A+X #1

(1st Story)

(March 1943. Suffolk, England):
An Allied Army general gives Captain America and his sidekick, Bucky Barnes, their latest orders. The Nazis have begun erecting a massive dig site in the French countryside, outside Lyon and they’ve been chosen to shut it down. Captain America and Bucky are informed that this dig isn’t being conducted to find something but because the Nazis are burying something.

Led by a new player named Atticus Trask, the operation is called “Contingency X” and its goal is to put a vengeance weapon in the ground so, years later, it’ll wake up and release hell. In Bucky’s eyes, it’s just the Nazis behaving like sore losers. When questioned about the nature of the weapon, the general tells them to expect some robots and wishes them luck in putting an end to Trask.

Captain America and Bucky are dropped in, slip through the defenses and begin to survey the area. They quickly realize that in addition to multiple small “sleeper” robots, the Nazis are burying a massive Sentinel.

While Bucky questions the logic of burying such a powerful weapon in the ground instead of using it on the front lines, Captain America wonders if they even have enough charges to bring such a behemoth down.

The two of them locate Trask, a strange man in modern clothes. The young inventor holds up a modern cellphone in an effort to get a picture of the weapon for Instagram.

As Captain America and Bucky discuss strategy, planning to rely on stealth due to being horribly outmatched, Cable appears in dramatic fashion. Seemingly teleporting from the sky with his guns blazing, Nathan Summers promises that the young Trask’s timeline altering days are over. Atticus ducks for cover, surprised to see Nathan, whom he thought he lost back in 2099.

With any ideas for stealth ruined and realizing that Cable is seemingly on their side, Captain and Bucky join the fight. Cable is surprised to fight alongside Captain America, since there was no record of his presence at this site in the history books. As they fight their way through both Nazis and robots, Cable introduces himself as a time-traveler from the future. Captain America doesn’t believe him at first but is then shocked to find out that Cable knows his real name, Steve Rogers.

Meanwhile, Atticus Trask climbs on top of the Sentinel. The whole dig was part of his plan to wipe out mutant kind in this century, seemingly in an effort to lose Cable for good. He has various punch cards, including ones for Cyclops, Storm and Colossus. He sticks the one belonging to Cable into the Sentinel’s head, waking the giant weapon up.

Detecting Cable and commencing means of termination, the Sentinel fires a high-energy blast at the mutant. Saved by Captain America, Cable is grateful but questions why he isn’t looking after Bucky instead. Captain America explains to him how him and his partner operate: Captain America provides the distraction while Bucky gets the real job done. In this case, that means Bucky climbing on top of the Sentinel and throwing a charge directly in its mouth, which he succeeds in doing, ending the threat.

Atticus attempts to escape, considering his next time period options but is stopped by Captain America’s shield before he can activate his time-jump.

With Trask detained, Captain America and Bucky sit with Cable around a fire, burning the evidence of “Contingency X,” including the various Sentinel punch cards. Cable informs Captain America that this specific threat is prevented but that’s all he can tell him, since no man, especially Captain America, should know about the future. Captain America responds by saying Cable shouldn’t have let him know who wins the war then, which he did by speaking English and not German.

Before taking off with Trask in tow, Cable says “Auf wiedersehen, Kapitan.” Unsure what to make of this, Captain America claims it doesn’t matter as long as they keep up the fight. Bucky agrees but can’t help be hopeful that one day in the future, he too has a robot arm like the one Cable sports.

(2nd Story)

( Avengers Tower. New York City.)

Wolverine opens the refrigerator door of the Avengers’ kitchen to find a single piece of cake. Eager to devour it, Hulk appears with the same idea. Before they could argue over who gets the last piece, two visitors teleport in. Coincidentally, the visitors turn out to be themselves from the future!

The future Hulk, known as Maestro, tells his teammate, an older Logan, to leave no witnesses. They waste no time in attacking their younger counterparts. Maestro claims to be seeking a Hulk, just not Bruce Banner’s Hulk.

While engaging his young self in battle, the Logan from the future informs Maestro that he doesn’t smell their intended target anywhere.
All four combatants struggle to gain the upper hand, even after Wolverine and Hulk decide to switch opponents. Maestro assures the two Avengers that they are not the heroes of this story and the Avengers currently house one of the most dangerous people in history and he must be slain to ensure the world’s future.

Having heard enough, Hulk sends both visitors out of the window with a thunderous clap. With no plan B, Maestro and Older Logan retreat into their time platform.

Wolverine and Hulk attempt to pursue them but quickly realize they’re gone. While Logan questions why their future selves would risk killing themselves in the past, Hulk has more important things on his mind and returns to the kitchen to acquire the coveted last piece of cake.

(The White House. Washington DC. Another Tomorrow.)

Faced with failure, Maestro and Logan ask their leader to send them back for a second attempt. Their master, who sits in the oval office of the White House, says that they must wait now until another window of opportunity presents itself. Revealed to be the Red Hulk, he claims that the next chance must be soon, for if the world is to survive, the Red Hulk must die!