The Bermuda Triangle, off the coast of Key West, FL
Most of the Future Foundation kids are on the science vessel “Nemo” being given a grandiose tour of the Bermuda Triangle courtesy of Spider-Man. They want to see dolphins, but Spidey explains the Oceanographic lecture by the Cousteau Society Goodwill Ambassadors is in the afternoon.
This doesn’t appease Franklin who starts booing the Bermuda Triangle. Spider-Man takes him aside and jokingly asks if he’s booing the entire triangle or does he just hate the sea in general. Franklin points a finger in his face, claiming Spidey’s just going to try to debunk the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle. A good debunking puts hair on your chest, Spidey quips.
A bratty Franklin starts yelling at his friend, saying he wants stories of missing WWII pilots, mystical storms, and with great emphasis he says he wants to hear about aliens. Valeria chimes in saying she doesn’t want to be there either.
Bubble Bubble Bubble Bubble SPLOOSH A bright red light begins shining out of the water, straight into the sky. Spider-Man asks if this is something Valeria arranged to undermine his debunking. She says it’s not, but admits it wouldn’t be out of character for her.
They all stare at the red light, until the source of it, a buoy of sorts, rises to the surface. Franklin thinks it’s from aliens, but Spider-Man doesn’t think so, or at least hopes not. Whatever it is, though, he believes the buoy is trouble.
Utopia
A bashful Pixie walks in on an upper-level X-Men meeting and tells them they have special guests waiting outside. Cyclops, coffee in hand, begins telling her routine business doesn’t require an interruption, but she cuts him off and tells him it’s definitely not routine.
When Cyclops answers the door he finds Dr. Doom waiting for him. The ever egomaniacal Doom says he expected better hospitality, not being left outside on the doorstep. Behind Doom are the Invisible Woman, Thing and Mr. Fantastic, the latter of whom apologizes for the short notice and briefly explains that Victor is on their side now.
Sue comes over and takes Scott’s hand. She apologizes too, but says it was something he needed to see first-hand. She asks Cyclops if the name “Lee Forrester” means anything to him. His shocked expression is her answer.
They head to the conference room where Reed sets up some equipment at the head of the table. He explains it took the computer a while to retrieve the data from the buoy, it being knocked around some sort of dimensional bridge. He then whips out a holographic display tablet and shows them the message the computer downloaded.
It’s an image of Lee pleading for help. She explains she was the captain of the Stanislaus Enterprises’ exploration vessel “Nostromo” and that she’s trying to reach Scott Summers or Magneto. She says they’re stranded in another dimension and has fed the coordinates of their entry point into the buoy. Then she turns around and screams in terror at what she sees. Reed cuts the feed and says that’s all there was.
Scott gets up from his chair and says they’ll take it from there. A jealous Emma says this is why she either destroyed, mind-wiped or killed all her exes.
Reed walks over to Scott and asks if they can join him. He figures it’s times like these they need to stick together, plus the X-Men might need their help getting to the other dimension. It also sounds similar to something Ben got himself into not long ago, Reed adds.
Scott agrees and thanks Reed. He tells Emma, Magneto, Wolverine, Nemesis and Pixie they’re coming along too. The smarmy Emma says she’d love to save his ex. Doom is dripping with even more sarcasm, saying how disappointed he is they have to leave this charming rock.
The X-Men’s resident scrapper, Wolverine, walks over to his pal, Grimm, shocked they’re with Doom now. Thing asks if that wasn’t Magneto sitting at the conference table. “Okay, well, if you want to get technical…” Logan replies.
Bermuda Triangle
The X-Men and the Future Foundation are immediately teleported to the “Nemo” via Pixie’s teleportation spell. The captain tells Richards the submersible is prepared as per his instructions, and the last of the provisions are being stored as they speak. Well done, Reed says, and then tells him to prepare for launch.
As the submersible rises to the surface Cyclops takes the opportunity to ask Magneto why he’s been so silent, as he’s usually pointing out what everyone is doing wrong. Isn’t Doom providing enough ego for your satisfaction? he answers back. “You knew Lee, too. No comment?” Scott asks.
