Thanks for the game mike. Sorry you weren't able to get any more XP out of it.

Thank you, too, sir... no need to apologize... it's a game of luck sometimes, and... >>

4 7 6 5 8 5

Those were my first 6 attack rolls...

I'm not sure what i was thinking with my positioning of Black Panther... although i'm thinking of recruiting him... the tension between him and Tony Stark could be pretty cool... either taht or a technological/scheming partnership between Tony and T'Challa... Does anyone have Black Panther in their recruiting sights?...

I just hope the rest of the Avengers put up a better fight for the Gems...

I think perhaps Coco is cosidering him for the F4, but Spider-man is his first priority.

double post!

well good story telling takes priority, so black panther can be an avenger I would love to see Tony and the King together and see what happens with a vibranium iron man suit lol. And see what kind of relationship that would hold

If one of you recruits him, then the other could have him as a reservist. That way he should see action most of the time, allowing him to upgrade to his cool new versions sooner.

End of issue TXP/IXP calculations:

Individual IAP earnt:
Gamora [9] = [2,1] + [25,3] = [28,0]
Mantis [3] = [0,3] + [10,3] = [11,2]
Dr. Strange [3] = [0,3] + [16,3] = [17,2]
Hulk (from GotG issue) [7] = [1,3] + [5,1] = [7,0]

Guest Star IAP:
Clea [2] = [0,2]

TAP from KOs:
Total: 76 + 80 + 46 + 50 = 252/4 = 63 TAP = [15,3]

Bonus TXP:
[5,0] - for retrieving the Mind Gem.

Total TXP earnt:
[2,1]+ [0,3] + [0,3] + [0,2] + [15,3] + [5,0] = [25,0]

New Team total:
[68,1] + [25,0] = [93,0]

WCAvengers point calculations:

This is building upon the Avengers #28 calculations.

1) [3] U Sersi 76 w/Eternal* 80 (0/8) ""KO""
2) [6] V Mockingbird 34 w/Vault 3 (2/6) H13
3) [2] V Black Panther 46 (Protection of the Panther God** 50 used) (0/6) KOed

Sersi earned 3 IAPs
Mockingbird earned 1 IXP, 2 IAPs
Black Panther earned 2 IAPs (which are lost, because he is not currently an active member of any team's roster...)

TAPs from damage dealt = 11 plus TAPs from KOs (Clea 59/4) => 15
26 TAPs = 6 TXPs, 2 TAPs


Old Totals:
V Iron Man (Secret Invasion) 188 (4 IXPs, 1 IAP)
V Wonder Man (Mutant Mayhem)## 132 (40 IXPs, 3 IAPs)
V Hawkeye (Fantastic Forces)* 84 (12 IXPs, 2 IAPs)
V Scarlet Witch (Fantastic Forces)** 62 (14 IXPs, 2 IAPs)
R Giant Man (Hank Pym) (Avengers) 82 (19 IXPs, 1 IAP)
V Tigra (Fantastic Forces)**** 54 (6 IXPs, 2 IAPs)
V Moon Knight (Avengers) 38 (12 IXPs, 2 IAPs)
V Mockingbird (Sinister)*** 34 (10 IXPs, 0 IAPs)
U Sersi (Critical Mass)# 76 (18 IXPs, 1 IAP)
R Vision (Supernova) 65 (18 IXPs, 0 IAPs)
R Wasp (Infinity Challenge) 24 (4 IXPs, 1 IAP)

* with Trick Shot feat 20
** with Armor Piercing 10
*** with Vault feat 3
**** with Sneak feat 5
# with Life Model Decoy 12
## with Hold The Line 4

