Fall of Magneto
In the command chamber… (Iron Man and War Machine)
Tony Stark was searching through the files and folders within the main computer of the command chamber to find where Magneto was holding the human hostages as well as finding a way to slow down the island's ascent, which was easier said than done. War Machine kept his eye on Deadpool, who of course, was acting himself, shaking the chair in the rhythm of the rest of the quaking island.
"You're going to bring Nick Fury to us after all this is over." War Machine sternly told Deadpool, crossing his arms.
"The fuck I will!" Deadpool stood up. "Trust me, I've read the epic finale! The writer doesn't need Nick Fury until later!"
"The hell?" War Machine shoved Deadpool back down on the chair. "You're going to do it, you can't say no to it!"
"Pretty sure that's called rape." Deadpool shrugged.
"Jesus, there's no working with you."
"You have to take me out to dinner first, dick-head!" Deadpool teased him on.
"Enough, you two!" Stark shouted at them, turning his attention to them. "Rhodes, I found where Magneto's got the folks from New York stowed away."
"Let's go get them, then."
"What about him?" Stark referred to Deadpool.
"I'll stay right here, I promise!" Deadpool smiled underneath his mask.
Stark and Rhodes exchanged looks.
"We can lock the doors to the command chamber and come back for him later." Rhodes suggested.
Stark made an accepting expression, turning to look at Deadpool. Rhodes looked at him as well.
"You can't keep me locked in here forever!" Deadpool threatened the both of them as they walked away, out of the chamber, closing the doors behind them.
Stark used his energy beam to melt the doors shut, keeping the merc with the insatiable mouth inside.
"You think it'll hold him up?" War Machine asked.
"I hope so. He's our lead to Fury after all."
The two Avengers took flight through the large corridors, seeking the stairs to head down to the dungeons to save the humans and lead them to safety before they even attempt destroying the island and stopping Magneto.
S.H.I.E.L.D. forces on the ground… (Hill, Coulson, and Storm)
The Marauder's detachment of S.H.I.E.L.D. troops landed on the ground in an area away from the front courtyard where the Avengers were still valiantly fighting the mutant forces that Magneto sent to keep them from entering the fortress. Based off of Avery's intel, most of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that were part of that assault have been killed.
Director Hill, Agent Coulson, and Storm led the small team of agents through the rocky mountain terrain to reach the fortress's western-most wall that was unwatched while the battle ensued. The plan was to scale the wall and get into the fortress grounds and find a way to help the Avengers out without fully exposing themselves.
"What are we going to do about the New Yorkers, Hill?" Coulson quickly asked, keeping up with her pace as they trekked through the sharp terrain.
"Before we left the Marauder, I called for the agents back at Camp Zero to send in the Tri-Carrier to come help extract everyone out before this island goes into space."
"You did what?!" Coulson was shocked. "Maria, you're willing to risk the faction's mobile command ship by sending it out here?!"
"Quiet down, Phil." Hill hushed him down. "The Tri-Carrier won't engage in any combat now that most of the island's defenses have been taken off-line."
"I hope you're right. The entire rogue S.H.I.E.L.D. faction could stand to fall if that ship does."
"A ship doesn't decide the hearts and minds of our agents, Coulson."
"Yeah but it sure as hell helps."
As they made their way through, Hill glanced upwards into the growing sky. The Marauder became stationary right in the way of the island. Although the ascent was steadily slow, they didn't have much time before the heli-destroyer would smash hull-first into the entire top-surface of the island, which may even crush parts of the fortress.
"We don't have much time left." Hill commented.
"I know." Coulson sighed.
Several minutes later, the agents made it to the high stone wall that separated the fortress grounds from the rest of the island. They could hear the loud sounds of fighting going on in the courtyard along with loud and monstrous roars.
"That sounds like the Hulk…" Storm softly commented.
"Let's make this quick!" Hill softly spoke into her communicator to reach all of her agents. "Grab your grappling gear and let's scale this wall."
The agents obeyed. All of them reached for their grappling hooks and launched them up from their grappling guns, getting a grip at the top. They began to scale the wall, stealthily getting to the other side, finally within the grounds. Storm used her powers and levitated up and over the walls.
"Okay team, let's make it to the ramparts at the courtyard and ready your special weapons." Hill instructed the agents.
"Special weapons?" Coulson curiously asked.
"Avery retrofitted their weapons with a special prototype tech that paralyzes lifeforms with mutant DNA."
"Ah, okay then."
"Since when did S.H.I.E.L.D. have access to that sort of technology?" Storm sternly questioned.
"Again, it's still a prototype from my understanding." Hill explained. "It's been in development for years, though."
"Would the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents stationed at Xavier's school have access to that sort of tech?"
"I'm not sure."
"Then you better hope they don't use it against our own students there." Storm threateningly told her.