Staring straight ahead, Magneto tells him it’s ancient history and he’s a mostly different person now. Reed comes stretching by and invites everyone aboard the submersible.
submersible
At the helm, Reed explains the portal to the dimensional bridge is in flux and is currently 124 feet below the ocean’s surface, but it could shift at any time. Reed asks Nemesis to monitor the portal and let him know if any adjustments need to be made. Despite his protests, Nemesis is ready for the challenge.
They reach the portal and are about to enter when it shifts. Alarms begin blaring and everyone is rocked around the interior. Reed tells everyone they’ve lost power and Wolverine, who’s trying to plug a leak with his hands, asks for some assistance from somebody with relevant superpowers. He feels like he’s in a costumed remake of The Enemy Below and that didn’t end so good for the guys underwater.
The first to answer Logan’s call for help is Sue, who stretches her arms and creates an invisible shield around the entire ship. She asks Magneto to maneuver the submersible and he’s more than happy to oblige. Things don’t go smoothly as Magneto accidentally rams the ship into the shore, throwing everyone off their feet. Reed reports the external sensors are destroyed.
Even though the ship was damaged they still reached their destination. The first one to head outside to scout the area is Thing. Once he climbs out of the top hatch he finds himself staring at a large, purple-skinned allosaurus.
It sees Grimm as a threat, or maybe food, and strikes him down. Thing yells for some help from Wolverine who’s more than happy to oblige. As Wolvie emerges from the ship, Ben grabs him by the shoulders of his uniform and says, “Fastball special, right?” Logan’s protests fall on deaf ears as Thing tosses him like a bullet toward the dinosaur.
Unfortunately, the allosaurus is quick with its tail and Wolverine is sent flying right back. Logan smashes right into Ben and they both fall into the water with a splash.
The rest of the group has emerged from the submersible. Cyclops scores an optic blast to the dinosaur’s face that sends it away, roaring in pain. As Thing and Wolverine emerge from the water Ben jokes it was a homerun special for the dinosaur. A pissed off Logan, water dripping off his face, tells Thing to never throw him again.
It doesn’t take long for Cyclops to start planning. He asks Reed for a status report. With some speedy neck stretching Reed looks over the ship and says it should be easily repairable, but the problem is going to be reopening the dimensional bridge. Reed then asks Magneto if he wouldn’t mind lifting the ship onto land to make the repairs easier.
Magneto does the honors as Cyclops starts breaking people into search teams. He has Pixie teleport Wolverine and Thing to the top of a nearby temple, but when he tries adding Doom to his party the Latverian leader has no interest. He takes off flying saying he can work quicker without any excess baggage.
“Nice teammate,” Emma barbs. Sue tells Emma it wasn’t her idea. Forget it, Cyclops tells them, saying they need to get to work.
the temple
The teleporting trio reappear on top of one of the nearby temples. It was Scott’s hope that the temples meant intelligent life nearby. However, what they see below isn’t pretty. A bunch of people are being attacked by metallic spider/saucers. This prompts Wolverine to joke he wished just once he could walk in on somebody tapping a keg and flipping burgers on a grill.
One of those spider contraptions spots them and starts heading up the pyramid’s wall. There are two creatures manning this giant machine, and one of them, the gunner, opens fire on the heroes. Their position is destroyed and the three of them begin plummeting to the ground. Pixies grabs them both and tries slowing their descent, but the two heavies still land with a thud.
Their respite is short-lived as one of the attacking machines pins Thing down to the ground. He wriggles free and grabs it by the leg and tosses it into another of the attacking abominations. They collide with a Bla-Boom and explode.
They go into offensive mode. Pixie rushes the nearest spider tank and teleports it high into the sky. The invaders fall into the water below while Pixie flies back to the battle. Unfortunately for the bad guys they are quickly converged upon by alligator-like creatures.
Back at the main battle, Wolverine does what he does best. With his claws out he charges the machines and attacks them at the legs, slicing through them like a hot knife through butter. After he gets through just one of them the rest retreat, that being the fourth vehicle destroyed. With the battle ended Logan wonders why he didn’t hear “It’s Clobberin’ Time”, but Ben says he got the picture.
The natives rush over quickly to thank their three liberators. Their leader turns out to be Skull the Slayer, an old acquaintance of Grimm’s. He tells them it’s been three years since Forrester sent that distress buoy, but “Still… better late than never.”
