So this was suppose to be crazy, but the plot snuck back in . . . along with a couple of characters.

Bad Guys Are A'Plotting.

Apocalypse scowled as he finally got the Mayan temple's teleporting device working. As much as he enjoyed watching the new entertainment, he really had to start working on taking over the world. Again. Setting the device back to one of his Eygptian hideouts (he was really annoyed that the Eyptians had lost their power because of Cleopatra. If she wasn't already dead, he'd have a few things to say to her.) He activated it.

Stepping off, he blinked at the well kept walls.

"Welcome Home, my lord." A gravelly voice made a humorless smile appear.

"Ozymandius, my loyal steward." Apocalypse turned and saw a stone man wearing a turban. The stone man lurched and Apocalypse held up a hand. "Bowing is not nessecary, especially since your mutation has made that difficult for you."

"Thank you, lord." Ozymandius dipped his head a bit instead. "Woud you care to see what Has been accomplished in your absence?"

"What has been accomplished?" Apocalypse and Ozymandius started to move.

"Yes . . . it took time, but we managed to prepare a suitable palace from the ruins of your old one . . . and had you not been defeated by the X-men and Misfits, we would have been able to help you."

"You mean, had you not been so obvious with trying to take over the world." A woman wearing a hat and simple jacket stood in the throne room.

"Watch your tongue, Tanya Trask." The woman smiled, and gave a mocking curtsey.

"What can I say? I tell it like it is."

"And your ability?" Apocalypse sat on his throne.

"Time Travel. Daddy dearest and my darling brother were too narrow minded to realize my ability . . . then again, Daddy always wanted a son." Tanya held up a large ruby. "Care to have this? It's going to be stolen from its collector in two years, by me."

"Must you brag?" A familiar man entered the throne room, wearing the black uniform of Cobra. "Apocalypse, I am Major Sebastian Bludd, Ozymandius requested that I keep an eye on the Cobra Organization."

"Never mind the fact you spend more time enhancing your genetics than keeping an eye on them." Tanya snorted. "Oh, and you're known for being in the hospital all the time. We should have just hired that Zartan guy . . . oh wait, his taste in wives eventually dries him insane. Nevermind."

"If the dreadnoks and Mystique haven't," Bludd frowned.

"You know how three is a lucky number for some? It's not for Zartan."

"But he's only married mystique, Zanya's mum wasn't married to him."

"If you two would pay attention?" Tanya just smiled and leaned against a pillar. "Thank you. Ms. Trask here found a plan that would guarantee your power."

"Oh? And why didn't she find me before?"

"You ever try figuring out which time line is your own?" Tanya gave him a look. "It's not as easy as the books make it. I landed here a few years ago, but you'd already gotten beaten by the goodie-goods. Which sucked cause I had to wait."

"And she was annoying about it, too." Major Bludd muttered. "She ruined the superbowl by telling me exactly what happened beforehand. I still can't believe the Saints won . . ." Tanya rolled her eyes.

"I take it you both have short attention spans." Apocalypse sighed.

"Sorry. New Medication to stabilize my mutation . . ." Major Bludd apologized. "Not that the blokes at Cobra notice . . . they're all crazy."

"Stabilize your mutation?"

"My X gene is . . . incomplete. I've been working on stabilizing it."

"Before we get off topic again, We've started phase two of the plan, Bludd here has been busy with phase one and being our recruiter . . . almost a third of cobra is loyal to you now."

"Not to mention Hydra, a few in Latveria, Nova Roma . . . We've been busy." Tanya studied her nails.

"And a good half of the Egyptian underground." Ozymandius tried to finish.

"A good amount of any underground. They're just waiting for the word." Tanya ignored the look the ancient mutant gave her. "Madripor, Genosha . . . couple in Magneto's group . . . still working on infiltrating X men and Misfits. Well, we've got an in with the Misfits right now. But it's going to take a while to completely wrangle 'em."

"Excellent. Well done, all of you." All three gave some kind of bow. "They won't even know what hit them . . ."