Once ready, the agents moved out towards the ramparts to help the troubled Avengers. They had to be careful in navigating the grounds, since these "special" mutants that Magneto had deployed were attacking sporadically in all directions. They wanted to avoid a direct encounter as long as possible.
Finally, they reached the ramparts and they got the first-hand look of what was going on. About twenty or so specialized mutants with enhanced abilities were viciously fighting the Avengers on the ground and in the air, with the vast majority of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and the Phantom-like creatures dead and their bodies sprawled about the courtyard, painting the entire area scarlet in blood.
"My god…" Storm stated under her breath.
"No time to hesitate." Hill spoke and quickly moved the team across the rampart, positioning the agents to aim at the attacking mutants.
The agents now waited for her call to shoot them down…
On-board the Marauder… (Avery)
Avery took a deep sigh, staring into the monitors in front of him on his command terminal. The Marauder hovered directly above the rising island below them… and within the hour, it would hit them. Avery wasn't naïve, he knew that the Marauder wouldn't be able to stop the island… but at the least, it would buy the superheroes enough time to save the New Yorkers and stop Magneto and Reaper once and for all.
Avery then activated the ship-wide intercom from his command terminal, and addressed everyone on-board, one last time.
"Listen up, agents of the Marauder…" He started.
"Within the next hour, that damned island is going to hit our hull at full velocity, it's going to tear our shields apart, and it's going to tear apart the ship's integrity. I won't sugarcoat it, ladies and gentlemen, this is our finest hour. I don't know what the outcome will be, but this is where we will make our stand now.
"Remember the reasons why we separated from S.H.I.E.L.D., remember why we're fighting, and above all else, remember that we're not alone in the fight. If any of you don't wish to be on-board while we make our stand, you may leave now. If you stay, know all that it's been an honor to serve with each of you, and that we'll see this through, together.
"God speed." Avery finished.
He was met with applaud from the specialists that worked in the bridge. Avery nodded at them, keeping his eyes on the monitor, seeing how close the island was growing towards them, feeling a rush of nerves pulse through his body from what was to come.
"Divert our engines for a strong descent, specialists. We're going to exhaust what remaining fuel we have to ensure we can push back that god forsaken island." Avery finally ordered.
Inside the fortress… (Spidey's POV)
Spidey slowly opened his eyes to a blurred vision of the crashed interior of The Eidolon. He was lying on the cockpit floor, inclined downwards. It looked like the impact ripped the strapping of his co-pilot's chair, which had forced him onto the floor. He managed to get up, placing his hands on the control panel for support. Looking outside, he saw that they had crashed right into one of the darkened hallways of the fortress.
Jeez, what a crash landing. I won't lie, it felt awesome but holy cow the adrenaline rush is crazy!
Phantom was at his side, sitting in his pilot's chair, looking as though he was knocked unconscious.
"Phantom." Spidey whispered as he shook his shoulder. "Phantom, wake up."
The specter slowly began to regain consciousness, then instantly shot up to an awakened state, grabbing Spidey's collar and holding him at gunpoint with his pistol out instinctively.
Holy moly, calm the hell down, Phantom!
"So this is how my short life as the web-slinger ends, huh?"
"Sorry."
Phantom put his pistol away, tearing off the straps of his chair and carefully walking out of the inclined cockpit, Spidey followed.
Wolfe had fallen on top of Iron Fist's legs, who was knocked out sitting up at the corner of the metal wall separating the cockpit and the cabin. Both of the rear-side doors had broken off and the guns were damaged beyond repair. Powerman was sitting up in his cot, unconscious as well, but it was a surprise that the straps were able to hold him in.
However, neither Fox nor Tiger were in the cockpit.
Oh no, where are they?!
"Where's Tiger? Fox?" Spidey questioned, looking underneath the cots, but no dice.
"Shit." Phantom cursed. "They may have fallen out of the jet, take a look outside."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'll wake these guys up. We've got to get moving." Phantom answered, kneeling down to attempt to get Wolfe off of Iron Fist.
"Alright."
Of course he'd send me out into the creepy dark hallway by myself, not that I'm scared or anything!
Spidey leaned down and got out of the downed jet through the open rear-side, jumping onto the stone floor of the immense hallways with the ceiling four stories high. However, it was dark, with the only dim-light emanating from the fiery opening that The Eidolon blew through when it crash-landed.
He began to look around the wreckage, finally finding Fox lying about on her back near the nose of the jet, her white cloak having ripped off in the impact. He quickly rushed over to help her.
She looks like she hit the ground hard on her side when we landed… good thing she's got special powers to keep her from dying from something that would usually kill a normal human!
"Fox! Are you okay?" Spidey shook her shoulder. The mutate slowly opened her eyes and made an expression of pain, grabbing at her side as she got up.
"Spider-Man." She greeted him in pain. "Argh, damn it…"
"You all right?"
"I'll be fine." She assured him. "Just getting old is all."
