AUGUST  YEAR THREE 435 "Battle Royale" by Adam Di Stefano, with Scott Harris

And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest heroes and heroines found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, the Avengers were born-- to fight the foes no single super hero could withstand! Through the years, their roster has prospered, changing many times, but their glory has never been denied! Heed the call, then-- for now, the  Avengers Assemble!

Art by Victor Cabanelas

What Has Gone Before: The Avengers (East and West) and the Champions split, all looking for three bombs. The Avengers West and Champions managed to take out their respective bombs, but the Avengers had much more difficulty being beaten severely by the Disciples.

NOTE: This story takes place immediately after the events in CHAMPIONS #28.

Hawkeye tried his Avengers Communicard for the fifth time.

"Cap? Come in! Cap?" he shouted.

"Still no luck?" Miguel Santos, the Living Lightning, asked.

"We've got Jack to go on," Hawkeye replied.

"That's usually not a bad thing," USAgent joked inappropriately.

"Agent, now's not the time for jokes," Hawkeye yelled.

He was in full leader mode now. He was already feeling pretty good about having figured Nefaria's plot to hide the bomb in a useless robot. * Now he had to save the day.

(* That happend in Part 5 of the cross-over, CHAMPIONS #28, new by Mark Beaulieu -ADS)

Most of his team had a problem with authority, especially Agent who was sitting behind him in the Quinjet. Hawkeye was determined not to let that bother him though. Right now the East team needed their help, and Hawkeye wasn't one to let down friends. It was time to show the world that the Avengers West were a force to reckon with.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Tigra asked.

"We're almost there."  Hang on Steve, just hang on a little longer.

"Is everyone okay?" the Black Widow called out to her team.

The Champions had just dispatched the Super Adaptoid. It had the Zodiac Key implanted in it and it had the power to reproduce itself. Thanks to some quick-thinking though, the Champions were able to best the Adaptoid.*

(* Again, Champions #28.  You've gotta check this issue out! -ADS)

"Fine, just a little tired," Bonita Juarez answered. She was the one who had had to use her powers the most.

"Well, you're going to need to recover quickly if the Avengers need our help," the Black Widow remarked. "What's the news Batroc?"

"Ze Avengers are not responding to my calls. Zees could be bad."

"I guess this means we're going to Central Park?" Scott Lang, the Ant-Man asked.

Natasha simply nodded.

Back at Central Park, the Avengers had been subdued by the Disciples. They were all either unconscious or being kept locked up in a red prison cell that Dr. Spectrum had made appear.

"Nomad, report," Count Nefaria barked.

"Both of the bombs were disabled," Nomad replied mechanically.

"Bah - that's of little importance to us now. We have beaten the Avengers and the most important of the three catalysts is safe. Mentallo, how much longer before we can rob all the super-heroes of New York of their powers?"

"About 45 minutes. The mechanism seems to have been damaged during the battle. Nothing I can't fix, but it will take a little while longer," Mentallo answered.

"You have 30 minutes," Nefaria said just for the sake of being difficult.

A small smile crept across his face. I've won. I've defeated the Avengers! No one has ever done that before. I will soon rule the world! he thought, becoming almost giddy.

The rest of the Disciples, Spiral, Grimm, Speed Demon, Dr. Spectrum, were on lookout.  Nothing strange seemed to be appearing so far.

Suddenly, a bright light flashed through the sky and collided with Dr. Spectrum. Then, a seeming cannonball hurtled towards the red prison cell and shattered it while Spectrum had been distracted.

"AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!" cried a purple figure that exited from the hatch on a now landed Quinjet. Six heroes all set in formation around their leader who was holding his bow up in a dramatic pose.

Nefaria snorted, "We already defeated the Avengers, we can easily handle a group of wannabes."

Hawkeye steamed and the USAgent retorted, "You shouldn't have said that.  Now you got him mad!"

Clint Barton let his actions do the talking as he fired off three straight concussion blasts at random Disciples.  The Whackos followed his lead and the battle was on!

