The Human X-factor By Orkoad

Based on characters and situations created and/or owned by Marvel Comics, Sunbow Entertainment, Kids WB and John Proft. Special thanks to Red Witch for the use of her character, Spyder.

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Chapter 28

War of the Super Hero's

Captain America held out his shield, offering for jack to take it, but jack shook his head.

"I'm pretty sure you can put it to better use than I can." Jack said with a weak smile, coughing at the pain in his ribs.

"You alright son, you did take a bad hit." Cap asked. Jack shook his head, ignoring the pain.

"I'm fine, just alittle rattled." He lied as he looked out into the battle field, " What are we gonna do? We're incredibly outnumbered in overall strength."

" not anymore son." Cap said with a smile, gesturing to the oddly shaped flying craft that hovered in the air over them, it floated off about three yards, and landed silently as if it were a sheet of paper. The door opened on the rocket like craft, and three more individuals stepped out. Jack knew each one of them instantly, but let cap introduce them anyway.

"These are hero's shield has hired to help take on Apocalypse." He said as he gestured from allie to allie in his introduction. First was the man who seemed to be made of silver, and held a shimmering silver board under one arm.

"This is Noran Radd, more commonly known as the silver surfer, we're hoping he may be able to last a few rounds with Thor," Next, the massive orange creature of rock, "This is Ben Grimm," Before cap could say more, Ben chimed in, punching his palm.

"Or as my sweet aunt petunia says, "the ever loving, blue eyed thing."" Jack and cap snickered at this. Then finally, cap gestured to the man in the grey and silver armor, with massive cannon like weapons on both shoulders.

"and finally, James Rhoads, more well known as War Machine." Rhoads stepped up to shake Jacks hand.

"Just call me rhoady." The metallic man said with a hint of humor in his voice. Just then there was a massive explosion from behind them. Jack looked back, watching the massive war like battle continue. Jack's heart sank, he felt that he had completely forgotten about his friends. He looked back at the four hero's, rubbing his chin.

"Okay, so we got someone special for hulk, Thor and iron man... What about ghost rider..." Jack thought aloud to himself. After a moment his eyes widened, it was so obvious he couldn't believe he didn't think of it sooner. He turned to cap, his eyes once again filled with determination.

"Steve, take charge here, keep the enemy busy, engage them but only stall til I get back, otherwise one enemy could assist the others and I don't want to attack them until we have an opponent for each of the horsemen." and with that, Jack took flight into the air, sailing off like a rocket into the sky, towards new York. As he did, he tapped the phone key pat embedded in the helmet piece of his armor.

" Forge, report." Jack yelled out into the phone.

"The good guys are getting mopped, they're holding up but just barely, where are you?" Forge called out in a panicked tone.

"I'm getting reinforcements, I need you to look up an address for me."

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Rogue panted as she dodged a blast from iron man's repulser rays, kicking up the dirt around her. She spit the dirt from her mouth as she picked herself up off the ground, only to hear the sound of something like a jet landing right behind her. She rolled over, stumbling onto her back as she looked up at a very pissed off looking iron man. She could see small explosions and people running back and forth in the background, but it almost seemed as everything was silent and in slow motion as the man of metal stalked menacingly towards her, one arm raised, his palm open and aimed at her, the small circle in its center glowing a brilliant blue and getting brighter.

"You will be the first to feel the sickness of death, slowly creeping up around you, eager to fill your body with the fever that will consume you." The man of iron said in an emotionless voice. Rogue looked up at him, afraid, for the first time in along time. She clamped her eyes shut, waiting for the end, and heard the sound of his blast shoot off, but after a moment she realized she was still there. She looked up, letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding in, to see "Pestilence" knocked into the wall of the pyramid, some 30 yards to her right. She looked back in the opposite direction, to see another "iron man" standing there, steam billowing out of the same kind of weapon in his palm.

"You alright kid?" the man asked. Rogue nodded, unable to speak for a moment. "Good to hear, get out of here, I know you want to help but if you don't have any offensive power your no good to us." And with that he flew off, after iron man. Rogue bit her lip, scowling in anger.

"Ah aint some cryin lil girl from the prom, ah'm just as important as anyone else here..." She said, glancing over to see the man of rock going toe to toe with the hulk," and ah think ah just figured out ah way how."

