Young Avengers (2nd series) #13

Emerging from a dimensional portal in Central Park, a horde of evil other-dimensional counterparts of the young Avengers has been released to wreak havoc and the other young heroes Prodigy gathered are doing their best to combat them. Transonic urges Alex Power that they need to call the Avengers, but he points out the adults can’t see the threat. They have to contain it while Prodigy and his friends end it. Avengers Mansion is right over there, she points out. He tells her they are the Avengers.

The Kaplans take them out with some blast, and announce no one will ever know. They are doomed like Billy and his friends. Their story is drawing to a close.

In Mother’s dimension, the Young Avenger are fighting Leah’s group, while Wiccan and Mother face off. Loki has learned that Leah is in effect his personified conscience and has his missing power. Right now, she is giving him hell.

Time is running out, Oubliette reminds Noh-varr. Doesn’t he want back what they had? It was the best time of their lives and he knows it…

Noh-varr addresses Kate, who is also busy fighting and tells her he likes her a lot. But this is something he thought lost forever. She may be psychotic and immoral but Oubliette is the girl of his dreams! Noh, honey, Kate snaps, she’d have respected him if he’d said he was doing it for an extra pair of hands!

Miss America dodges Ultimate Nullifier’s powers-disrupting blasts. He realizes she can dodge him all day, so he aiMs. At Loki instead. America sacrifices herself for him and is shot. Powers adios, Ultimate Nullifier laughs. She agrees her strength is gone for now, then kicks him in the nuts. You can tell, as Earth doesn’t suddenly have two hairy tiny moons.

Loki doesn’t know what to say. She tells him if they don’t save each other they got jack! He considers this for a moment then shouts at everyone to listen. Leah smiles and stops the fight with a gesture. She believes Loki has something to say.

Loki explains the Loki whose body this was, he managed to change … to be good… to be a better part. He killed this Loki and took over, basically. It’s complicated. It involved a whole lot of manipulations. In the same way he’s been manipulating them from the start. He made a deal with Mother. He betrayed her. He kept them all dancing along as he improvised a tune. If Billy is going to rewrite the rules of magic, he wanted to control the dance steps. He didn’t want to do it. He wanted to do it so desperately. This is all his fault! he shouts.

He knew he was guilty, Prodigy exclaims. Doesn’t that feel better? Leah asks. She smiles slightly and dissolves into thin air. Moments later, so do the others except for the Fake Patriot. Noh-Var stares in disbelief and heartbreak as Oubliette fades away. Kate just glares.

Loki has curled in on himself.  When Noh-varr tries to address Kate, she orders him to save Teddy.

Loki rambles he is not the murderer Loki, he is the murder weapon Loki. He’s a copy the old Loki made to lie in wait for his innocent self. He’s not the murderer. He’s just identical to him. He had no choice!

Maybe then, Ms. America replies coldly, fist clenched. Loki tells her to end it. Before he can talk his way out of this. After some consideration, she announces she is not going to make this easier for him.

Patri-not bars their way to the Teddy chair. Prodigy tells him if he does his disappearing act he’s cool with that but he can’t hide Tommy forever. Otherwise it’s payback time. Patri-not steps aside, pointing at Teddy. What you can’t outrun, he announces.

Kate orders Loki to unchair Teddy. Loki casts a spell and Teddy turns human again. He thanks Loki. Kate tells him not to. Do they get out? she asks. Looking up, Loki tells them it would do no good. Billy’s trapped. Mother’s going to get everything she wants and devour it. He didn’t go full Demiurge. Semi-demiurge, he guesses or Semiurge. America glares threateningly. Probably not the time for wordplay, he admits.

Prodigy tells Teddy to go to Billy. What difference would it make? Teddy wonders. He can’t give him what he needs. He has too many doubts. David tells him that yes, Billy could have accidentally wished him into existence. Existential nonsense! Who cares? It doesn’t matter! Billy’s Billy. Teddy’s Teddy. Their love is as real as anything he’s ever seen. A magical power someone has over you that cascades through you until every cell cries out for his touch? What does he think love is?

Why didn’t he say that before? Teddy asks. David admits he wanted to know what that feels like. What you can’t outrun, Patri-not opines. Prodigy shouts at him to shut up. Denial, he is told. David urges Teddy to go to him. Before it’s too late.

Teddy enters the nothingness where Billy crouches inside a magical circle. Billy announces Mother has sent tempting visions before to get him to leave the circle, but couldn’t get the details right. How is he here? Loki’s magic, Teddy replies. He got it back when he confessed. He was manipulating them all along, so it seems.

Does he think Loki was lying about them? Billy asks. He doesn’t care, Teddy replies surprisingly and pulls down Billy’s hood. They are not. As the two of them kiss a starfield explodes around them, flattening Mother.  Billy apologizes. He has to do some stuff.

Is love really going to save them all? Loki scoffs disgusted. Of course it is, America replies. Anyone who thinks otherwise is getting stomped into paste.

He’s happy for them. They make a lovely couple, Prodigy states. Denial, Patri-Not reveals. Prodigy tells him to please be quiet.

Turning full-scale Demiurge, Wiccan finds himself outside the story. He takes Mother apart and send the bad idea versions of them fighting the other youngsters after her.

He walks outside time and space, realizing he can do anything. He is giving birth to the future and the past. It’s like cradling all reality in his arms. They all look so cute from up here. It’s tempting. But does he really want kids? He has all this power and the responsibility to use it. But he also has the responsibility to know how to use the power. And, Billy Kaplan, you don’t know what the hell you are doing. Yet.

He returns to the normal level of reality. No one escapes, the fake Patriot comments. Thankfully. Can they have Tommy back now? Billy asks. Denial, is the reply and the Patriot fades away.

He could have saved everything, Billy states weakly. Or broken it, Loki points out. Let’s be honest: Billy doesn’t have a &%#$* clue in his pretty little head. So have they won? Billy asks. Eyes right, Mr Kaplan, Loki orders.

Their teammates are facing the last dimensional counterparts. America shouts at them to listen: The lady’s gone. The spell’s shattered. They are all by themselves. They could go home alone. Alternatively, they are free to continue this crappy invasion and have their Avengers kick their face clean off.

After the bad guys make the right call, the young Avengers leave Mother’s dimension for Central Park to reunite with the other youngsters. Transonic hugs Prodigy. Wiccan asks America if this was his Demiurge moment. Nah, she tells him. But it was a good warm-up. Kate hands Noh-varr back the energy bow she’d borrowed from him.

Billy is addressed by his parents, who no longer remember what they were fighting about. A misunderstanding, he tells them and hugs tem. He begins to introduce his friends but when he gets to the last one they find someone is missing. Where is Loki? he wonders.

Watching longingly from a cloud above, Loki simply states to himself he’s gone.