Team: 212 TXPs, 0 TAPs

New Totals:
V Iron Man (Secret Invasion) 188 (4 IXPs, 1 IAP)
V Wonder Man (Mutant Mayhem)## 132 (40 IXPs, 3 IAPs)
V Hawkeye (Fantastic Forces)* 84 (12 IXPs, 2 IAPs)
V Scarlet Witch (Fantastic Forces)** 62 (14 IXPs, 2 IAPs)
R Giant Man (Hank Pym) (Avengers) 82 (19 IXPs, 1 IAP)
V Tigra (Fantastic Forces)**** 54 (6 IXPs, 2 IAPs)
V Moon Knight (Avengers) 38 (12 IXPs, 2 IAPs)
V Mockingbird (Sinister)*** 34 (11 IXPs, 2 IAPs)
U Sersi (Critical Mass)# 76 (19 IXPs, 0 IAPs)
R Vision (Supernova) 65 (18 IXPs, 0 IAPs)
R Wasp (Infinity Challenge) 24 (4 IXPs, 1 IAP)

* with Trick Shot feat 20
** with Armor Piercing 10
*** with Vault feat 3
**** with Sneak feat 5
# with Life Model Decoy 12
## with Hold The Line 4

Team: 218 TXPs, 2 TAPs

Written by SpaceJawa

With the Mind Gem safely in the possession of the Defenders and their allies, Dr. Strange acted quickly to pull all four of them out of the reach of Nightmare and back into the mortal realm.

“By the dread power of the Vishanti!” He shouted as he waved his cloak up and around to expand and cover all four of them. There were other arcane words that followed, but the screeches of Nightmare’s vile minions as they tried to close in on the heroes drowned out the details of the spell.

With a flash, Strange and his allies vanished from the Astral Plain. As they did, a cape appeared out of nowhere and dropped the four heroes onto the ground in the Sanctum Sanctorum.

“Did everything go well, Master?” Wong asked as they emerged.

“Yes, thank you Wong.” Dr. Strange began as he dusted himself off.. “I believe that…”

He stopped short as he realized that there was something wrong after all. As those present turned to look at Gamora they saw that she had not landed on her feet as the others had, and in fact was instead curled up in a ball black, living ooze. Even her hair had been covered, and had been given a long, spiky appearance by the symbiote.

He did not know what the immediate problem was, but Dr. Strange could sense that there was evil afoot.

“Gamora?” Clea asked "Are you well?"

A hissing sound was heard from where the woman lay on the ground, then she began to pick herself up. While it was unsettling enough that her body mass seemed to expand when she picked herself up off the floor, what they saw when she turned to face them more than caused them pause. Her eyes were full of malice, and her jawline was extended longer than should have been possible. As it yawned open, all could see the shark-like mass of dagger-sharp teeth and fangs that had filled the woman's mouth.

“That’s not Gamora.” Mantis said.


Gamora wasn’t sure what was going on. One moment, she had been escaping the Astral Plain with the Mind Gem in hand, and the next she found herself back in the part of her mind where she had first ‘met’ her Symbiote. Only now it looked as though whatever ‘walls’ were present were smeared with her ally’s ooze, and black webbing stretched out across the room.

And as Gamora looked at the mess covering the walls, she could see a residue flowing off the Symbiote mass. It reminded her of the aura she had seen surrounding Nightmare's monsters in the Astral Plain. A shallow but constant shaking of the room could be felt and she heard a constant distant wailing of something in pain.

Closing her eyes, Gamora tried to clear her head as the pieces began to come together, even with the near-unbearable noise.

“Symbiote?” She shouted as she opened her eyes again and looked about the room. What responded was a screech of agony, followed by a very large set of eyes and several sets of fang-filled mouths opening wide.

Something had gone very, very wrong.


“By the Hoary Hosts of…” Dr. Strange began to exclaim as he realized what was going on. However, he was cut off before he could finish his expletive, let alone put any effort into countering what was happening. The symbiote, fully in control of Gamora’s body, lashed out with a tendril of black ooze that engulfed the Sorcerer Supreme's face, even sticking one of his hands against his cheek, keeping him from doing anything but attend to his immediate need for air.

