- "A week ago, a village in Mexico was wiped out by a cyclone. Witnesses say that cyclone had a face."
- ―"Nick Fury" to Spider-Man[src]
The Skirmish in Ixtenco was the first of the Elemental attacks that was orchestrated by Quentin Beck, aimed at gaining the trust of Nick Fury and Maria Hill.
Background
In late June of 2024, Nick Fury and Maria Hill were off-world on a Skrull vessel. In order to maintain global security, the two had assigned the Skrull spouses Talos and Soren to respectively impersonate them to complete a terrestrial mission, while they took a 'vacation' of sorts. Keeping in line with their ordered aliases, Talos and Soren were following reports of a "cyclone" with a face that destroyed the town of Ixtenco in Mexico.
Unbeknownst to the two Skrulls posing as the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, the Sandman was not a real entity but was merely an illusion of Mysterio's own creation as a part in his plan.[1]
Skirmish
When the Talos and Soren arrived at Ixtenco, they found the town in ruins from a recent storm. Startled by the sudden arrival of Mysterio, they were then taken by surprise with the emergence of Sandman, a large monster made of Earth, which arose and attacked them. Talos and Soren began to fire at Sandman as it roared across the area, inflicting minimal damage. Mysterio then blasted energy from his hands, and after a momentary battle had he seemingly destroyed the monster.[1]
Aftermath
After Mysterio "destroyed" the Elemental, he joined with Talos and Soren, to stop the other three Elementals that were expected to attack in other locations on Earth. Talos was forced to contact Spider-Man for assistance, only to get ignored, resulting in his hijacking of Parker's summer field trip to Europe.[1]