He extended his hand and helped her up on her feet.
"Everyone still alive?" She then asked, shaking off the pain and taking a peek into the cabin of the downed jet, seeing Phantom wrestle Wolfe's heavy body off of Iron Fist.
"Good question!" Phantom grunted. "Wolfe's clearly still knocked out cold."
Is that… drool? Yep, that's drool just pouring out of Wolfe's mouth.
Fox climbed on-board to help Phantom while Spidey broke off to go looking for Tiger.
"Tiger, where are you?!" Spidey called out into the distance, walking past the smoke rising from the blown up engine. "Tiger?!"
"Spider-Man." He heard a faint and whispery voice speak in the distance, beyond the flames. "Spider-Man…"
"Tiger?!"
Why the hell is she calling me 'Spider-Man'? Wait a second…
"You're walking into your doom, Spider-Man." The voice spoke, this time, accompanied by the faint sound of people screaming. "Time is ticking…"
The screaming… Is that…
"R-Reaper?! Is that you?!" Spidey started looking around the wreckage and down the dark hallways. "You're not going to scare me!"
Looking down the dark hallway, a silhouette appeared several feet ahead of him, hooded with dark red glowing eyes staring back at him.
Holy shit…
"Your fear will be your downfall, Spider…" Reaper whispered, but this time, Spidey was hearing it inside of his head.
"No, no…"
"You're going to lose your precious White Tiger, Spider-Man…" Reaper chuckled. "Imagine a world where she stops loving you, where her allegiance is amongst the evil, where her heart is colder than ice itself. How does that sound?"
White Tiger? Ava? No, she can't… she shouldn't…
Get out of my head, Reaper… Get out!
"I'm not afraid of you!" Spidey loudly screamed into the hallway, shooting his electric webs at the specter, prompting Reaper to maniacally laugh and disappear out of sight right before the web-shot hit him.
Spidey looked around some more, but it seemed as though Reaper had left him alone.
That must be how Nova got taken control of… I didn't know Reaper's influence was so strong. I felt… compelled to believe him, even though I knew he was wrong. That was scary… I almost believed him.
"Pete!" He heard Tiger's familiar voice nearby.
"Tiger?!" He looked in the direction of her voice and ran towards it.
His heart dropped as he saw her. She had fallen behind the rear ramp of The Eidolon and the ramp was pinning her legs down onto the ground. She was struggling to get it off of her.
"Damn it… Why does this always happen to me?" Tiger grunted, using her strength to attempt prying the ramp off of her.
The damsel in distress cliché, maybe? Nah, comic-book characters are too classy for that.
Well, maybe.
"I got you, don't worry!"
With both Spidey and Tiger's combined strength, they were able to lift the heavy ramp off of her. He then helped her back on her feet.
"Thanks, web-head." Tiger gasped for air, embracing him shortly afterwards.
"Don't mention it." He held her close. "But, did you hear Reaper's voice just a moment before you called out for me?"
"Reaper?"
"Yeah, I saw him down the hallway!" Spidey pointed down in the direction where he had last seen the dark specter.
Tiger shook her head. "I didn't hear anybody, Pete. I called your name because I heard you yelling in the distance!"
"That's… really weird."
Yep, that confirms it. Reaper's trying to get into my head and turn my brains into a scrambled egg, targeting ME of all people. That's NOT going to happen.
Shaking off the ward of suspicion Spidey had about the encounter, he returned to the cabin of The Eidolon with Tiger to see that they were able to get Wolfe, Iron Fist, and Powerman out safely, waking them up.
"Argh." Wolfe growled, rubbing his furry head with his paw-like hand. "That was a shitty landing."
"You're telling me." Powerman cracked his neck and began massaging it. "I'm going to need to need to see the masseuse after this."
"Where are Nova and Firewalker?" Iron Fist curiously asked.
I had almost forgotten about them, still up there fighting those… weird looking mutants.
"Have we heard from them?" Phantom asked the group. They all took a look at their communicators, which was filled with static on the line.
"Something inside the fortress is blocking communications." Iron Fist solemnly stated. "We cannot reach them!"
It's probably all this metal that's coating the walls that's keeping us from communicating. It almost looks like Magneto purposely designed this place so that he can use his powers to do whatever he wants whenever he wants!
"I'm sure they're fine, that Nova kid seemed to be handling himself well against his prey." Wolfe huffed, sniffing about the area.
"We'll need to keep going." Tiger sighed, obviously disagreeing with herself... "Nova and Firewalker will have to join back up with us after they're done fighting."
"Very well." Phantom nodded, turning his direction to Spidey. "Spider-Man, what did you hear out here when you went to look for Fox and Tiger?"
Crap, he heard.
"What do you mean?"
"I heard you screaming out here, what was that all about?"
Time to play dumb, time to play dumb. There is no way in hell am I going to alert Phantom just for him to get all "babysitter" mode on me again.