“GrrrrAAAAAgggghhhh!” the raging symbiote proclaimed its control of the situation. While it still clearly had Gamora’s feminine form, it had quite its own appearance as well, having grown to one and a half times the woman’s size, being covered in short spikes, its hair running down its back in long, sharp quill formations, a large mouth full of pointy teeth, and a long tongue that should not have physically been capable of fitting inside its mouth.

Both Mantis and Wong attacked, trying to strike at the monster and take it down before it could cause any real damage. Drawing upon Gamora's unmatched martial arts prowess the creature sidestepped Wong's strike and blocked Mantis' kick with ease. Clea began to invoke a spell of holding but was struck by a large black claw that stretched out from the symbiote, and was pushed backwards until its open palm had smashed her into the wall. As Dr. Strange’s apprentice fell to the floor in a heap under small bits of rubble and the odd book that had been knocked out of place, the slithering black limb retracted back into the creature's body as suddenly as it had emerged.

“PaaAAiINn!” The monster shrieked, and then said something that sounded like “DiEe!”

“This doesn’t seem possible!” Mantis exclaimed. “It’s as if it’s reading our…”

She was stopped short as the black monster stood on its hind legs and let out another screech. Emitting a strong, blue light, the Mind Gem could be seen planted directly in the mid-section of its bosom.

“The Mind Gem!” Wong said. “It’s using it to predict our moves! We must remove it!”

It was far easier said than done. Wong tried to flank the beast, but was smacked aside. Mantis’ follow up didn’t go much better- she was grabbed mid-air and slammed into a wall. She tried to break free, but the Symbiote held her tightly in place until she was fastened against the wall by a web of spreading ooze.

“Gamora!” Mantis shouted, hoping to reach out to the woman she believed to still be inside. “Do not allow this being to control you!”

Reaching its free arm back, the Symbiote formed a razor-edged cutting blade with its forearm. The killing blow didn’t come, however, as the monster stood in place and hesitated.


“Symbiote?” Gamora shouted again. “SYMBIOTE!”

She looked around for any particular direction she should go, but all paths looked identical to her. However, she did hear a response.

“paaaaaaaaaIiinn…”

Not sure what to make of it, Gamora slowly approached one of the walls where the aura was flowing off the black goo. She reached out and touched it for just a moment, and the reaction was instant and violent. A mound of ooze pushed back at Gamora, throwing her onto the ground, and the woman had to roll out of the way to avoid the spikes that emerged to strike at her. Once Gamora had evaded the immediate danger, however, she picked herself up to find she was no longer under attack.

“What the Flark?!” Gamora exclaimed, but all she got was a hiss in reply. “I thought we were allies! I thought we had an understanding!”

“PaAaiIn…” the Symbiote said, and in a section of the wall that wasn’t ‘infected’ by the aura, a doorway opened up.

Not sure what to make of the situation, Gamora decided to go through it and found a short tunnel on the other side. Continuing through she emerged into a large room. In the dead center was suspended what looked like some kind of large tumor, held in place by a web constructed of the ‘aura’ ooze. Several regular ooze tentacles regularly attempted to get at the tumor, but in each case it would immediately pull back, with the Symbiote emitting a screech and shaking the room when it did.

Suddenly, Gamora understood what was going on.

“Gamora!”

The woman looked up as she heard Mantis call out her name from somewhere in the distance.

“Do not allow this being to control you!”

Gamora glared as she considered just what the words might mean.

“Keep yourself under control.” She said to the Symbiote, making it clear she would probably be happier not knowing exactly what was going on in the outside world. “And try not to hurt them. They’re still supposed to be our friends.”

Taking sword in hand, Gamora called upon all the training she possessed and charged at the taint of the Astral Plain that had infected her Symbiote.


Mantis didn’t know exactly what was causing the Symbiote to hold its position, but she hoped that it was proof that Gamora hadn’t been lost to them yet. It gave her even more hope when, soon after, the monster released its grip on Mantis and stepped back away from her.

“grrrraaaghhh…” was the noise that came from it, which Mantis thought was an attempt at speech.