In a Cobra base:

"Now I see why Cobra has issues." Serpentor III growled as he looked at a series of screens. "A good portion of the command are insane!" The screens showed Zartan laying into the dreadnoks, Baroness was chasing Destro with a rocket launcher. And Mindbender was on a rafter, avoiding a really angry monster he just created.

"Tell us something we don't know." Zanya and Firefly watched the screens as well. "Oh, look, the Baroness just stuffed Destro down a laundry shute." Zanya munched on some popcorn.

"It's not the laundry shute, it's a garbage shute." Serpentor sighed. "Zanya, I've changed my mind. You may start your own team. Firefly, your weapon allowance has also increased." He watched the Baroness storm down the hall. "And I need ideas to do something about Destro and the Baroness."

"You could date her." Demming and Tomax and Xamot entered the room. (Demming made the suggestion.)

"Yes, because that would work so well." Zanya rolled her eyes. "I'd say make it company policy not to date in the company, but that would go south before you could blink. Even the Joes have issues with it."

" . . . Maybe you could just make it policy to have those two not date?"

"While the idea has merit," Tomax began.

"The cycle would," Xamot added.

"Just start over again!" The two finished together.

" . . . Do we really need them?"

"Yes. Unfortunately . . . both have invaluable contacts." Serpentor sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Maybe I should assign them to different bases for the interim?"

"That would be our best bet,"

"And preferably the other side,"

"Of the world as well."

"And change their codes?"

"Crimson Twins need to get on that, then, Zanya will help me reassign her father and his gang as well as Destro and the Baroness."

"Why Zartan as well?" Firefly glanced up. He also stole some of Zanya's popcorn.

"Nothing Personal, but I'd like the Dreadnoks to leave."

"Don't we all?"

In another part of the base:

"That tramp!" Intimidator roared as he threw a table into a wall. "That ungrateful,"

"One, knock it off!" Gloom stopped him from throwing a chair. "We all knew Four was unstable at best-"

"She killed Moreau!" He snapped back. "That's not unstable, that's treachery!"

"Yes, because killing vipers and destroying bases isn't treacherous at all." Mutate sighed. She and Glitter entered the room now that Intimidator's rampage had halted. Greenman emerged from a cocoon of vines. "We knew she was going to try and kill him, why are you so shocked that she did?"

"She wasn't supposed to be able to kill him!" Intimidator snapped. "She was programmed not to!"

"You can take the animal out of the wild, but you can't take the wild out of the animal." Greenman quoted, gaining their attention. "Face it, Moreau was playing with fire when he tried to control her. And he got burned big time." Intimidator growled. "You know it's true, Animal has free will, he couldn't curb that unless he lobotomized her, and that could easily make her more insane or too docile to be of use."

"Hm, how about mess with her emotions?" Glitter smiled. "I could do that."

"Glitter, you tried that one before so she'd stop babying Twelve. Remember?"

"I do, that back fired big time." Mutate plopped onto the couch. "If anything, that made her attachment to him stronger."

"True, but at that point, she was hiding behind her animal instincts." Glitter smiled. "Now she's been human for a while, she won't be able to hide behind them as easily."

"Then that's what you're doing. We'll bring her back and break her like she's suppose to be."

"Don't be so sure." Greenman muttered, unheard. Because she's tasted freedom, she won't be willing to go back into any type of cage, and I can't blame her. Unlike the others, Greenman's basic nature had not been twisted to Cobra, and he believed that animals shouldn't be in cages.

Or in this case, mutants that were more animal than human.

Somewhere in the pacific . . .

An abandoned Chocolate factory was being maintained by a one eyed, orange tentacled . . . former monster of Mindbender's. She was trying to drown her sorrows in chocolate, which was going well (better than eating human beings, actually). Up until she started to feel sick. Semi curling into a ball (a feat with all of her tentacles) she looked through a human magazine. All filled with pictures of human beauty. She fell asleep wishing she was human.

Alright, we've got treachery, diabolical plans . . . and a random character that popped back into the plot.