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Jack stood on the sidewalk, looking up at 177A Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village New York, and could feel that the place was different. It defiantly didn't look like someone's home, In fact, the address belonged to a small frozen yogurt shop. Jack walked up to the building and pressed his hand against the wall. It definitely felt real, but he didn't have time to speculate.

"DOCTOR STEPHEN STRANGE, IT'S JACK CARSON, I NEED YOUR HELP!" Jack waited, wondering if he was crazy, yelling at a neon yogurt sign, when suddenly the view shifted, changing like glitter being poured into a bowl of water. In a moment, the image had changed to a massive house, a monstrous circular window with an odd design dominating the center of it. Now this looked like the home of a sorcerer.

Jack raced up to the door, and knocked on it in a panic. He only got two knocks when the door slowly opened, and to jacks surprise, there stood a short, bald Asian man, no older than 25, smiling up at him.

"Hello, I am Wong, The Doctor will be with you shortly." He said as he gestured for jack to step inside. Jack walked into the monstrous house that seemed to exist outside of the normal world. The place looked nothing like its outside. The main hall was more like a small, comforting living room. Jack took a seat, feeling like he was meeting a girl's parents as he waited.

"Would you like some tea mister Carson?" Wong asked with a bright smile.

"um... No thanks." Jack said as he saw the man he met in Antarctica, stepping down the stairs, wearing what he seemed to be wearing back there. It was odd but it only now occurred to Jack that he didn't have any warm clothing back in the frozen land before.

"Wong, fetch me my cloak." Dr. Strange said calmly as he took a seat at the chair across from Jack. "Tell me my boy, what can I do for you?" Strange asked, as he took a sip from the small tea cup that sat on the small coffee table between them. JAck stood up almost angrily.

"Doc, you know about Apocalypse, right?" Jack asked harshly, almost offended that He was sitting there so calmly drinking tea.

"I am well aware of the situation my friend, however the fates have stated that I await your call before coming to action, you are the one who will win the day, and I am here to serve." Strange said calmly as he stood up, taking the cloak from Wong as he walked in with it. Jack was confused for a moment, but stood up, smiling.

"good, cause we don't have any time, lets go kick some super villain ass."

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Ben Grimm had been in countless fights, both before and after the tragic accident that made him the thing, but the battle he was in now was like nothing before. He was swinging and dodging as best he could, but the hulk seemed to have no end to his boundless strength.

He stood toe to toe with the jade giant now, fingers crossed in a desperate mercy battle, Ben was doing his best, but hulk was simply a force of nature. He could feel the rocky skin of his fingers actually grind, threatening to crumble off, and preyed that he would survive this.

" War will be your end!" Hulk bellowed as he flexed his muscles, seconds away from ending the thing, Then suddenly, hulks eyes went blank, his jaw fell, and he began to stumble. "Hulk... Tired." He mumbled, before collapsing like a rag doll before the thing. Ben was shocked, looking around for some explanation, but all he saw was one of the mutant kids, the girl with the streak of white in her brown hair, smiling up at Ben, her eyes glowing a brilliant green.

"Yall can thank me later, right now, rogue smash!" She said, and with a single leap, sailed over the warzone, almost as if she were flying, leaving a very clueless thing standing there. Rogue landed somewhere near the fight between Thor and the man of silver, who glided threw the air on his matching surf board.

"Thy shall starve in the glow of death!" Thor bellowed as he swung his hammer, sending it flying at the surfer. It collided with the silver mans chest, causing a spider web of cracks in the center of his chest. Rogue leapt up, caught the man, and laded him to rest beside a tree. She growled as she looked up at Thor, an anger she never felt before flowing threw her. She didn't even notice but her muscles seemed to grow, causing bits of her uniform to tear, as she leapt up and in the blink of an eye, backhanded Thor, sending him sailing to the ground, a moment before she landed too. She was just about to reveal in her victory, when there was a monstrous explosion from where Thor landed. When the dust settled, there stood Thor, his new horseman costume torn in countless places, exposing parts of his chest.

" Thow has awoken a sleeping giant." He said, his eyes glowing, sparks of lightning seemingly shooting from them. Rogue just smiled.

"That's alright, Ah just dropped a green giant, why not one more."