The East Coast team was now free from their prison, but many of them were in no shape to do battle. Captain America was still groggy from the beating he had taken at the hands of Nefaria. Ms. Marvel was more angry than anything else. Namor had recovered, but wasn't anywhere near full strength. Yellowjacket was out cold as was Dr. Amazing. Quasar was almost ready to go.

Hawkeye was attempting to battle Spiral, but the match-up did not favour him. With her teleporting powers, Spiral was easily able to avoid almost every arrow the Avenging Archer fired at her, she could also manage to get in close.

Hawkeye fired a concussion arrow, but it simply sailed wide as Spiral teleported away. He heard a noise behind him and turned just in time to catch a blade on the shaft of his bow. The amazon warrioress continued her assault with all six of her arms driving Clint backwards. Finally, he stumbled on the weight of all the strikes and fell on his bottom.

Spiral put a sword to his throat and said, "I wonder what you look like under that mask. You're probably pretty cute under that dopey outfit."

"Don't you know what they say about men in colourful tights?" Hawkeye asked, just buying time.He squirmed slightly, just able to grasp an arrowhead in his quiver.

"And what's that?"

"What they lack in fashion-sense, they make up for in wit!" he exclaimed as he snapped the head of an arrow which let out a burst of light that blinded his opponent. Hawkeye took advantage of Spiral's momentary disorientation to knock the sense out of her.

"Did you come up with that line all by yourself?"

Hawkeye whirled to see Nefaria standing behind him.

"Of course I did, I don't have a prophet telling me what to do," Hawkeye retorted. He tried to act fast and draw another flash arrow, but Nefaria's speed was too much. In the blink of an eye he caught the archer by the hand and the throat and lifted him off the ground and threw him in another direction.

Tigra was fighting Nomad.  The two would seem to be equally matched in terms of power, but Nomad had the upper-hand in experience. Especially considering he had just recently fought a tiger-person. *

(* Check out Super-Villain Team-Up #23 to see when Nomad easily took out Tyger of the Acolytes -ADS)

"Sorry cutie, but my boss says that I've got to take you out, and if I don't do what ol' purple pants says, he gets his tights in a knot," Tigra quipped as she lunged at Nomad with her claws extended.

Predicting the attack, Nomad side-stepped and kicked the cat-woman in the mid-section. He pressed his advantage with several attacks.

Wonder Man was engaged in a heavy slug-fest with Grimm. He was gaining the upper-hand because the man-lizard was already somewhat tired from his battle with Namor earlier.

Suddenly, a body collided with Wondy distracting him.

"Whu? Hawkeye?" he asked as the archer collided with him.

Grimm took advantage and pounded Wondy in the head several times.

Cannonball was matching speed with speed with Speed Demon.

Each party got in almost an equal number of hits, before the other zipped off to recover.

"Ah must say this has been fun, but it's time it ended."

Cannonball zoomed towards the stationary speedster at a speed that even he probably couldn't escape.

"In the name of the Church of the Risen Son," Speed Demon exclaimed as he began vibrating his body at ultra-high speeds. And moved ever so slightly.

The vibration somehow managed to pass through Sam Guthrie's impenentrable blast-field and hit him several times in the head causing him incredible pain.

The Living Lightning was having a field day with Dr. Spectrum. The good Dr. was unable to get any of his structures to come anywhere close to hitting the living piece of lightning.

Miguel Santos smiled to himself.  It was time to put an end to the chaos.

He flew high up into the air and used his own lightning form to attack Spectrum.  He raced downwards at a speed that Spectrum surely would not be able to avoid. At the last moment, a figure jumped in front of the doctor.

"ARRRGGGGGHHHHH!"

"Agent?  What are you doing?" Miguel yelled at the prone form before him.

Spectrum took advantage of the distraction and whacked Living Lightning across the head with a crowbar.

Mentallo laughed.

Nefaria observed the battlefield that was once a park.  He smirked, it was all but over...

That is until a swarm of ants surround his head.

"What?"

