so heroic Captain Midlands.
In the meantime, Pete is about to stop a murder in progress, somewhat taken aback by the fact that his Jack is actually a “Jill.” His hotknives ripping through her, he mutters and there’s the liberal guilt.
At the Combined Services Security Bunker, Maureen has reached Ransom who is tied to a chair. Defensively, he protests that he hasn’t done anything! He’s not responsible. How long are they gonna keep him here? Maureen tries to calm him and claims she wants to help. He just has to let her inside and they can get this over with.
What does she mean, let her inside? he asks nervously and refuses. Maureen apologises and takes over his mind. Welcome to his unconscious, she quips. The Jack the Ripper channel. His mindscape is nothingness and a door through which a line of Jack the Rippers are entering. She suggests he do them both a favour and think about air freshener.
She shuts the door decisively. They’ll need a bolt on this.
In the streets Pete sees another Ripper disappear and thanks Mo.
In Ransom’s mind, Maureen is getting suspicious. This was too easy. What is he hiding? No! What’s been hidden inside him?
Almost spacing out, Ransom mutters that he can hear them now. Them who sent the lightning. They’re talking to him from a universe away. They need them both, there in his head. Maureen to provide a link between their world and ours… but they say he is special. They need him to… open the door for them.
Maureen looks behind her. There’s another door. Before she can stop him, Ransom reaches out and opens it.
Welcome, masters! Welcome to your new world! he states gleefully. A mass of tentacles begins to slither through as he enthuses that they are who made him what he is. They are so Victorian! So murderous! So British!
Desperately, Maureen stems her body against the door and manages to slam it shut… barely.
In the real world she sinks down exhausted.
The present.
Wisdom explains that when Maureen came round she said something about tentacles. She’s at home now. Suddenly, Jack Tarr and Sir Clive Reston jump up and hurry out without a word of explanation. Have they got somewhere more important to be? Wisdom asks annoyed. Stuart reminds him that they’ve saved the nation and the world as often as Pete has and he’s still there and listening. So he can stop being the professional arsehole. Pete glares.
Sir Mortimer interrupts that they are all tired. Why don’t they adjourn until the next day? He asks Pete to give Miss Raven his compliments and regards.
Later, Pete visits Maureen’s flat. As he comes in, he sees the flat’s devastated. He summons hotknives but only finds Maureen’s agitated son, who asks if his mummy is back. Pete asks Jonathan what happened to his Mummy. Was there a fight? Jonathan explains that some men came. They wanted her to go with them, but she wouldn’t. She made him hide. What did they look like, Pete asks, afraid of the answer. One had a moustache. He heard their names: Sir Clive and Mr. Tarr…


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
The Rudiments of Wisdom – part five: Bows and Arrows against the Lightning
Joint Intelligence Committee Briefing Room:
Sir Mortimer Grimsdale is putting the screws on Sir Clive Reston from MI 6. And eighteenthly, Sir Clive… he enumerates. Sir Clive interrupts him. They’ve been at this for two hours. And most of these points are… well… trivial. Oh well, he was hoping he’d guess, Sir Mortimer admits. Sir Clive and Jack Tarr made sure he overheard their pub conversation. They wanted him to think their interest in Maureen Raven was about recruiting her for MI-6.
Sir Clive takes out his mobile phone and Mortimer orders him to keep it switched off. Sir Clive states he doesn’t know what he… Angrily, Sir Mortimer interrupts him. He is the Joint Committee Chair. Sir Clive will not lie to him. Sir Clive gives in. He’ll tell him about the operation. What’s Wisdom doing?
Back in a, pub Wisdom has beaten down two men. His hands aglow he asks where Maureen Raven is. Standing at the counter, Alistaire Stuart replies that he thought she was recuperating at home. Pete grabs him by the lapels, informing Stuart that Tarr took her. Stuart is working with them – he’s MI-6. Where is she? He has kicked down doors and hacked files and bought drugs for half the intelligence community. Nobody knows. If Stuart doesn’t tell him, he’ll be shitting out of new holes.