Spidey was hesitant to answer the question for the moment, still a little shaken from what he had seen.
"Nothing, it was nothing. I was just yelling out for Tiger."
Phantom's masked expression indicated his disbelief in Spidey's lie. "You sure?"
"Positive."
I can see the whole 'you're a goddamn liar' expression just screaming out of his face right now.
Tiger subtly nudged Spidey on his shoulder, wondering herself why he didn't tell Phantom what he had seen. Spidey ignored her, avoiding to break eye contact with Phantom to keep him from being convinced that he lied.
"Who cares?" Wolfe grunted, grabbing his rifle bag from beneath his cot on-board The Eidolon, throwing it out at the feet of the rest of the team. "We've come all this way already so, let's smoke the son-of-a-bitch."
"Agreed." Phantom nodded, forgetting the subject, glancing about the hallways. "It's a shame S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intel couldn't get us a blueprint of the fortress. I didn't count on crash-landing in the middle of the fortress…"
*Whew*
"I can be of some assistance." Fox quickly spoke up as she inspected her katana sheaths for any tears in the leather. "I can use my clairvoyance to guide us to where Magneto is located."
"You can do that?" Powerman sounded surprised.
"I guess it's another side-effect of my mutated powers."
"Then, by all means, Fox." Phantom politely gestured for her to lead the way.
Fox walked forward, taking a deep breath and briefly stopping. Her eyes lit up in a white glow and she then slowly raised her right hand forward. From her hand, a white projection of light illuminated the area of the hallway in front of her. In that projection, a projection of Magneto walked through, as though he had been there previously.
Wow, that's super cool! I think Fox's powers might be just a little bit more convenient than Phantom's at this point.
"Follow me." Fox calmly instructed the rest of the team. She began to walk forward with her hand still raised in front of her, continuously projecting the ghostly image of Magneto walking through the hallway.
The heroes trekked through the darkness with Fox's clairvoyance as their guiding light in the mysterious hallways. Phantom walked alongside Fox with his pistols withdrawn to keep her protected as she used her power, Powerman and Iron Fist following closely behind.
Wolfe disappeared, cloaking himself and using the darkness as concealment to stalk behind the team and keep his rifle at the ready.
Spidey and Tiger trailed on a little behind the front four.
"Why didn't you tell him?" Tiger curiously whispered to Spidey, glancing around. "You should tell him that Reaper might be here!"
"Here's the thing, Tiger…" Spidey lowered his voice. "I think… Reaper might be trying to get into my head."
Do I think? No, I KNOW he's trying to at this point, not sure why. People tend to make me a bigger deal than I am for some reason, maybe that's why he wants my brains so badly.
"Why don't you tell Phantom then?"
"I don't want him to be worried, I can handle it!"
"You're being stubborn…"
If I had a nickel for how many times she says that…
"You know how he gets. I don't want him looking over my shoulder and still treat me like a kid. If Reaper comes after me, I can handle him."
Tiger gave him a blank expression through her mask.
"I just hope you know what you're doing, Pete."
"I hope so too…"
That means I have NO clue, folks, just winging it at this point. I'd rather fight Reaper head-on than to have to depend on Phantom the whole time.
In Magneto's Throne Room… (The X-Men)
Magneto finally regained control of his mind from Reaper's control, lashing out at Xavier in the process and sending the professor flying back closer to the entrance to the throne room. Catching his breath, Magneto levitated above his throne, staring his former rival down.
"It's over, Charles. There is no use in fighting!" Magneto staunchly stated. "Once this island reaches Earth's orbit, there is nothing you and your pathetic X-Men can do to stop me, there is no stopping the future of our race."
Xavier struggled to get up, using the strength in his arms to prop his wheelchair back up and sit back up on it.
"Reaper has poisoned your mind, Eric!" Xavier tried to reason with him. "Don't let him take control of you! You're better than this!
Magneto made a growling sound beneath his helmet, the glow of his eyes flashing a bright red. "Only I am in control!"
With that, Magneto used his powers to rip the metallic tiling on the ceiling and hundreds of sharp tile shards flying towards Xavier. In that split second, Xavier used his telepathic powers to gain control of Jean Grey's mind, prompting her to stop the shards with her telekinesis, stopping the sharp shards in their path, forcing them to drop in front of him.
"You're being used and you're allowing it to happen! The Eric I know would never resort to this level of insanity!"
"Enough!" Magneto angrily shouted, sending a small magnetic wave and toppling the metallic statues nearest to him.
In that moment, Xavier extended his telepathic influence to Wolverine and Cyclops' bodies, waking them up back to consciousness. Jean Grey lifted the chandelier off of her and quickly lifted the metallic statue off of Cyclops.
The X-Men re-grouped next to Professor Xavier.
