Avengers Arena (2013 series) #10

Last issue ended with Apex (Katy Bashir) taking back control of their shared body from her brother/alternate personality Tim, and reasserting control over Death Locket (Becca Ryker). She then KO'd Nico Minoru, snapped Juston Seyfert's neck and flew off with Becca and Juston on his Sentinel robot.

But this issue opens 12 hours later with a badly damaged Nico crawling though snow. She's lost her left forearm and a broken bone is sticking out of her right leg. The pain tells her she's not quite dead yet so she keeps crawling towards the broken Staff Of One which she channels her magic through. But she collapses before she gets there. (However her power rating still displays 2/6.)

The rest of the issue continues from the end of the last 1. Nico returns to the other teen victims in Arcade's Murder World who are camped round the cache of food, weapons and medical supplies (on the edge of the desert Quadrant 2 next to the snowbound Quadrant 3). They're mostly asleep except X-23 (Laura Kinney) who's meditating, so she explains to her what happened. She'd been guarding captive Apex outside the camp to make sure he/she didn't turn back into Katy. But now Katy's secret is out so she doesn't have to pretend anymore, and she's got control of a Deathlok (Becca) and a Sentinel and she has Juston hostage. Laura tells her Juston will be dead, but she heads off into Q3 to track them. Nico is left to explain it all again to the others who are beginning to wake up.

In Q3 Apex surveys the state of the Sentinel. She wishes she'd been more patient and let Juston repair it more, but it will have to do. She has Death Locket frozen but still able to think and talk, so Becca tries to talk her out of using her and the Sentinel as weapons to kill all the others. But Katy says she's the only 1 who's taking Arcade's 'game' seriously. Only 1 will survive and she aims for it to be her. And her 1st step is to get the big robot to pluck Juston out of its control seat and throw his body away.

But Nico's fellow Runaway Chase Stein has been watching from some trees and decides now is the time to hero up and take the bad girl down. He probably intends to use his Fistigon weapons but instead feeling the amulet he 'found' (in #4) turns him into Darkhawk. However X-23 races past him and tells him to stand down. Howotherever Apex has seen her coming and the Sentinel picks X-23 up and dashes her against the ground and then stomps on her with its huge metal foot. And then Katy turns to deal with Chasehawk.

Back in Q2 Nico has repeated what happened to Anachronism (Aiden Gillespie), Cammi, Cullen Bloodstone and the Atlantean Nara. 3 of them are discussing what to do but Cammi interrupts to suggest that it's only up to *Nico* to decide. She points out their abilities (Anachronisn is strong, Cullen's got a bazooka, Nara can breath water, and she herself has a raygun) and they're up against a technopath controlling 2 killbots. And yesterday they kicked out the cosmic-level powered Chase/Darkhawk for sensibly suggesting they start fighting back. So now Nico's magic is the only serious weapon they've got.

It's at this point that their discussion becomes moot as X-23's unconscious body lands at their feet to be followed by the Sentinel and the 2 females. While everyone else dives for cover Nico faces the giant robot with a solar flare spell followed by quicksand that it starts to sink in. A giant-killer spell gets it enmeshed in a large vine (presumably a beanstalk). Then she leads everyone onto the snow to a forest of fir trees, with Anachronism carrying Laura. Cammi asks if she has a teleportation spell but Nico says every 1 she's tried didn't work. But she says "Safe House" and a portal opens for them to pass through to some random other bit of Murder World. She figures that's why it worked because previously she was trying to teleport *out* of the MW. Everyone else goes through but then the Sentinel arrives blasting. Nico heroically says "Slam Door" to stop the baddies following the others through the portal, leaving her alone with them. Then she thinks the cavalry has come to save her as Darkhawk (Chase) lands beside her at the edge of an ice cliff. But Katy has taken control if *him* too and he fires a blast which cuts off her hand and the top of the Staff. And then he kicks her off the cliff.

That brings us to the situation at the beginning of the issue.  Now Nico is moving again and leaving a trail of blood but she reaches the top of the Staff and grasps it and says "Help". But then collapses and her power rating shows 0/6.