London, Trafalgar Square:
Jaspers’ reality warp is underway. Space is twisted and bended around. Saturnyne and Linda McQuillan, aka Captain UK, are arguing, as Saturnyne is forcing the reluctant heroine to abandon her normal clothes for her superhero uniform.
Elsewhere, the godlike Jaspers towers over London. Between his fingers, he holds Captain like a gnat. Captain Britain pleads with him, telling Jaspers that, if he is even remotely sane, he cannot do this. I’m not. And I can, is the simple reply. Captain Britain’s face twists in anger as he announces that Japers won’t do it to his country. He’ll fight him with every breath in his…body?
(Jaspers’ illusion)
Reality shifts around Captain Britain, as he is being shaken awake by Saturnyne and the elf Jackdaw. Saturnyne runs to her Avant Guards and impatiently orders Cap to shape up. They have to regroup before Jaspers attacks again. In disbelief, Cap touches the shoulder of his late sidekick. Isn’t Jackdaw dead? What is happening here?
Jackdaw looks startled, as he states that Saturnyne said he’d be like this. He urges Cap to remember what really happened. They were fighting Jaspers. The mutant used his reality-warping powers on Cap and it made him run around like an idiot shouting gibberish at everybody. He was calling out names Jackdaw had never heard before, Jackdaw continues, as he leads Cap over to Saturnyne and her men. Names like “Betsy” and “Wardog.” At one point he was talking to his parents. But they are dead, aren’t they? It never happened. None of it happened.
Cap touches his forehead, trying to think. They were all drinking champagne and the ceiling started to shake. No time for thinking, Jackdaw announces, as he looks up. They’re there. The Crazy Gang, with their marbled eyes and fractured smiles, the Junkyard thing with dead cars on its breath, and yet… and yet…
As the fight begins, Captain Britain hesitates. When did he tell Jackdaw that his parents were dead? As the elf doesn’t answer, Cap tears at him and right through him, as reality turns out to be no more than paper-thin…
It turns into a blanket and Captain Britain is suddenly skinny Brian Braddock, in a hospital gown. The woman sitting next to him shouts his name in excitement and then cries out for a nurse. He is awake! The nurse calls the woman Mrs. Braddock and leaves to fetch a doctor. Brian is astounded. With tears in her eyes, the woman asks him to remember her, his wife, Courtney Ross.
Brian repeats her name questioningly and Courtney worries whether he has amnesia. They are joined by a doctor and Courtney tells him that Brian doesn’t remember her. He probably doesn’t remember the accident on Darkmoor or anything. The doctor decides to administer a sedative. Brian protests. Where is he? What was that about Darkmoor? Things go dark. And light again.
(reality)
Cap is back to dangling between Jaspers’ godlike fingers. Do go on, the mad mutant urges him. He was saying something about fighting with every last breath in his body, he believes. First class sentiments and he is sure they are real… but nothing else is.
Cap falls to the ground and close to him stands Jaspers, now back to normal human-size. The mutant lights his cigarette as he muses that everything else is so much more interesting now, doesn’t he think? Always moving, always changing. A change is as good as a rest, as the actress said to the bishop, he rambles. He keeps on spouting his inanities, as Captain Britain gets up behind him and brutally pounds him with all his strength, shouting ‘die!’ He hits the man again, announcing that he is a blasphemy, that he doesn’t belong there. He is too monstrous to live!
Oh come now, Captain, a voice announces from behind him, isn’t that what they call a ‘straw man argument? While still holding the corpse of one Jaspers, Cap turns around to face Jaspers again, dressed as the grim reaper. ’really I think it’s time we sorted the wheat from the chaff, don’t you? He turns into a devil, while Cap falls into devouring flames …
the sheep from the goats…
Jaspers turns to a headmaster, Cap into a schoolboy … the men from the boys…
Jaspers becomes the driver of a …combine harvester that gobbles Captain Britain up…
the naked from the dead
Badly injured Catain Britain lies on the ground while Jaspers pours himself a cup of tea before madly hopping away.
Clearly aching terribly, Cap slowly raises his head. Dead? No he’s not dead, not yet. Every last breath in my body. That’s what he said. Perhaps there was still a chance… Slowly he gets up, barely able to stand upright. The tides of battle could still turn. After all, in a situation like this, you never know what might turn up next.
Having located its quarry, the Fury analyzes him and prepares to strike.