Captain America looked up from the spot on the ground where he had been recovering.  The Champions were here.  This was to be there last chance at defeating Nefaria and his Disciples.

Steve Rogers rolled over towards his team-mate Dr. Amazing, who was still unconscious.

"Mark, wake up!  Wake up, Mark!" he urged as he lightly slapped the man's face.

"Ugghh..."

"Dr. Amazing, can you hear me?"

Mark Amazing's eyes fluttered open for a moment.  "Ya, Cap."

"We need you now. You need to get up."

"Uhh... okay."

Across the battlefield, Spiral saw the approaching heroes."Mentallo, would you get that blasted thing working before every hero in New York gets here?"

Mentallo said nothing and returned to work on his contraption.

Meanwhile, while the Disciples were occupied by the Champions and the remaining Avengers, Cap tried to steady Dr. Amazing.

"One shot is all we need," he said, "Take out Mentallo and your work is done."

"Uh huh," was all that Dr. Amazing could manage.

He used all the concentration in his power to stop the swimming in his head and leveled his psi-gun at Mentallo. He took aim, and after what seemed like an eternity, he fired.

The shot connected with Mentallo's head. The psychic backlash was tremendous and Dr. Amazing screamed out in pain before collapsing back into unconsciousness.

Captain America looked over to where Mentallo was standing and noticed that the villain was out cold.

"We have to use our numbers to our advantage," Captain America said to no one in particular as he surveyed the battle before him. All strategy had been abandoned it seemed and it was now an all out brawl. The Disciples were far out-numbered, but Nefaria seemed to even the playing field.

Cap jumped into the midst of the Champions. He knew they were going to need a better plan than this if they were to escape with their lives.

"Black Widow, Batroc. You're with me," he ordered pulling the two heroes from the melee.

As the battle raged on, he explained his plan quickly all the while dodging attacks from various people.

Cap then threw his shield at Nomad. The Disciples' field leader saw it coming and he avoided it easily. He then had to avoid Captain America's kick. As he side-stepped the attack, he ducked, the returning shield narrowly missing him. He was now on the defensive.

With all his concentration on Captain America, Nomad did not see Batroc's leaping attack. A flying jump kick connected with Nomad and knocked him off-balance. The Black Widow then joined the fray. Shooting her Widow's sting.  The shot stunned the Disciple. Cap took immediate advantage and brought his shield down hard on Nomad's skull. He crumpled.

Without their field leader, the Disciples were now attacking blindly. Nefaria had had enough of watching and was now very much active. He was running around hitting people as often as he could. The other members were doing much the same, attacking everyone.

Hawkeye had recently found his wits about him again and noticed the disarray of the Disciples. As he jumped around firing blast arrows to cover himself, he made his way slowly to Quasar's side.

"Hey Quaze, you think you could hold off Mr. Rainbow over there while I gather a little strikeforce to take out another baddie?"

"With pleasure," Quasar said happy to get a rematch.  He zipped off in the direction of Dr. Spectrum.

Hawkeye for his part rejoined the rest of the standing heroes which now included: Captain America, Black Widow, Batroc, Hercules, Firebird, Ant-Man, Cerberus, Diamondback, Wonder Man, Namor and Ms. Marvel.

The remaining Disciples were much fewer, but just as dangerous if not more: Count Nefaria, Grimm, Dr. Spectrum (who was battling Quasar), and Speed Demon.  Nefaria alone was a threat.

Hawkeye took charge of the situation.

"Ant-Man, Diamonback, you're with me. We're going to take out Speed Demon. The rest of you, just give us a little bit of time," he said as he ran off bow in hand firing yet more arrows.

Captain America took size of the situation, Dr. Spectrum and Quasar would be locked up pretty well.  That meant the rest of them had to deal with Grimm and...  Nefaria.

"Okay. We have to try and take out the Disciples first. It's our only hope, we can't beat Nefaria if he has back-up. So, until we can do that, we need to keep him busy. Hercules, Firebird, Wonder Man, Namor, Ms. Marvel, do your best."

The five exchanged glances. That was the battle plan, do your best?