Straightening his jacket, Stuart seems surprised that they actually took her. He doesn’t know where she is. He gives Pete his word. He can’t tell him why, but he urges Pete to trust him…
Does he know how few people he trusts? Pete asks. And he asks him to trust him after everything. Nah, mate. He’d rather make a deal with the devil. With that he leaves.
A little later, he demands entrance at the Vault in Shoreditch to see the newly imprisoned James Ransom. He walks past a prisoner being led away who insists that he was a member of the Knights of Pendragon. Approaching Ransom’s high-security cell, he reminds himself to be the good cop, not the bad cop. Be nice to him.
With that thought clearly in mind, he kicks Ransom in the naughty bits as way of a greeting and asks where she is. Grabbing him, he reminds him that both he and Mo said there was some sort of mental link between them. He can find her and he will because he doesn’t have a lot of time for someone who manufactures Jack the Rippers on an industrial basis.
Is she gone? Ransome asks delighted. The poor love. He and her are vital to them. She’s their target, their link. What is he talking about, Pete demands. Who are “they?” He’s said too much, Ransom replies. It’s not time quite yet. These doctors say he’s mad. They want to keep him here. If Wisdom gets him out, he’ll take him to her.
MI-6 safe house, Green Park:
Jack Tarr has brought Maureen Raven there. Tied to a chair and fitted with a helmet to suppress her psychic power, she is helpless. However, Tarr goes out of his way not to harm her. He assures her that her son is fine and that they were going to send someone, but Wisdom had him looked after. He brought reasonable Coq au Vin and this place has a fine cellar. He certainly knows how to show a girl a good time, Mo replies sarcastically. She should warn him about her allergies, though. She’s tied-up intolerant.
Tarr apologizes, but none of them have any options now. Refusing the food she informs him that if she could make her powers work with this thing on, she’d give him “options”. By which she means she’d kick his arse. What are they hoping to achieve?
Taking a sip of wine, Tarr replies that things are happening. They are improvising. Get her out of the country. It’s too dangerous here. He thinks? she asks. Wisdom’s gong to be through that door in a minute. Not dangerous to them Tarr specifies. For the world. If he told her, she might come willingly. Not that they’d trust her. There was this capsule…
Tarr’s tale:
It appeared in one of the Dockside developments in Wapping. It was Stuart’s OP back when he led what’s now MI-13. Tarr and Sir Clive of MI-6 gate-crashed his show. They worked out it was from a parallel universe. They’d nearly made it to theirs. An advance party. Tech looked like a dead end. But they were trying. Reston persuaded Stuart that only MI-6 had the resources to fight foreign threats like that. Stuart tried to dissolve MI-13 that day.
The present:
If Grimsdale and Wisdom had let him, MI-6 would be in control of the weird stuff now. And Maureen wouldn’t be in this mess.
Elsewhere in a limousine are Ransom and Wisdom. Ransom explains that he likes fantastic Victoriana. “Steampunk” the kids call it. The future that never happened. Just give the driver the directions, Wisdom orders him curtly. Touching his temples, Ransom goads that he can feel her. If only he could, he laughs. He and her, they’re meant to be together. Wisdom aims a hot knife just a fraction below his naughty bits and suggests Ransom take the piss, He’s not worried about getting the car messy.
Angrily, Ransom threatens that Pete is going to regret that. In that time, he had time to refine his powers. There’s a thumping nose outside. Here they come now, Ransom warns. The fifth mechanized Roman infantry of the Britannia Garrison. Saying hello from a parallel universe.
Suddenly, giant robots with Roman-style helmets have appeared. One of them grabs the car and Wisdom and Ransom fall out. Ransom instantly makes a run for it, shouting he’s going to find her and them! Meanwhile, Wisdom tries to fend off the robots. Moments later, they have disappeared and so has Ransom.
At the MI-13 Ops Room, Tink looks outside, remarking that something’s wrong. Where’s Pete got to? Pouring himself a cup of coffee, Sid asks if this is a fairy thing. He can feel it too. Something’s up with the world. Has her old man been in touch with her about Wisdom chucking her?