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Jack was flying faster than he had ever flown before, faster than he thought the armor could handle. Dr. Strange had gone on ahead, but jack was on his way back to the mansion. He was starting to panic, he had been listening to radio stations as he flew and the fight wasn't going good on their end. Hulk had gone down fast somehow, but the other horsemen were demolishing the hero's, which forced jack to go to plan be. He touched down at the front door and raced in. Beast and forge had been waiting for him. Jack wasn't even able to open his mouth, before beast tossed him a small disk. Jack looked down at it.

"Really? This is it?" Jack asked skeptically.

"Yeah bro, you asked for it, you got it." Forge said triumphantly.

"Apocalypse's mutant ability seems to be to change his body at the atomic level, making his abilities seemingly limitless, this is the one thing we could think of to stop him, it wont kill him, I question if he can be killed, but this should incapacitate him." Beast commented as jack looked down at the shimmering silver disk in his hand.

"If this don't work beast... We're out of options."

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Alex summers, Wanda and Quicksilver were doing their best to handle ghost rider, but it wasn't looking good. The demon rider had already knocked down colossus, Kurt, gambit and the blob, and had just clocked spike down like he was a fly. Wanda and Alex had been throwing blast after blast at him, while quicksilver was trying to put out his flame by running around him in circles, but the rider reached out his hand and caught the speedster by the throat. He looked deep into quicksilver's eyes as the teen struggled.

" Stair into my eyes, and meet your death, man child." Ghost rider said with a snarl.

"Not today, spirit of Vengeance!" A new voice called out. The rider looked up to see what seemed to be a ghost. "by the great will of the Vishanti, I command thee... Disburse!" In an instant, quicksilver fell to the ground, only to be followed by the rider, except it wasn't the rider anymore, now it was just a normal biker, out like a light, unconsciously laying beside the now normal and Alex looked up at the spirit, which floated over to a man, deep in thought, and passed into him, causing the man to open his eyes and walk over to the two teens.

"I prey my spell will hold long enough for this to end." said nervously. Wanda walked over to him, entranced.

"Could you teach me?" She asked.

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It took jack ten minutes to soar back to the battle, and it still made him worry. He noticed that the rider was down now too, but so was a lot of his allies. They were out of time, Apocalypse had to be stopped now. If he couldn't bring the mad mutant down this time, nothing would. Iron man saw Jack coming and hurled a barrage of repulser blasts at him. Jack took a deep breath as he danced across the night sky, and before Iron man could send out another wave, A shimmering disk came flying from out of no where, Connecting with the metal man's head, causing him to fall. Jack looked around, to see captain America, giving him a wave. Jack waved back, and returned onto his path to Apocalypse.

Meanwhile, captain America had been distracted, and received a punch in the side, sending him flying into a tree. He couched, feeling blood trickle down his arm, and looked up to see Thor, leering at him as he stalked towards him.

"Thy shall suffer for thy insolence." The god of thunder decreed as he twirled his hammer. Cap looked up, and caught his shield as it sailed over to him. He looked up to see that rogue had tossed it to him, and smiled, a second later, thors hammer clanged as it slammed down into the shield.

"No protection ether man made or godly will protect thee from me!"

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Jack flew tot he pyramid, biting his lip, still feeling the ache in his ribs as he landed at the front of the structure.

"APOCALYPSE! FACE ME!" Jack ordered. In response, a section of the pyramid spread open, revealing a doorway. Jack walked in, his fists clenched in anger as he looked around.

"You have courage for one so weak." Apocalypse's voice called out from the far end of the massive room.

"Where are my friends." Jack demanded threw gritted teeth. Apocalypse just laughed.

"You are a fool, boy, despite my plans, did it ever occur to you that I may have not a thing to do with your pitiful friends disappearances?" Jack only grew angrier.

"Your lying, where are they, TELL ME?" Jack howled as he continued to walk down the empty hall, coming to stand right in front of him once again. Apocalypse moved like lightning, this time his hand forming a two pronged claw, clamping around jack and lifting him off his feet.

"I care not if you believe me or not, I will rule this land and you will be less than a footnote in the book of history." Jack struggled, his hand reaching into the pocket on his pants.

"There's something you didn't count on." Jack said between painful gasps. Apocalypse pulled jack to him, his eyes less than an inch from jacks.

"And what would that be human?" Jack forced a smile.

"I don't need powers to spring a trap." With that, jack tossed the disk at Apocalypse's feet. A red glass like mass spread from the disk, climbing up Apocalypse's legs, causing him to scream out in a rage. He dropped jack in his sudden outburst, and jack rolled away. He leaned up on his side to watch the glass like substance clime up the villain, freezing his body as it went, until it climbed up his chest, it slowed, but continued to envelop him.