They would have stayed to ponder it more, but Nefaria was amidst them in a second firing laser from his eyes and throwing punches blindly.

"Position thyselves, friends," Hercules cried as he took position against Nefaria in order to give his team-mates time to regroup.

It was an impressive spectacle, the fabled Lion of Olympus landed three punches to Nefaria's head, all of which shook the ground immensely. As the the super-villain stumbled backwards, Hercules went for yet another blow, but Nefaria was too quick, he recovered. He caught Hercules' fist in one hand and delivered a blow that would have opened a fissure in the Earth. Hercules flew into the air, landing over a hundred feet away.

The rest of the heroes hoped their comrades could hold their own against Nefaria, but for now, they had their own problems to worry about. Namely, Grimm. The man-lizard seemed possessed, his rage was untamed. Since Mentallo had been knocked out, Grimm seemed to have lost all control over rational thought.

Black Widow fired her Widow's sting. Grimm took it full in the chest and then whipped an approaching Batroc with his tail.

Meanwhile, Hawkeye was taking a slightly different appraoch.

"Hey Speedy! Over here, bet you can't catch me!" Hawkeye goaded childishly.

Speed Demon laughed and zipped towards Hawkeye. The latter was firing blast arrows to divert Speed Demon from his path. The villain easily zig-zagged through the explosions. Soon, Diamondback was throwing her diamonds into mix as well creating several obstacles for the speedster. However he still managed to avoid them. As he moved to the left of a small explosion he sped right into a cloud of insects. The insects surrounded him and flew into his eyes, mouth, nose and ears.

The Disciple stopped in his tracks, swatting wildly at the cloud.

"I never miss a stationary target," Hawkeye said as he fired an arrow.

Speed Demon found himself tangled in a net of some sort. The more he moved, the more tangled he became. He attempted to break free by cutting through the net with his vibrational powers, but that too was unsuccesful.

"Vibranium. No way you're getting out of that," Hawkeye gloated as he picked the villain up and drew his fist back. Speed Dmeon never got to see the end of the swing.

In the air, the battle between Quasar and Dr. Spectrum was still raging on, but the more it went on, the more energy the Avenger managed to siphon from the villain.

"I think this has gone on long enough," Quasar proclaimed.

He shot off a blast that knocked Dr. Spectrum clear out of the sky. As the villain tumbled to the ground, the power crystal dropped several feet away from him.

Quasar set down near the now powerless villain. He picked him up by the cape.

Dr. Spectrum had a devilish smile on his face. "What's so funny?" Quasar asked.

"Just this," he said as he reeled back his fist and sent Quasar flying into the midst of the battle between Grimm and the other heroes.

Captain America finally realized what had happened. "Spectrum has super-strength he yelled."

The warning was already too late. Black Widow and Batroc had already attacked Spectrum and suffered the same fate as Quasar.

Spectrum and Grimm now stood side to side. Two powerhouses.

Hawkeye, Diamondback and Ant-Man rushed to Captain America's side, whose only remaining ally had been Cerberus.

"Don't sweat it Cap, we've got these losers taken care of," Hawkeye exclaimed confidently. He fired an arrow in Spectrum's direction which missed the villain. Angered, the Disciple leapt on Hawkeye and grabbed him by the throat. As Hawkeye lost consciousness, the arrow he had previously fired was on its way back and hit Spectrum in the back of the head. However, when it did so, it let out a jolt of electricity which caused the villain's nervous system to shut down.

As he crumpled to the ground with Hawkeye under him, the Avenging Acher manged to say, "Boomerang - Shock Arrow," before he passed out as well.

As Captain America dodged Grimm's blows, Cerberus leapt at the man-lizard catching his tail in one of his mouths. Grimm spun his tail, and then exhibiting a reptilian quality, simply let it fly off, sending both it and Cerberus flying far, far away.

The man-lizard tried once again to hit Captain America, but the American legend blocked with his shield. Suddenly, Grimm swayed and then fell over. From seemingly nowhere, Scott Lang appeared.