"You've made a huge mistake, bub!" Wolverine brandished his claws as he stood between the professor and Magneto.
"Please, Eric, let this nightmare end!" Xavier pleaded as he made an attempt to access Magneto's mind, but as expected, it failed.
"It's only just begun, Charles."
Magneto then balled his hand into a fist, punching downwards and causing a magnetic shockwave to shake the entire metallic flooring of the throne room. In effect, a chain reaction ensued, sending a seismic wave that caused the entire throne room's flooring to cave in.
Jean Grey pushed Xavier behind the entrance doors to keep him from falling into the chasm, levitating herself from the fall. Wolverine stabbed the edge of the remaining ground right before falling in, Cyclops caught Logan's left boot in the process, breaking his own fall. As a result, Magneto tore a throne-room sized rift in the floor that opened out to the bottom of the island, out into the ocean below as the island continued to gain altitude.
"Damn it!" Wolverine grunted. "Do something, Summers!"
Cyclops held on with his left hand while he aimed his eyesight at Magneto, shooting off several optic blasts to keep the dangerous mutant at bay while Wolverine climbed up over the edge.
Magneto blocked the blasts by magnetically raising up slabs of metal from the walls in front of him, then throwing them towards Wolverine to try and knock him off. Jean Grey prevented this by keeping the slabs from hitting the two X-Men with her telekinesis.
At last, Wolverine was able to pull himself over the edge, helping Cyclops over as well. Magneto expressed a disgusted face towards them and escaped out through the large rift in the throne room and exited into one of the lower chambers of the island that became exposed as a result of the quake.
"We're going to need back-up…" Logan grunted.
In the courtyard... (Les Echets and the Avengers)
Les Echets were putting up a hell of a fight against the Avengers. Riptide led the charge and continued to send in his waves of liquid-like warriors from the deceased bodies of the agents and the Wraiths to attack the Avengers in all directions, specifically targeting Captain America. The first Avenger temporarily knocked him out by throwing his shield and hitting the mutate across the face, causing him to lose concentration and causing his liquid warriors to dissolve into puddles.
Behind the disorientated Riptide, Permafrost picked up the slack and instantly reanimated the liquid warriors into ice, sending them after Captain America once more, stronger now that they were frozen. Permafrost joined in on the fight and fought the Avenger with a frozen sword.
"Thor, might need a little help here!" Rogers called out, holding back an attack from Permafrost with his shield.
"These damned beings won't stop coming!" Thor yelled out as he tried to keep Echets, Aspect and Kinetic, at bay.
As Thor swung his hammer at Kinetic, the mutate was able to "catch" the electrical energy from the hammer and transfer it through Aspect by grabbing his hand. Aspect, being able to channel electricity, charged the electricity back to Thor, sending the Avenger flying backwards using the transferred energy from Mjolnir.
"Falcon!" Scarlet Witch called out into her communicator as she fought back Velocity and Geode with her chaos magic. "We need help!"
"You think I don't need help?!" Falcon cried back, trying to stay ahead of Valkyrie, who kept chasing the Avenger through the skies, successfully swiping his wings with her sword, causing him to slowly lose altitude.
"Grrraaaaaghhh!" Hulk roared as he swung Goliath across the courtyard and punching Moros in the stomach. "Hulk angry!"
"You can say that again!" Hawkeye shouted through the communicator, sounding out of breath. He ran the rocky hill overlooking the courtyard while shooting arrows at Dragonfly to keep her from grabbing him and dropping him several feet up in the air as she did to his fellow sniper agents.
Falcon crash landed near Captain America, his wings now out of commission. He quickly recovered and withdrew a set of pistols and began firing at the raging Aeolus, who vigorously advanced on him like a whirling construct of elemental air. The rounds passed through his body with no effect.
"Damn it, rounds don't affect you, huh?!" Falcon shouted as he paused to reload.
"Not in the slightest." Aeolus' chuckled in his wispy voice, swiping Falcon and throwing him across the courtyard.
"Wilson!" Rogers cried out, rushing towards his downed friend by retreating from the fight.
Permafrost chuckled. "It looks like the Avengers are just about done for…"
"Not if we can help it!" A female voice suddenly cried out from the ramparts.
Vision, still holding off Tombstone, glanced to see who it was. It was Maria Hill, accompanied by a whole team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with weapons pointed right at the mutates.
"Agents, fire!" Hill ordered.
Suddenly, the weapons shot out a bright beam of magenta energy right at Les Echets, which caused them to start screaming in pain, each and every one of them. Storm summoned up her weather-powered abilities and caused a small isolated electrical storm to surround the mutates. Bombarded by energy fire and blinding lightning, Les Echets began to retreat, screeching and yelling all the way back into the fortress, giving the Avengers enough time to recover from what had just happened.