"I will return, I will find your missing allies myself and they will feel my vengeance, as will you and all those who breath on this world!" Apocalypse vowed with a blind rage as the glass climbed up his face, freezing him in a statue like pose of pure hatred. Jack gasped as he stared at the frozen monster, before falling onto his back, gasping, groaning. The fight was over, he and his friends had won the day... So why did the victory feel hollow.

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Captain America held up his shield, hiding behind it, feeling the hammer of Thor pounding into it, threatening to crack it.

"This will end you!" Thor bellowed, his hammer raised to the sky, and it came sailing down, but froze an inch before it collided with the shield. Cap looked up, to see Thor standing there, dazed, confused.

"Forgive me... I... What sorcery is this... What has happened to thee?" Thor asked as he held out a hand, which cap took, and Thor pulled him to his feet.

"I can't say... But thank god its over."

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Two hours later. Jack sat in the back of an ambulance, a doctor bandaging up his ribs, as he watched 4 shield agents lifting the Apocalypse statue into a shield transport. All around them was reminders of the hell that had just happened. Some of their allies, like the brotherhood and spike, had disappeared the moment they realized the battle was over. He could understand why.

"I have to say son, I'm impressed." Captain America said as he and fury walked up to jack. Jack winced at the very site of fury, and groaned as the doctor brushed his tender ribs.

"Thanks Steve, from you that means a lot." Jack replied as he glanced over to fury, who was gnawing on a toothpick.

"How is it that every time a supervillain breaths, your in the middle of it." Fury asked in his salty tone.

"Must be my luck, all the baddies just want a piece of me." Fury grumbled, but nodded.

"Seems like the only answer that makes sense. Well since you have a knack for surviving threw these things, shield has asked me to offer you a spot on the new team we're pulling together." JAck's eyes widened. He looked over to cap, who wore a bright smile, then over to the man who was once the hulk, then over to iron man and Thor. But then he looked farther out, saw rogue, being held up by kitty and tabitha, and looked down at the watch that was what saved his life so many times.

"Fury, I am flattered, and wish I could say yes but... I'm part of another team... And they need me a lot more than your crew." Cap frowned, but nodded, and held out his hand to jack.

"Understood, take care son," he said as jack shook his hand, "you ever need the avengers, you know where to find us." Jack smiled.

"Avengers huh, somehow that sounds appropriate."

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Sinister and dark beast sat in a small S.U.V. just barely in view of what was left of the battlefield.

"What now, we just leave him?" Dark beast asked in confusion.

"For the moment Doctor, but HE will return, he always returns, and when he dose, we will have a great gift, when we are done, he will be the finest horsemen to ever serve the master." Sinister said with a dark smirk, looking behind them at the man that lay in the back seat, wrapped in chains and unconscious, his thick feathery wings twitching against the cold metal.

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Three weeks had gone by, and while his injury had healed, Jack was no closer to finding the missing students, and he had been looking hard. He hadn't been to school in months, spending every day scowering the city in his armor, and every night looking over news reports and surveillance photos.

Finally he growled out, swatting his pile of notes and photos tot he floor. Spyder yawned as she walked into the livingroom, seeing jack's outburst and walking in, without asking, climbed up onto jacks lap and looking up at him.

"Jack... We'll find them." She promised. Jack sighed and wrapped his arms around his adopted little sister.

"It's been months ollie... And we haven't found anything, not a glimpse, not even a hint... I don't know what else to do." Jack said weakly. Ollie smiled and kissed his cheek.

"You'll do it big brother, I believe in you." She said brightly as she hopped down and walked back into the hall.

"And jack," She called out, causing jack to look up. "You're my hero big brother, you can do anything, and I know you can do this too. Just remember..." Jack didn't get to hear the end of the sentence, because he was instantly knocked out, in the monstrous explosion that rocked the very ground. The mansion busrting in a massive explosion.

End of Chapter Next Chapter: The Final Stand of Jack Carson

Okay folks, we're getting closer and closer to the finally. Yup, Apocalypse was NOT the big bad end villain, who is? I don't know, do you? Well, no matter what, some big BIG things are coming up. Please send feedback, I need to know if I'm still doing good...

orko