There's hole in the sky...
World: Marvel
Time: After Reload
Main characters: Magneto and the Excalibur from Genosha.
Chapter 1: Kidnapping
Erik Lehnsher was standing on destroyed residence's terrace looking at the landscape stretching out around him: the hills of barren and burnt soil and ruins of huge skyscrapers devoid of their former magnificence growing out of the red sand. He was watching destroyed Hammer Bay, capital city of Genosha, the state which he had ruled in the past and which was supposed to be a promised land for every mutant. When he as Magneto had forced the UN to give him the power over the island a few years ago, he had believed that his dream had finally come true. He had built the sanctuary in which people similar to him could find home free from prejudice and persecution. At first it seemed that everything was going in a good direction. Many mutants from the entire world arrived to Genosha to settle down and the state grew in strength, becoming the object of jealousy of other nations. Unfortunately that delusion, as every ephemeral dream, didn't last long. One day huge battle machines sent by crazy Cassandra Nova appeared in Hammer Bay and other cities of the island and started the massacre of their inhabitants. Community of millions was reduced to only a few survivors in the sequence of a few hours and beautiful cities crumbled like houses of cards. The dream of the man died once again. The wind was waving Erik's hair and in the man's eyes tears appeared. Magneto lost in the contemplation didn't notice when his oldest friend and the enemy Charles Xavier, bald man on a wheelchair appeared next to him.
"Here you are again, my friend?" He asked him.
"I am examining smoking remains of my dream, Charles..."
"Don't forget that what happened here was the same defeat for me as for you. I'm wondering if our roads hadn't branched many years ago, we would have been able to prevent the tragedy of all these people." Magneto turned away from the friend and not saying a single word tightened hands on the fence of the balcony. Xavier noticed that scraps of metal on the entire terrace started vibrating and emitting a metallic sound.
"Your pointless daydream about our peaceful coexistence with the ordinary men led to this tragedy. If we had been harder, if we had imposed our will upon the entire world, children whose ashes are blown by the wind from above the ocean would have still played in the green gardens of Hammer Bay. If we had united in order to oppose intolerance and hate many years ago..." Xavier noticed that Magnus' eyes started glowing in blue color. He knew that he had to calm him down or he would become a threat to everyone who survived on Genosha.
"Erik, calm down. You know that your way of hate never worked. Perhaps if you hadn't attack the Cape Citadel so many years ago, people wouldn't have been so afraid of us today".
Lensherr clenched fists and a blue glow appeared around his body. He leaned against the fence feeling weak. The professor came telepathically into his mind in order to calm him down.
"We must leave our whole past behind us. We will build the Genosha's future together. We will create the hope for better life for our survivors. We must rebuild the state for them and for the ones who passed away." Glow around Lehsherr paled and his eyes started looking humanly. The man was very tired out. Xavier was alarmed by his state but he didn't show it.
"Erik, this attack has been repeating itself for a long time. Should you not be examined? Perhaps Henry McCoy should see...?"
"Am I supposed to come back to America? After what this madman impersonating me did there? Everyone is waiting to seat me on the electric chair there! Your X-Men especially!"
"I meant the McCoy who lives here with us..."
"Do you trust him Charles? I didn't think..."
"Certainly I don't trust him. But we must take on every aid which is offered us."
A woman with black hair and a patch on one eye appeared on the terrace. She was dressed in the leather jacket and her hands reminded green tentacles.
"I didn't want to stop male talks Charles, but we have a problem on the streets. Kids are rebelling. Food rations are ending and the situation is becoming tenser".
"Thanks Callisto. I'll talk to them." Xavier replied. He directed his wheelchair at the downward slope from the terrace. He turned to Magneto.
"Erik, do you wish to come with us?"
"Not now. I prefer my own company now. They will hear you out; some of them still cannot stand my face." Professor and Callisto left the terrace.
"You gained such a reputation dear friend." The bald man thought. Magnus felt worse once again. He gripped the fence more firmly. A light blue glow surrounded his body, much more intense than the last time.