Hulk angrily yelled at them as they retreated, punching the walls and the ground around him in rage.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with Hill and Coulson scaled down from the ramparts to re-group with the Avengers. They slowly proceeded in shock to see how many of their fallen brethren laid dead on the ground. Carefully, they did their best to avoid stepping over them.
"What the hell happened here, Rogers?" Hill questioned as she met up with him.
The tired Avenger grabbed his shield and placed it back on his back.
"Whatever those things are..." Cap pointed at the dead Wraiths on the ground. "They attacked us and blindsided our assault."
Some of the agents began to examine the dead Wraiths, using their special scanners to identify what kind of creature they are.
"They're of human DNA, director." One of the agents stated.
"Human?" Hill was confused. "That can only mean…"
"These must be the men and women Taskmaster kidnapped back in Manhattan." Coulson solemnly concluded what they feared. "It's the only possible answer. The creatures vary in shape and size. Some of them have remnants of mammary glands on their chests, which mean the women were used. Some of them have large craniums and smaller bodies, which mean the children were implicated."
"My god, what kind of monster is capable of doing this?" Scarlet Witch covered her mouth in shock.
"Monsters, Wanda." Coulson corrected her. "Magneto and Reaper."
"Let's go after those savages, then!" Thor suggested, adamantly raising Mjolnir to the sky. "Let us avenge those poor people before it's too late!
"Wait." Captain stopped him short, realizing a dark shadow was suddenly cast over the entire island. He looked up at the sky.
They watched now as the Marauder had now covered the sky with its large mass, growing closer and closer to impacting with the island, having been set in a collision course.
"What in the world?" Vision spoke aloud the question in everybody's mind.
"Avery's moving the Marauder in position to keep the island from gaining any further altitude." Hill informed them, looking up at the massive heli-destroyer along with them.
"That's… suicide." Rogers couldn't believe it. "Did you tell him that?"
"He knows that." Coulson assured him. "But, this is his call."
"Fools, all of them." Hawkeye spat out, appearing out of nowhere and walking towards them from the entrance to the courtyard.
The Avengers turned to face him.
"Where were you?" Scarlet Witch curiously asked. "We didn't get much cover fire back there!"
"I had to outrun that crazy flying mutant-bitch to keep from getting dropped down from the sky, that's where. And FYI, my men and I did give you guys cover-fire, I'm sorry we got viciously attacked back there, I'll make sure their bodies know they did a shitty job."
"Did any of your men survive?" Vision then questioned.
"What do you think? They'd be with me if they did." Hawkeye placed his bow to his back and withdrew an arrow, twirling it around in his hand. "Take a look around, their bodies are bound to be here somewhere."
"Where's Natasha?" Rogers curiously asked.
"Calm down, loverboy." Clint pointed up towards the ramparts. The Avengers quickly spotted Black Widow jumping down from the high walls.
She finally got down to the ground-level of the courtyard and began walking towards them, she looked like she had run into some of the mutates that attacked them as well with scrapes and bruises on her face.
"How are you faring?" Thor politely asked her.
"Not too bad, considering the situation." Natasha shrugged. "What's going on now? Are we going after them now or…?"
"Gee, thanks for asking me if I was okay, ass." Clint blurted out, scowling at Thor.
"I've radioed for the Tri-Carrier to come to our aid and evacuate the island." Hill informed them. "Avery's dead-set on using the Marauder as a last-minute delay to keep Island M within the atmosphere. With his ground forces practically decimated right here in the courtyard, we can only hope that Phantom and Spider-Man can make good on their part in taking out Magneto and Reaper."
"What do we do, then?" Rogers questioned. "We can't just not help them!"
"Stark and Rhodes are already inside attempting to find any survivors and the X-Men are already in there to help them fight Magneto. As for you all, our mission was to assault the fortress, and now that most of their ground forces have been killed off, we have to retreat. We can't afford to lose the Avengers up here." Coulson solemnly told them.
"Afford to lose?" Falcon skeptically asked. "We're Avengers, Coulson, this is what we do!"
"I know." Hill sighed. "But, this is Phantom and Spider-Man's fight now."
"This is bullshit, Hill." Hawkeye calmly defied. "You're placing the fate of the world in a bunch of teens and a group of specters?"
"If anyone can take down both Magneto and Reaper, it'll be them." Hill assured him.
In the dungeons… (Iron Man & War Machine)
The two Avengers glided through the small stone hallways that snaked around the sub-levels of the fortress like a labyrinth. Using the blueprint details from the computer, Stark was able to pin-point the human holding cell blocks. Upon arrival, they landed in the middle of two cell blocks.
Each cell's door was mysteriously opened and there were remains of what appeared to be a large group that had suddenly got up and escaped.
"What the hell happened here?" War Machine broke the silence, taking a peek into one of the cells.
"Any info on this, Friday?" Stark talked to his suit's AI, Friday.
"Bacterial build-up and evidence on the ground indicate that the prisoners of the cells were released and diverted to escape through the main exit, Tony." Friday responded in her thick-Irish accent.
