There were quite a few guns turned our way as I stepped out of the Portal Thor had brought up for us. Those relaxed visibly when Richard’s gold-and-blue uniform was the first thing out, and promptly his helm’s Mentor was sending out signals and identification.

“Centurion?” one of the two-star Denarians there asked, startled by the sudden arrival, and especially by the uniforms of those following behind... which were not at all in Nova Corps standard colors.

“Mentor, we’ll all need Battlenet ID’s, access, and flagging as friendlies!” Nova called out promptly, taking in the situation and calling for the first thing that had to be done.

-Kismet, Xandar is definitely undergoing an invasion. We are syncing into the local Battlenet as I speak...

-The enemy is a full-scale Skrull invasion, a repeat of their war from a hundred years ago. The Xandarans were not surprised, but the scale of the assault is the problem, as it was last time...

-Downloading current fleet and military data for Peggy to go over. Let us say the system is very active right now.-

Nova Centurions were certainly capable of taking out Skrull vessels, even if they couldn’t all endure hits from the Skrull cannons. They were definitely faster and more maneuverable, however, but there were a lot of small ships for the Corps to deal with, and that was before the carriers and fleet assets engaged in hunting the superior Xanadaran vessels were figured into the equation.

Xandarans had some of the most advanced tech in Known Space. Chief among those was the Worldmind, the record of all Xandarans who had lived and died for the last ten thousand years, and whose massive power was the core of the Nova Force that protected and empowered their civilization.

Every Xandaran citizen was hooked into the Worldmind from the moment they were born. It was the biggest reason why the Skrulls couldn’t infiltrate them. It also made them supremely coordinated, very experienced, and coolly confident under pressure.

As long as the cloning tubes survived, they could potentially be brought back. Therefore, fighting valiantly without flinching and heroic efforts were the rule of the day, and just about every living Xandaran had combat experience by now. Veterans of the last major war with the Skrulls were definitely still around.

-Make sure the Xanadaran ambassadors in other locations are apprised of what is going on here,- I /reminded Kismet, as Nova’s Mentor successfully flagged us, and approved of our inclusion into the Battlenet.

Specs promptly filled with data. I went over it with a glance. I wasn’t a Super-Soldier, but I wasn’t stupid, and if I couldn’t effortlessly play the game like Peggy could without giving it a lot of my attention, I was not bad shakes at this.

My Shields deployed behind me, all six of them as I took in multiple feeds and fields of battle. “Fandral, sword out!” I put my hand on his chest, and heaved him forward.

The advancing lines of Skrull infantry were ahead of us.

“Herc, send Volstagg to join him!”

“The Lion of Asgard can – aie!!!” The huge form of the axe-wielding Volstagg was sent hurtling after his friend.

Hogun just extended his hand with a grim smile, and Thor tossed him after his comrades. I saw a hovertank get smashed into the ground as Volstagg landed on it, shining steel was flashing in a knot of Skrull warriors as green blood sprayed, and Hogun came down to join the fun with a terrific crash of impact.

“Herc, Thor! Main breach into the arcology is that way!” I pointed sharply, and their heads turned together. “Bring presents!”

“Ho ho, I shall present to them the Gift!” Hercules said, his boisterous tone not matching his deadly intent eyes. Terra’s experience with Skrulls was completely on the negative side. There was a thoom on the ground as he leapt into the sky as fast as a bullet.

“I will deal with the troop carriers!” Thor agreed, flicking Mjolnir into a roaring spin and hurtling after the God of Strength.

“Boys, ladies!” I pointed, and the Summers Brothers, Sif, and Brunhilda piled onto my shields. “Nova, with Thor, get on the support vessels! Jewel, you’ll be teaming with Sif and Hilda!” I was off the ground, feet crackling slightly as I grabbed her hand, and shot forward.

The male Asgardians were already relieving the Xandarans under assault on one front, so I dropped Sif and Hilda off on the second advance. Jewel, her new Ultra Specs visoring her face, moved in to cover them as the two swordswomen smashed into the line of Skrulls in blurs of steel and Asgardian might, while Jewel watched all their flanks and began to spray firepower.

Her Specs were set to Invulnerability, which combined with her Ultra Core Boost to make her basically immune to just about anything the Skrulls were sending up. She was using wrist-mounted blasters: one a concussive cannon, the other a short railgun meant for dealing with heavy vehicles.

With the invulnerability cranked up, she didn’t have to waste time dodging. Furthermore, her personal combat style didn’t involve swinging her hands at people.

After all, she Exploited Flying. I’d actually designed a lot of her training regimen to train her feet, her super-strength and enhanced healing meaning she wouldn’t damage herself by hammering her legs against stuff, her flight giving her effectively perfect bracing and balance while keeping her close to the ground where she preferred to be, and she had massive amounts of experience in changing the direction, angle, and type of her kicks as she moved around in the air.

Naturally enough, her legs were also much stronger than her arms, and they had reach.

