In
GOTG#15 Dormammu,
Lord Of The Dark Dimension, entered the Earth's universe by taking over the 'body' of
Ego The Living Planet. So he's now manifesting in this realm as a planet-sized fiery head. In
GOTG#16 he kicked off the
Last Annihilation event by sending his
Mindless Ones, and new versions dubbed
Mindless Guns, to attack various significant planets (Earth not included).
On the
Kree Throneworld II, being built from the ruins of
Hala, the
Kree/Skrull Alliance Emperor Hulkling and the Kree forces have beaten the 1st wave of attackers. Now he's sent for the Kree traitor
Captain Glory (he sided with
ex-Empress R'Kll in the
Empyre event) to be released from the
Dreadrock Penal Colony and he arrives via a translocator. He reminds his Emperor that he told him he'd need him 1 day (in
Empyre: Aftermath Avengers), but he didn't expect it to be so soon. Hulkling brings him up to speed with him what's going on, and that the
Prince Consort Wiccan is defending
Skrullos, the
GOTG are fighting Dormammu directly, and he's sent a message to
Alpha Flight on Earth but he's had no reply yet. Then more Mindless Ones appear through magic portals, along with some giant flying versions (new to us readers but apparently not to
Teddy Kaplan-Altman). Glory flies up to fight 1 of those.
Meanwhile in the Solar System the
Hellfire Gala is winding down. During that event the
Mutant Nation Krakoa unveiled a new metal
Mysterium which they offered to the cash-strapped Galaxy as a new currency, which got the Solar System made a member of the
Galactic Council. They also revealed that they were terraforming Mars and renaming it
Arakko.
Storm was made
Regent Of Arakko and would represent the Solar System on the Council. Now she's invited
Dr Doom to dinner on Arakko. They verbally fence during the meal. But then
Victor Von Doom comes to the point - the truth about Mysterium.
On Hala the battle is joined once more. Hulkling gets word that Wiccan and the
Knights Of The Infinite are doing well on Skrullos. But
Lauri-Ell The Accuser reports that things aren't so good on Hala's southern front. Captain Glory is caught between 2
Macro-Mindless as he calls them. They simultaneously fire at him, ignoring the fact that they will hit each other as well. The 2 Mindless fall out of the sky but so does the Captain plunging to his (apparent) death. Another wave of Mindless Ones destroy the translocator, cutting off the Kree forces' escape route. And their magic blasts break Hulkling's magic sword.
Back on Arakko Doom reveals that he knows that Mysterium has magic properties. He also knows that the mutants have created it from primal
kirbons, cosmic particles from the
White Hot Room which is simultaneously outside the cosmos and at the heart of it. He warns Storm that by stealing fire from heaven and turning it into base matter they have altered the balance of things. And something evil will seize this opportunity, if it hasn't already.
And then Storm gets a mental message message from
Abigail Brand via
Mentallo on the
SWORD satellite to inform her about the attacks on Hala and Skrullos, and also on
Spartax and in the
Shi'ar empire. She's taking a team to Hala to find out what's happening. Doom guesses that his prediction is coming true and offers to 'help' the mutants which will put them in his debt. But Storm stops playing games and refuses him outright - the mutants don't need his help.
On Hala we see the real-time version of the flashforward at the end of
Empyre: Aftermath Avengers. Hulkling severely injured with his star-sword broken thinking that he's been abandoned by the
Avengers and Alpha Flight. And Abigail Brand standing over him with
Manifold and 3 other indistinct figures saying that she warned him that Alpha Flight was ineffective, which was why she quit to build something better. At the time it seemed like Brand had *caused* his downfall, but now we see that she's here to rescue him. And the extra chars are
Frenzy and
Khora of her SWORD team plus
Paibok the ambassador from the Kree/Skrull Alliance.
Manifold wants to teleport Hulkling to SWORD's med-bay but the Emperor doesn't want to desert his people. Brand says they can heal him instantly at the
Peak and then he can come back with a SWORD team as backup. She offers this to heal a rift between Krakoa and the Alliance which apparently began when the mutants started calling
Wanda Maximoff the pretender.
Billy Kaplan-Altman hates that because she's his 'mother', so Teddy hates it too. He mentions that they've tried contacting her but Dormammu must be blocking them, and Abigail vaguely agrees. Teddy is still wondering why Alpha Flight didn't pass their request for help to the Avengers, and Manifold suggests that
Henry Gyrich who's in charge of
AF these days probably decided not to. Then some Mindless Ones drop in so
Eden Fesi sends Teddy to SWORD's Peak HQ.
But then we see in Brand's personal log what really happened. *She* intercepted the message and blocked it so her team could ride to the rescue and put Emperor Hulkling in her debt. Then when it eventually comes out that
Scarlet Witch is dead she may have already cemented a Krakoa/Alliance alliance to go with their links with the Shi'ar and
Zn'rx. (Her eventual goal is redacted because the Krakoan
Quiet Council wouldn't condone it if they knew about it.)
To be continued in
GOTG#17.
Give that special marvelite a timely gift