"Who let them escape? How come we haven't run into them yet?" War Machine questioned.
"We'd be happy to answer that question for you, boys!" A sharp and ghastly female voice suddenly spoke from the darkness further down the cell blocks.
The iron-suited Avengers turned, weapons ready, to face Lady Deathstrike, one of Magneto's mutants, slowly approach them. She placed one foot in front of the other as she provocatively walked towards them, swaying her hips left and right while brandishing her long steel claws at them. She flipped her long black hair aside, revealing a rather beautiful face.
"Lady Deathstrike." Stark greeted her. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you're the prison warden for these cell blocks."
"So good, Mr. Stark." Lady Deathstrike placed her hands at her hips, stopping several feet in front of them.
"Where did the prisoners go?" Rhodes demanded.
"Lord Magneto did short work of them." Lady Deathstrike chuckled. "We used some of the Vitruvian serum that Reaper concocted and weaponized it in an aerosol. We flooded the courtyard with the pathetic humans and drowned them with it. As a result, an army of Wraiths were born. They are mutates much like the Phantom."
"So they're…. dead?" Stark was at a loss for words.
"Well, it looks like your fellow Avengers finished them off by now."
"No… that's impossible." Rhodes shook his head. "Y-you're lying!"
"I'm not." A cruel grin cast upon her face. "Unfortunately for you two, you won't live long enough to tell the tale…"
In that split second, Stark's helmet interface alerted him to a heat signature directly behind him. He quickly turned around and shot off several beams of energy at the large mass that came jumping out of one of the cells.
"Blargh!" the mutant known as Blob cried out in pain.
Just then, Lady Deathstrike took the opportunity ran somewhere into the cell block, disappearing out of sight.
"What the hell?!" War Machine took flight and began to shoot at Blob alongside Iron Man.
Blob ran down the cell block to avoid the energy beams, covering his face from the debris that was being blown out from the walls as a result. He began to take cover in the cells between energy attacks and use the fog of debris as concealment to evade the two Avengers as long as possible.
"Where did that fat boy go?!" Stark used his heat scanner to locate him, Rhodes landed next to him.
Suddenly, Lady Deathstrike, snuck up behind War Machine and slashed his right arm, severely damaging the energy weapon on that arm. In that split second, she tore off his shoulder-minigun.
"Rhodes!" Iron Man called out, taking aim at Lady Deathstrike and sending off streams of energy beams at her.
She quickly jumped off of War Machine and gracefully dodged the beams, taking cover in-between cells. War Machine now only had his left energy weapon to offensively use.
"Shit!" Rhodes cursed, his suit shutting down in order to repair itself.
Blob returned, grabbing Iron Man with a rear bear-hug and crushing him.
"Haha, I gotcha!" Blob laughed. "Stupid Iron Man!"
"Let go of me you fat… obese… freak!" Iron Man pleaded.
Lady Deathstrike revealed herself from her cover, slowly approaching the detained Iron Man.
"Well, pity we couldn't kill all of the Avengers." She taunted him, raising up her claws. "At least we'll be able to kill Mr. Tony Stark himself."
"Rhodes, a little help here!" Stark called out, squirming to escape Blob's bear-hug.
His suit's integrity was starting to get crushed, the armor plating beginning to crack and his weaponry damaging.
"I can't move, Tony!" War Machine called back.
Lady Deathstrike raised her hand, ready to slash the arc reactor to Stark's suit.
But, in that moment, War Machine's suit re-activated. He didn't hestitate, aiming his left hand energy weapon at Lady Deathstrike and unleashing the full strength of his energy beams at her. She quickly reacted and dodged the beams, out of the line of fire and running back into the darkness of the cell block.
Stark thought fast and swung his head back, hitting Blob square in the face with the metal of his helmet. Dazed, Blob quickly let go of his grip on Stark.
"That's what I'm talking about!" Stark cheered.
Iron Man quickly turned around and blasted Blob with the full force of what remaining energy he had left stored up in his energy weapons. The mutant came rolling back and smashing head-first into one of the cells.
"Should've gone on a diet, big boy." Stark taunted the mutant's lifeless body. He turned to see War Machine approach him with his damaged suit, scanning around for Lady Deathstrike.
"It looks like she's gone. But, my components all fucked up, Tony." Rhodes sighed.
"Friday, run a diagnostic on the War Machine, see if anything from our personal toolkit can repair it." Stark ordered the AI as he started to inspect Rhodes' suit.
"I think it's time you upgraded my suit, Tony."
"Yeah, yeah, I just have to clean out the bugs and you'll get it."
"Working on that new suit, aren't you?"
"It's going to be handy…" Stark commented. "…especially if there comes a time where we have to face off with Phantom."