"Must have hit a nerve," he said with a wry grin.

The trio of Captain America, Ant-Man and Diamondback rushed over to aid in the battle against the only remaining villain...  Nefaria.

The battle was not going well, the only two heroes remaining were Ms. Marvel and Namor.  That number was about to be cut in half.

Ms. Marvel tried to get in close enough to land a punch, but Nefaria back-handed her into the air.  She righted herself, only to find herself being targetted by the Count's laser-vision.

The beams flew from Count Nefaria's eyes, and just before the reached the femme fatale, Namor the Submariner flew into their path.

"NOOOOO!" he yelled as he took the attack full in the chest, knocking him down, his flesh smoldering.

"Fool," Nefaria muttered.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted an insect buzzing around him.  Using super-speed, he smacked the bug away from him.  The tiny form flew to the ground and upon impacting it, the unconscious form of Scott Lang appeared.

"Avengers, regroup!" Captain America ordered.

Diamondback and Ms. Marvel made it to Cap's side as he let his shield fly in Nefaria's direction.  The villain easily dodged it and it returned to Steve Rogers harmlessly.

Nefaria stood up at his full height, his hands planted firmly on his hips, he regarded the three remaining heroes.

"So, the Mighty Avengers are reduced to Captain America, and two women."

Scowls crossed the faces of both women beside Cap.  At any other time, the women probably would have disliked each other.  Rachel Leighton was the former girlfriend of Steve Rogers, and Carol Danvers, was the unconfirmed current girlfriend.  Now, though, it was time to concentrate at the task at hand.

"Nefaria, give up, you've already lost.  All of your bombs have been disactivated and Mentallo is defeated.  By the time he wakes up, evey other hero in New York will be on top of you!"

"Ah, my poor fool of a Captain!  I've already defeated the Avengers, the Avengers West and the Champions!  Once I've disposed of you three, I will kill you all, and that will mean that Earth's Mightiest Heroes will be dead.  The morale of the world will be destroyed!  All I have to do is try again at a later date Captain, you on the other hand, will not get a second chance.  You will be dead."

Captain America gritted his teeth.  He knew Nefaria's power.  The man had taken on Thor and stood tall.

"And now my dear Captain, it is time for you to die."

Count Nefaria sped towards Captain America, murder in his eyes.

"NO!" Diamondback yelled and threw two diamonds in the madman's path.

The first burst in a bright flash blinding the villain and halting his progress the second exploded and rocked the ground, knocking Count Nefaria off-balance.  Captain America followed up by throwing his shield.  Ms. Marvel was next to join the fray she jumped onto the blind villain and pumelled him repeatedly.

Nefaria struck out blindly, hitting air in most instances.  Finally, one of his strikes clipped the heroine and halted her blows.  Nefaria, still blind took hold of the beauty, and holding her by the neck one hand, landed on a solid right hook.

Diamondback tried a few more diamonds, but none had any effect.

Meanwhile, Steve Rogers had leapt over to the side of his fallen comrade, Hawkeye.  He looked through the archer's quiver frantically.  Finally he found the arrowhead he was looking for.

He looked over to the site where he had left Diamondback.  Count Nefaria had somehow managed to determine the source of the diamond attacks and had reached Rachel.  He was about to deliver the killing blow.

Cap had to make this a perfect shop.  He strapped the arrow to his shield and let it fly.  It sliced through the air with unnerving accuracy.  Only years and years of practice could have made for such a beautiful throw.

The shield hit Nefaria square on the forehead.  The impact triggered the arrow.  A sound not picked up the human ear was emitted.  The shield fell to the ground, the sound still emanating from it.  Both Diamondback and Nefaria held their heads.  The sound was unbearable to them even if they couldn't help it.  The pain eventually caused Rachel to pass out.  Nefaria continued to struggle against it, but soon he too was overcome and he blacked out.

Steve Rogers looked around Central Park.  There was close to 30 unconscious bodies strewn about.  He hoped nothing too serious, but all he could do was hope.

The adrenaline rush ended and Steve Rogers collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.