The setting: a plain area with an old coal mining processor building. Outside it looks like traffic has been busy by the building from several directions, with only 8 cars/trucks still parked outside. It is late afternoon, about an hour before sunset, a bit of wind sweeps the grass around with a slightly wispy sky. Walter Langkowski, in a lab coat and dark clothes, looks out from the front door at the sky. Agent Jeff Brown approaches him, anxious.

JB: Everyone is ready. Armed and ready. What about your threesome?

WL: Talisman has Nemesis and Earthmover at work already. We will give SHIELD every trick and punch we can.

JB: Three of the most powerful mystics the world has ever seen, and we don't stand a chance.

WL: Don't be such a pessimist. SHIELD will bring Strange and maybe 10 more magicians if they can find them that fast, but we are on home turf and can prepare our defenses, they have to come in shooting and react to us.

JB: Still, the odds are pretty long. We only have 73 people, lots who've never fired a weapon. If it wasn't for all those ex-mutants Alpha Flight had we'd be boned.

WL: Thank heavens for small miracles. Legaciees, Betas, even a Gamma or two came to help. Even knowing it's suicide.

JB: I could see most of them coming and helping with the way you explained it. They had nobody to tell them you're wrong. I'm surprised Jared came.

WL: He couldn't let Adrian and Lil play hero while he stayed home.

JB: Too bad the powers never came.

WL: Don't be too harsh. Wild Child is out of touch, Lillian and Madison are on the run themselves, while Aurora, Northstar and Persuasion are under SHIELD's eye and likely don't know who's telling the truth.

On a SHIELD Helicarrier, sky is turning orange. Mr. Fantastic walks in on a lone DIrector Stark. They nod at each other and Stark rises to shake Richards' hand.

TS: Glad you could come on such short notice.

RR: Given the circumstances, how could I stay away?

Both look at a large screen, showing the SHIELD forces converging on the refiner

RR: So what exactly are we planning on doing here?

TS: Langkowski has lost his marbles. The Sandler/Yu child is throwing off tremendous temporal energy and could go critical at any time. He wants to let the baby run out of energy and hopes that will end the threat. If that child loses cohesion the planet will be thrown into the stone ages in an instant.

RR: So what's Langkowski think he's doing with him, then?

TS: He thinks if we try to control the baby that we'll create a temporal tsunami that will sweep half the galaxy, and the universe will suture the damage and kill untold billions.

RR: You think we can stabilize the baby?

TS: That's your job. Stabilize him or bleed off the energy somehow. If we can study the baby and see what's really happening we can solve this conundrum.

RR: So Omega Flight has the baby? What are they planning.

TS: To refight the Alamo, I'm guessing. Several CSIS employees and around 20 ex-Flighters have joined them. Suicide. WE have no choice but to go in shooting and gain control of those babies.

RR: Those??

TS: The boy is somehow using Marie Hudson as an anchor to this reality. She's there too. That means we'll have to be as surgical as possible with this assault, we don't want the children harmed.

RR: You're thinking that if the Hudson girl is killed that the boy may leave this reality? It's possible. If she's acting like an anchor it may be preventing him from losing his temporal energy, or controlling it. She may be what maintains his cohesion, then.

TS: Maybe. But we'll never know unless we can get custody of those children. We need to see what is really going on, do the science to get control of the situation.

RR: You think Langkowski is blinded somehow?

TS: Walker says he never got over the Collective deaths or his time-travelling experiments. I think he sees the problem but can't bring himself to give the children up, he survived and their parents died. Survivor's guilt is messing him up, I'm sure of that.

Specks start appearing in the sky near the refinery. The sky is turning orange. Langkowski squints at the approaching vehicles

WL: No gunships. Good, they realize that wiping us out is stupid, at least. Likely they'll send in agents and Avengers, with plenty of backup on a Helicarrier.

JB: If only we could teleport the children out of harm's way, where no one could find them til all this is over...

WL: Bad idea. Adding any energy to the equation would only make things worse. The kids are fine and will stay that way as long as we leave them be. In two weeks the temporal energy will dissipate and the boy will no longer exist.

JB: Who knew that Pointer's death would create a temporal baby who never was conceived because his parents died months before.

WL: Without the Guardian suit this never would've happened. Same with our position, he blows up near Edmonton and this doesn't happen, Marie still sleeps with her aunt and we would still be chasing down American criminals. But wishes aren't fishes.

Adrian Corbo: Sorry to intrude, sirs. How much longer?

JB: Three minutes, tops. As soon as they are close enough to lay down ground fire they will, test us out and give their mystics some time to think.

AC: The babies are doing fine. Do you think we can save them?

WL: Trust me , Adrian. If either baby is harmed or if Stark experiments on them to stabilize the situation, everyone dies. We have to hurt them and do more than give them a bloody nose.

AC: I saw Witchf.. I mean Nemesis, I can't believe she's so calm.

JB: Must be nice.

WL: Get back to your post, Adrian. And good luck. I'm sorry we had to meet like this.

AC: Hey, a guy can take only so much of summer school. I can finish biochem in the Fall anyway.

Adrian runs, with a quick wave, up the stairs to join Lil Crawley and Jared Corbo. People start to settle in when music is heard. As it grows it's obviously Prism's Armageddon.

WL: I miss him.

JB: Who?

WL: Eugene Milton Judd. He'd have given us a better chance, a better strategy. He'd have everyone ready. And he'd love that Jared plugged in Armageddon.

JB: I'm not so sure everyone else appreciates his choice.

WL: Just listen, you'll get it. So will they. When the crescendo hits, we open fire and don't stop. Talisman and her crew can only give us a chance if we make SHIELD pay dearly for intruding on our sovereignty.

A CSIS secretary sighs: Time to die.

Brown and Langkowski together: All the time in the world.

End of issue one. Too late for me to write issue two tonight. Maybe tomorrow.