“GgguhMmOrrRaaA…” It said. “HheElp…”

“Do not worry!” Mantis said, the Mind Gem blocking any hope she had of getting a real understanding of what might have been happening underneath. She was left with only the ability to take her best guess about what the words might have meant.

“These ones will find a way to free you!”

Once again, Wong moved in and tried to strike, and while he did better at avoiding getting knocked away right off the bat, he failed to land any blows.

“This is not working.” Mantis thought to herself. “We need something else. A weakness of some kind…”

Mantis tried to think back and remember if there was anything she could use that might give them an advantage, and suddenly, something clicked.

“Fire.” She said to herself. Fire had to be the weakness they were looking for.

Grabbing a pair of nearby candles, Mantis rushed at the Symbiote and tried to strike it with the flames. The Symbiote instead leaped over her, grabbed her by the ankle, and sent her flying upwards to where she found herself hanging upside down, a mass of the alien creatures black goo keeping her feet attached to the ceiling. While she had dropped one of her candles, one of them had stayed with her, and she used to try to free herself.

Just as she had suspected, when she swung the flames at the ooze what didn’t light on fire retreated away from her legs, allowing Mantis to fall back to the floor. After catching herself she looked towards where Dr. Strange was still having difficulty getting the ooze off his face and threw the candle at him. Immediately he was freed, and after taking in a deep breath, he shouted a spell intended to contain Gamora and her Symbiote.

“Crimson Bands of Cyttorak!”

Immediately a set of reddish chains of energy wrapped themselves around the Symbiote’s wrists and ankles, and each one was magically connected to the floor. This did not entirely contain the Symbiote, however. Using the natural advantage of its semi-solid form the monster began to ooze out of the chains in order to escape. Not giving up so easily, Dr. Strange repeated the spell, and continued to bind the Symbiote until it was contained within a reddish dome on the floor with nowhere left to go.

“Now…” He said, breathing heavily. “perhaps it is time we separated these two.”


Weaving around, Gamora evaded the contaminated tendrils that tried to swipe at her as she approached her target, slicing at those that got too close. This didn’t immediately help her situation, however, as the instincts of the Symbiote kicked in and she soon found herself dodging both clean and contaminated tendrils alike.

Ducking over and under the various obstacle and dangers, Gamora reached the first of the black weblines that were attaching the ‘tumor’ to the rest of the Symbiote. After bringing her blade down she grabbed hold of the severed length as it retracted to the source of the Symbiotes pain, plunging her sword into the mass of otherworldly energy as she reached it. It didn’t kill the taint outright but she could hear and feel the reaction, which gave her a sense that she was doing the right thing. Doubling her efforts Gamora continued along, striking where she could while evading the counter attacks.

However, just as she seemed to be making real progress, she found herself shaken by an unknown intrusion. She was struck by a vast increase in defenses, which seemed to be reacting to not just her, but to the outside world as well. The Symbiote had gone into complete survival mode, and Gamora was not prepared for the intensity of the attacks. She lost the upper hand just long enough for the ooze to gain the initiative.

One of its tentacles succeeded in smacking Gamora backwards, sending her flying into a wall. There, the ooze latched onto her, wrapping around her body to keep her in place and out of the way. This did nothing to deter Gamora’s efforts – she immediately began to figure out a way to escape and continue what she had started. However, before she could even attempt to make any progress in the matter, she felt herself being ripped back into the real world.


“Is Clea alright?” Dr. Strange asked. He had noticed that his pupil was currently not present around the Symbiote, but with his concentration focused on keeping the Symbiote contained, he was unable to attend to her himself.

“She is shaken, but alive.” Wong said from where Clea had fallen, picking her up and bringing her towards the group.

“Good.” Dr. Strange said. “Now to attend to the matter at hand.”

“How are you planning to remove it?” Mantis asked.

Dr. Strange considered the question and what the right means of going about the problem might be.