It’s not Oberon, Tink assures him, as she lies down on the sofa. She hasn’t told him. This feeling’s from Oberon, though. It’s him becoming aware of a change in the worlds… broadcasting it to them. Maybe warning them. She picks up the phone, deciding to call him and see what’s going on. Has she got a good price plan for calling fairy land, Sid asks.
Outside, Skrull John makes a call he’s long put off… to Skrull Paul. What does he mean “John who?” he protests. It’s his old mate from the Skrull Invasion. Yeah, he’s been getting the feeling too. His Skrull ears are pricking up. Something’s coming. Something alien. So, do they like this world enough to defend it? Is it time for him to say the words like? Okay then… the password is love, man. Let’s get the band back together.
Ransom! Wisdom shouts in helpless fury, before telling himself enough amateur dramatics. Checking Ransom’s whereabouts on his wristwatch tracer, he muses that that’s the thing about giving someone a good kicking: they don’t notice the little details like planting a bug on them. He begins to run.
Ransom, in the meantime, is nearing a certain MI-6 safehouse in Green Park. He’s asks a construction worker if he has seen a redhead. While he engages the man in conversation, MI-6 picks him up on their camera and call for the security alert. Ransom grins he knows she’s within the building. He doesn’t control them. He feels his way around universes finding bits he can use. Right now he’s finding… there it is… a universe where in this very spot there’s an Aztec railway line. It runs the other man over and runs through the building.
Tarr is caught under some debris unconscious. Maureen has taken the opportunity to free herself, though she is still wearing the power inhibitor. She urges him to wake up. She can feel who’s doing this. That moment, Ransom finds her. There she is. The completion of his life. Pete comes just in time to see Ransom sweep Maureen away on a magic carpet ride from Universe 412. They’re going to meet their destiny, he shouts to Pete. They’re gonna make this world so much better.
Pete shouts after Maureen, promising that he will rescue her. Tarr awakes, weakly moaning that this is Pete’s fault. He led him there. His fault. Pete moves the debris off Tarr, as he agrees that it is. But he’s gonna do something to…
Bad karma, like Shang-Chi said about him, Tarr accuses Pete. End of the world will be his fault.  Supporting Tarr, Pete asks why MI-6 took Maureen. And where is he taking her?
Tarr weakly replies that they were trying to stop them meeting again. Her and Ransom. He’s taking her… to let them in.
On the carpet high above London, Ransom takes off the rest of Maureen’s ties. As she takes off the helmet, she asks whether, apart from being an entertaining nutjob, does he have any other skills? Does he know how to fly this thing? He booked it, Ransom replies, so he just calls out their destination. They’re going to Wapping. Now he knows what she is thinking…
This is what she is thinking, Mo replies and concentrates. She’ll drive. She takes over his mind.
She finds herself back on the white plane, which isn’t where she wanted to go. Standing next to a door, Ransom smirks that she did exactly what they knew she would do. They prepared him for that. They’ve been talking to him all those lonely nights. He grabs Maureen by the arm. He’s their new way to travel, he continues ranting. He provides the power; she gives them something to aim at. They know her. He opens the door and tentacles slide out. Here they come. The new master of their world! Does she recognize them yet?
At the J.IC. briefing room in Whitehall, Sir Clive explain that they didn’t trust what remained of MI-13 with that knowledge. Specialist unites like that always fail. They knew Sir Mortimer and Wisdom were close, so…
Sir Mortimer interrupts him. When this is over, he will express his displeasure through official channels. And possibly meet him in the basement with a cricket bat. But now all he wants to know is, how long have they…
There is a flash of light. Reston grabs his cellular. They are here.
High above London there is a tear in the sky. Welcome, gorgeous dark things of the British psyche! Ransom shouts. Welcome, another sort of us! Your second kingdom awaits you!
On the ground, Wisdom and soldiers are getting ready to get closer to it. Stuart comes running, shouting that Pete doesn’t know what that is. He should have trusted them. Angrily pointing at him, Pete retorts Stuart should have trusted him. What is this thing?!
It’s them, Pete, Stuart, states, as giant Tripods begin to come through and fire lasers. It’s the Martians.