File:Marvel Team-Up Vol 1 69 001.jpg

Description
Muir isle, an hour's hovercraft journey from Stornoway in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, is the site of Moira MacTaggert's Mutant Research Centre, which she founded twenty years ago. It is here that Alex Summers and Lorna Dane, also known as Havok and Polaris, have come to recover from their recent tribulations. Jamie Madrox and Moira MacTaggert are spending the weekend in Edinburgh, so Havok and Polaris have the island essentially to themselves. They have been working hard to salvage what remains of Moira's lab after the battle against Magneto, and they we happy to have some time alone together. But suddenly an energy beam strikes the ground beside them, fired by three men in Egyptian costumes on a high rocky crag. Alex knocks them away with a power-burst, but then two more costumed men open fire with energy beams from an aircraft. Polaris uses her magnetic powers to tear the aircraft apart, but Mustapha and the other two men on the ground use their blaster to shatter the cliff at Polaris's feet and knock her into the sea. Before Havok can help her, a second Jet platform arrives and fires a snare at him. This works like a South American bolo, wrapping him up and neutralizing his powers at the same time. Havok begs the men to save Lorna, because she fell into freezing water and could drown, but they simply inject him with a drug that renders him unconscious. The girl, they say, is expendable. Snow is falling at 2 a.m. as Peter Parker calls it a day at the advanced chemistry lab on the Empire State University Campus. As he puts on his Jacket and prepares to leave, he notices a light on in Professor Craig's office. This is odd, because the professor left hours ago, and when Peter investigates, he finds two men in Egyptian costumes, Jamil and Rashid, rifling the office. As Peter silently webs up the door, Rashid announces that he has found the "Master's mystic ankh," and Jamil replies that he has learned that their Scottish assault team has successfully captured Havok. Peter quickly dons his Spider-Man costume and waits for them to try to leave, but then he hears the whine of a Jet engine and sees that the looters are leaving through the window instead of the webbed-up door. Jamil tells the pilots of the jet platform that the replica of the ankh that they left behind is so perfect that the professor will be unable to tell the difference. It does not matter, says one of the others, for the Master will possess the "ultimate power" by morning. Spider-Man smashes through the door to the office, but unfortunately he becomes tangled up in his own webbing. Nevertheless, he manages to stick a spider tracer to the departing jet platform, and then he begins to laboriously extricate himself. Back on Muir isle, Lorna Dane, dripping wet, tries to telephone the X-Men in Westchester County, but receives no	answer. Even if the X-Men themselves are out, she thinks to herself, their computer, Cerebro, should take the call automatically. Then she telephones the Avengers mansion, and the	Beast, who has been toasting marshmallows in the fireplace, answers and she tells him what happened, and when the transoceanic conversation is finished, the Beast springs out of his chair. Thor reminds the Beast that they are on standby alert, but the Beast simply says that something has come up and he flies off in a quinjet. Thor wonders what could have made the Beast suddenly depart in a plane that federal agent Henry Gyrich has forbidden the Avengers to use. As the quinjet passes overhead on its way to Westchester. Spider-Man is web-swinging over the city following the signal from his tracer. Suddenly the signal vanishes, either because the tracer has been found and destroyed or because the hover-car has dropped behind some sophisticated shields. Fortunately, Spider-Man is very close to where it landed, and he sees an ambulance drive up with two more costumed men inside. As he follows them through the gate of an embassy building and	watches from above, he sees them remove a stretcher containing Havok from the vehicle. One of the men, Achmed, tells another, Abdullah, that the "stasis tapes" wrapped around Havok are nearly saturated. If they do not hurry, Havok may break free. Recalling the conversations in Professor Craig's office, Spider-Man quickly realizes what has happened, web-swings down to the courtyard, and knocks the two men out. Then he unstraps Havok and removes the stasis tapes. When more costumed men run up, Havok knocks them out with power-blasts while Spider-Man plows into them with his fists. Soon the skirmish is over, but Havok tells Spider-Man that defeating an army of flunkies means nothing unless they defeat their master. No sooner does he utter these words than an energy bolt knocks them off their feet, and the Living Pharaoh declares that he has waited long for this moment. Spider-Man begins to taunt the Pharaoh to give Havok time to get up, but the Pharaoh sends Spider-Man flying through a window of the embassy, where he lands at the feet of a secretary, stunned. Havok thinks that Spider-Man has been killed, and he tells the Pharaoh that that makes two lives he owes him. Then he fires a series of power-blasts, which the Pharaoh counters with bolts of power. For many minutes the two men stand locked in battle, neither gaining an advantage over the other. But then one of the Pharaoh's men, Kassim, places the mystic ankh around Havoc's neck. This turns Havok's power against himself, and he instantly falls helpless to the ground. Two of the Pharaoh's servants carry Havok on a stretcher into the subbasement of the embassy. Immobilized by the ankh, Havok cannot prevent them from carrying him to the special casing where he will be imprisoned. Havok's mutant powers are linked to those of the Living Pharaoh, and so long as Havok lives, the Pharaoh is denied full use of those powers. Both Havok and the Pharaoh absorb and metabolize cosmic rays, and the casing is designed to force Havok to operate at peak power, which it then absorbs and funnels into the Pharaoh, making him supremely powerful. The life-support systems of the casing will keep Havok in perfect health as he serves as the Pharaoh's "living battery." But when the men try to close the top of the casing, they find Spider-Man holding it open with his webbing. Although Spider-Man is in some pain after his encounter with the Pharaoh, he quickly knocks the two men out and reaches into the casing to take the ankh off Havok. Just then, the Living Pharaoh, wearing a special metallic helmet and costume, orders Spider-Man to stop. Spider-Man starts to taunt the Pharaoh about his "oddball outfit." Enraged, the Pharaoh begins firing energy bolts at Spider-Man, but Spider-Man dodges them, knowing that the Pharaoh cannot release his full power without damaging the equipment in the chamber. Then Spider-Man slams the Pharaoh with his fist and sends the Pharaoh hurtling toward the casing containing Havok. Although the lid of the casing is held up by webbing, the force of the impact causes the webbing to break off part of the ceiling, and the lid closes. The Pharaoh is delighted with this turn of events, for as soon as the lid snaps shut, the cosmic rays entering Havok's body cause the Pharaoh to grow in stature and strength. Soon, to Spider-Man's utter astonishment, the Living Pharaoh becomes the gigantic Living Monolith. And as the Living Monolith picks up Spider-Man in his giant hand, he declares that Spider-Man will be the first to fall before his irresistible might.