“I’m going to have to get creative.” He finally replied. While the flames had certainly worked well enough to free him from the ooze that had latched onto him, Gamora was an entirely different situation. She was wearing the suit itself, and its mind was connected with hers. There was no telling what might happen if he tried to burn the Symbiote off of her while she was wearing it.

Levitating the crimson energy cage containing Gamora and the Symbiote off the floor, he slowly closed it in around its inhabitant until it formed a tight cocoon. He then began to peel the energy back, using a little creative magic application to heat the edges just enough to drive the Symbiote back and keep it from trying to slip out. Slowly, Dr. Strange cut the Symbiote off of Gamora like a malignant growth. While he deposited both her and the Mind Gem on the floor, he kept the now host-less Symbiote contained within a remnant of the crimson energy cage where it couldn’t hurt anyone.

“What are you doing?” Gamora asked as she coughed and tried to clear her throat.

“We have freed you of the Symbiote.” Mantis said.

“You don’t understand! You have to send me back!” Gamora replied, picking herself up off the floor.

“That’s not an option.” Dr. Strange said. “I have to dispose of it.”

“NO!”

Before Dr. Strange could finish off the Symbiote for good, Gamora took her blade and swung at it at the energy holding the alien ooze in place. While it didn’t break the spell, it did momentarily shock Dr. Strange’s concentration, forcing him to refocus or risk losing his captive.

“Gamora! What are you doing?” Mantis asked, fearing that her ally had gone mad.

Wong didn’t bother to ask questions, and put Clea back on the floor before jumping into action. He was too late, however, as by the time he arrived, Gamora had grabbed the Mind Gem and blocked Mantis’ initial attempts to stop her. Using it, she reached out and broke the lock Dr. Strange had on his spell, dispersing the Crimson Bands and allowing the Symbiote to fall to the floor. It immediately locked onto Gamora and tried to return to her.

Gamora allowed her self-congratulations and anticipation of imminent reunification get the best of her. Her focus entirely on the injured alien creeping back to join her, Gamora did not see the approach of Mantis and Wong. The two knocked her to the floor and held her in place just long enough for Mantis to pluck the Mind Gem free. While Dr. Strange wasn’t immediately able to re-contain the Symbiote, he was able to prevent it from returning to its intended host.

The Symbiote quickly realized that it was in a terrible position. It could not fight these people on its own, it’s former host was cut off from it, and it knew that it could not form a bond with a host hostile to its touch. Left without any other option, it fled, using its liquid composition to sneak around Dr. Strange’s efforts to contain it until it escaped into the cracks and floorboards of the Sanctum.

“What madness has taken you, woman?” Dr. Strange said as let his spells disperse, refraining from resting only to attend to Clea and ensure she was and would be alright.

“I could ask the same of all of you.” Gamora said bitterly. She pushed Wong and Mantis off of her and once again picked herself up off the floor.

“Do you have any idea what that thing did?” Wong asked. “The moment you returned from the Astral Plain, it took over your body and attacked us.”

“You have no idea what was going on in there!” Gamora spat back, and Mantis took it upon herself to pull the woman away from Wong in order to avoid another fight breaking out. “That thing was in pain. Something happened in whatever realm your doctor took us to that contaminated it. Something latched on to it and came back with it. I was busy trying to help it before you brought me back here, but now it’s running around without a host and in who knows what condition!”

“Enough!” Dr. Strange said, clearly frustrated by the situation. “For now, the matter is over. We must stop arguing about this matter and return our attention to the gems.”

“No, I have to find the Symbiote.” Gamora said. “You don’t understand – it needs me.”

“And I need it.” Gamora said, though in a whisper, only loud enough that Mantis could just barely hear it.

“Whatever the case may be,” Dr. Strange said, and performed a brief spell that brought the Mind Gem off the floor and floated it above the palm of his hand. “We cannot concern ourselves any further with the Symbiote at this time. The Gems must be our top priority. Everything else must wait until we have ensured their safety.”