The professor and Callisto who was accompanying him appeared on the square in front of the destroyed residence. The square was little in size and its pavement was cracked. The dry fountain was standing in the vicinity and a lot of wooden boxes were scattered everywhere around. All mutants who survived the massacre on the island gathered there. Wicked - the black-haired girl dressed in gothic black clothes was sitting on one of the boxes. The boy with blonde hair, who because of his abilities of shape change was called Freakshow was standing next to her. The bald black man – Shola Inkosi was standing near the entry to the building and young black mutant girl called Hub who recently joined the Xavier group was sitting on the destroyed fountain. Karima Shepandar called Omega Sentinel – a woman being the hybrid of the flesh and the modern technology came up to the professor.
"Professor, morale of our charges has dropped very low. We must solve the problem of food as soon as possible."
"Please understand us, we're hungry, we're sleeping in incredibly bad conditions. We're worn out with such a life." Shola said.
"McCoy said that he knew where some warehouses with a food were. Hub, did you check the location which he mentioned?" Xavier turned to the black girl.
"I'd like to do it. But I haven't seen this shaggy monkey for two days. He didn't say anything about the location of the warehouses. " The girl answered.
"He treated us lightly and moved into some comfortable place." She added.
"Or something killed him on the way." Wicked completed the sentence.
"To tell the truth, we wanted to talk about something else, professor... We don't know if we manage to live in this place any longer and you after all..." Freakshow tried to change the subject.
"I'll tell straight from the shoulder! We're starving here, we're slowly dying here and at the same time, on the second end of the world, kids similar to us live in a luxury and safety in your school! Perhaps it's high time you called your X-Men to take us away from here?" The black-haired girl announced nervously.
"Wicked. You should understand that rebuilding your own homeland is more important! You should have a desire to rebuild your own home..."
"My home? There isn't my home anymore! My parents and friends of mine are all dead!" The girl replied with tears in her eyes.
"Nothing is holding us here, professor" The blonde man announced.
"You are right. You can choose your own future. However there are other reasons..."
"Charles, do you want to rebuild Genosha for these kids or perhaps for him?" Callisto joined the conversation.
"Callisto, I didn't expect such a reaction..." said bald man.
"It's why the X-Men won't come for us; the professor doesn't want them to learn that he's together with him." Hub said quietly to her friends.
Meanwhile Magneto started collecting more and more energy around his body. There was so much of it that it created a blue glow shining intensively around the man. Erik's face was sweaty; it was apparent that he was not controlling what was happening to him. Metal objects were raised by an unseen force and they were whirling around the mutant. The man being like in a trance jumped out of the fence. He fell on the square where young mutants gathered. More and more metallic scraps circulated around him.
"Wicked, look out!" Freakshow pointed at Magnus.
"Magneto!"
"Erik! What are you doing?" Xavier shouted.
The large piece of metal pipe flew in the direction of Hub with a huge speed. Girl instinctively teleported herself to a safe place and metal squeezed into the destroyed fountain. The large metal sheet was falling on Wicked. Freakshow morphed into four-arm wild beast and using superhuman strength and speed rescued the girl from the terrible death.
"Erik! Calm down!" Xavier tried to talk sense into his friend. He used his telepathy to enter his mind and calm him from inside, but unfortunately in a vain.
"Charles! Try to put him to sleep!" Callisto shouted.
"I already tried! I'm not able to enter his head! He's in some kind of trance; he most probably doesn't know what is happening to him!" A large piece of metal grate headed in the direction of the professor. Callisto caught the man with her tentacles; she threw him down from the wheelchair and fell down with him to the ground. The structure hit Xavier's wheelchair destroying it completely.
"I will try to calm him down." Karima replied and rose into the air.
"No!" Charles wanted to stop her sensing some kind of danger. Energy discharges coming from Magneto struck the girl, burning her electronic systems. Unconscious woman fell to the ground. Shola using his telekinesis tried to protect everybody from metal remains flying everywhere. Eric stopped on the pavement. His energy started accumulating until it created a hole in the fabric of the space and time, real wormhole. The mutant was drawn inside it. Karima met the same fate. The hole started widening, sucking everyone one by one: Wicked, Freakshow, Shola and Hub. The professor was looking at everything with a terror in his gaze. Callisto ran in the direction of the hole.
"What are you doing?" Terrified Xavier asked her.
"I cannot leave kids with this psycho. Don't be afraid, Charles. I'll get them back." Callisto jumped in the wormhole.
"Callisto." The hole closed after disappearance of the woman. Metal shreds remaining in the air fell down with a big thud. Xavier was completely alone. It was hard for him to believe in what he witnessed a moment ago.