2012-05-25 - Cutscene: Heroes Crisis - Earth-M161: Darkness Steals

How strange, for as the heroes sleep or work, as they patrol or fight, a wicked darkness gathers. An evil is building, with no end in sight.

Professor Xavier sits within Celebro and expands his mind. He is searching. He knows something is wrong, he felt something disturb the astral plane. Suddenly, he starts to scream, pain ripping through his mind! He can feel everyone disappearing, and when the event is through, his blue eyes close slowly and for a moment he does not breathe. His next breath is ragged and worn, and he does not awaken.

Tony Stark works in his lab, bitching it out with the basic A.I. he has installed in his lab to assist him with tasks when he does not override it with his cybermancy. The heavy metal playing blares through the speakers, and it matters to Stark that it is late at night. However, when the darkness breathes and reaches out toward him, his eyes widen. Instinctively he reaches mentally for his armor which bursts forth from the case and starts to wrap about him protectively even as the darkness takes him away.

Scott Summers and Jean Grey are curled up together in the hammock that hangs upon the dock in front of the boat house. They watch the stars from the safety of Xavier's Institute, not dreaming of what is to come. But suddenly, Jean starts to cry out in pain. As Scott moves to sit up, darkness lashes out of them with tentacles of evil intent. The two disappear into the night, only the brief light sway of the hammock any evidence they were ever there.

Lighting up a fag, Pete Wisdom eyes his pack of smokes. He never did quit for very long. Sitting back and looks over what will become his classroom, to teach others what it takes to be a hero. But is he really a hero? What he has done for his country was not always something he would ever want to share let alone brag about. And suddenly, the fag's light goes out, and his vision is obscured. Even as Wisdom summons hot knives to his fingers, the darkness had already taken him.

Patrol is quiet tonight as Spider-Man swings from building to building along the heights of New York City. Not a star in sight due to the bright lights, but Spider-Man soon pauses at a roof top to listen to some music spilling out of a window. Then the sirens interrupt his restful pose, and just as he is about to go swinging again, his Spider Sense goes crazy! Spider-Man instinctively leaps from the building, but before he gets far, dark limbs reach out for him and a glance behind him reveals what appears to be a gapping mouth of darkness. "Dude! For serious! Mouthwash works to both freshen breath /and/ fighting plaque.!" And then he disappears as the maw closes about him.

One after another disappears as the darkness consumes them, till only a few heroes remain on Earth-M161. When the world opens its eyes the next morning, the stillness is eerie.