She smashed into a line assault on Corpsmen and Millennians working with militia with her feet, her boots part axe and part mace and all whirlwind hammering as she joined Sif and Brunhilda on their rampage against the shapechangers. Even as she was effectively chopping off heads, crushing skulls, and disemboweling with her feet, she was shooting in all directions at targets of opportunity, and the Nova-powered shots were doing their job.

Sif and Brunhilda were basically advancing at an Asgardian stroll, which was about as fast as a man could run, as they tore through the Skrulls and were closing in on the tanks. All three of them had my Hexar Shields on their arms to protect against random artillery fire, the adamantium fully up to the job of stopping such impacts when held by the superstrong. Jewel would usually reply with a railgun round through the center of the cannon or tank’s mass, if the goddesses didn’t beat her to it.

Whooping with enthusiasm, the Xandarans poured after the trio, firing energetically and taking back ground, the Novas doing it from low flight, the militia on the ground.

------

“What are you intending with us, Dynamo?” Vulcan demanded in his normal teenage princely arrogant manner as we shot towards the wall of the city’s dome, specifically a section that was under intense bombardment.

I pointed ahead. “Can you grab ahold of and redirect ALL of that energy, Your Highness?” I asked him calmly.

His eyes lit up with gold. “That is a lot of energy to send back at them...” he admitted cautiously.

“You’re not going to send it back at them. You’re going to swirl it and send it into your brothers.” Because as soon as his psychic signature was upon it, the energy wouldn’t harm them, and they’d only absorb it. “It’s time for you to power up some really big guns, Your Highness.”

His eyes widened slightly. Since he didn’t have to target anything, just dump it directly into the other three of them...

“I can do that!” he agreed instantly, a wolfish smile on his face.

The great dome of the arcology was part spun crystal and part force field. Just outside, massive eruptions of plasma were detonating against its defense, and it was easy to see that this was costing a great deal of energy to ward off. The numbers of ships out there was incredible, and the amount of return fire from Xandar was pitiful in response, the ranged defenses probably the first things taken out.

Which left the Nova Corps to handle things. But now, I was bringing out some really big guns.

“Cyke, if there’s enough juice to spam it, indigo beam, use violet if it’s not a strain. If not, just stick with red.”

Despite himself, he swallowed, and his brothers looked at him, none of them having seen him unleash either color. “Got it, Dynamo,” he said grimly, his new Ultra Visor gleaming readiness. The Invulnerability buff would make sure he had the physical toughness to endure any amount of power shuffled into him, while the magnifying powers of the Visor would help his targeting.

Indigo was a disintegration beam, the psychokinetic force of the beam directly acting on the bonds between atoms, so anything material it touched just fell apart. In real life terms, it was a perfectly effective saber beam, cutting right through anything in its way with perfect efficiency and speed.

We’d only tested it out once, with some extreme boosting. His tight beam could drill right through a mile of rock in under a second. The wide cone could vaporize a cubic acre of stone in the same amount of time, leaving nothing behind but dust and a hole in the ground.

Violet was even more dangerous, because his psychokinesis smashed apart nuclear binding forces which kept atoms intact... and they blew up.

In effect, when he shot something with violet, it both disintegrated and turned into an atomic bomb!

“That sounds plenty ominous, Scott,” Alex offered, with a glance at his older brother.

“You’re going to be effectively tossing nuclear shockwaves, while Gambit’s gonna be tossing nuclear missiles.” I pulled out ten extra decks of cards, and handed them over to Gambit. Despite himself, his black and purple eyes were a little wide as he took them. “Gambit, you’re on close-range single-targets, guide your shots in, especially on missiles. Havok, you’re sweeping areas and mid-size targets, especially anything softened up by Cyclops that hasn’t gone down.

“Cyke, the bigger they are.” I turned to Vulcan. “Your Highness, feed your guns.”

The explosions were literally ten feet away from us, on the side keeping out the vacuum. All of the Summers brothers were staring at the massive display of energy with glowing eyes: red, blue, purple, and yellow.

My Red Eyes were giving me warnings, and I held up my hand. “We’re going to go out there in a few seconds. Vulcan leads and starts grabbing, the rest of you stay on the Shields and let him and the Skrulls feed you.” Their suits all went active, of course, with Scott’s being the most impressive. His Visor definitely radiated a really fell light.

A three-second gap. “Go!” I slashed down my hand, and a Dimension Door formed in front of them. They were all holding hands as they tore through, me following them.

Incoming energy warped and diverted. Cannonade shots that could wipe out city blocks became raw fuel for a foursome of mutant brothers as Vulcan grabbed everything in range and fed it to them in streams of redirected particle effects.

The Skrull ships weren’t all that far away, because they didn’t need to be. Visual range was key as the energy came in, turning golden under Vulcan’s mental force, and promptly drove into the bodies of his brothers.

I was already streaking away, accelerating very quickly, but the light from behind me as I wove through the cannonades was not to be missed. The sky lit up from a different direction as the Summers Brothers let fly.