Out of nowhere, War Machine's scanners detected a heat signature from behind Stark. He looked past Iron Man's shoulder to see Lady Deathstrike charge towards Stark at rapid speed with her claws readying to stab him through the back.
"Tony, move!" Rhodes grabbed Stark by the shoulders and shoved him out of the way, saving Iron Man by sacrificing himself.
Lady Deathstrike's claws pierced through War Machine's lower abdomen, sinking her claws in and grinning from ear to ear as she did.
"Rhodes, no!" Iron Man cried, watching War Machine's body fall backwards after Lady Deathstrike let go.
"Oooh, did I strike a nerve, Tony Stark?"
With tears rushing down his eyes, seeing his best friend's lifeless body on the ground, he trained his anger towards the mutant.
"You're going to pay for that!" Iron Man raised up his hands and began shooting several energy beams aimed right at her.
The mutant dodged each shot, blocking some of them using her claws and gracefully jumping in and out of cover to avoid getting hit. She did this all while trying to get closer to Stark so that she can go in for the killing blow.
Taking cover behind a stone pillar, Lady Deathstrike continued to taunt the Avenger.
"You have no idea what Lord Magneto has in store for you and the rest of humanity, Mr. Stark. The Avengers will all perish when the entire world attacks you for the parasite humanity is!"
"You know what." Iron Man took an aim at the stone pillar, charging up his energy beams with the full power of the arc-reactor. "I give zero shits what Magneto plans to do. So long as my Avengers and I stay breathing, you're all going to pay for what you've done to us."
Lady Deathstrike chuckled as she slowly began to turn around the pillar to strike at Stark. "Good, make your attempt to exterminate us, that's exactly what we want."
"Then that's all you'll receive."
She swiftly turned the pillar and pounced upon the Avenger, but she was too slow. Stark was already ready. He blasted her with the full force of the arc-reactor supercharged energy, burning through her skin cells and beyond, blasting a gigantic hole in the ceiling. She screamed as the blast disintegrated her entire body.
When it was all over, flicks of dust were all that remained of Lady Deathstrike.
"Good riddance." Stark murmured.
He turned and ran over to War Machine, who was profusely bleeding from where Lady Deathstrike had stabbed him.
"Tony…" Rhodes struggled to talk, coughing out blood from his mouth.
"Don't speak buddy, it's okay, we're going to get you out of here!" Stark ripped off the plating off the War Machine suit to assess the wound. "Friday, tell me what's hurt, now!"
"There are multiple puncture wounds that pierced clean through his lower abdomen, Tony. Major organs that have been severely damaged: Large intestine, lower intestine, stomach, and liver. Colonel Rhodes is losing blood at an alarming rate, Tony." Friday solemnly responded.
"No, no, no, no…" Stark began to panic, pulling out his field dressing and attempting to stop the bleeding, which had bled out into a pool of blood underneath of him.
"I'm going to get you out of here, Rhodes, buddy, I'm not going to let you die here!"
Rhodes reached out and calmly grasped Stark's arm.
"It's all right, Tony…"
"I need my War Machine, damn it!" Stark answered with tears in his eyes.
"Stop Magneto, Tony… Stop the… Reaper." Rhodes coughed out, his life-force fading away from his body as he closed his eyes.
"No, no!" Stark cried out, still making the attempt to heal the wound.
Several minutes passed, Stark packing the wounds to stop the bleeding, continuously checking his pulse and trying to shock his heart back into a beat.
"Colonel Rhodes is dead, Tony." Friday sadly stated. "I'm sorry."
"Damn it!" Stark punched the ground. "I'm going to avenge you, Rhodey, I swear it."
Stark removed the War Machine armor suit off of Rhodes and destroyed it. He then picked up Rhodes' body and took flight up and out of the cell blocks, flying out of the dungeons.
In the skies above the fortress… (Nova & Firewalker v. Firebird & Maelstrom)
Still fighting with each other above the fortress, Nova fought head-on in an energetic dogfight with Maelstrom around the fortress walls, avoiding the mutate's strong electrical and wind attacks while trying to keep him occupied with solar energy attacks.
Firewalker, on the other hand, was busy trying to keep Firebird's fireball attacks at bay. It was difficult because they both fought with fire-based attacks, which they were both resistant to. It came down to a cat & mouse chase.
Maelstrom clapped his hands together and formed a strong air-current that could be manipulated. He swung it around like a rope and was able to knock Nova out of flight between energy blasts, causing him to hit a roof on the fortress hard, helmet-first.
"Owwwwww…" Nova moaned. He massaged his neck and looked up at the levitating mutate.
"Surrender now to us!" Maelstrom shouted at him, holding up a charged electrical ball in his hand, ready to throw it at Nova like a baseball. "We won't submit to your demands of evil!"
"What the? Demands of evil?!" Nova was instantly confused. "Your boss is the evil one, dude! Not us! We're the good guys!"
"Don't lie to me!"
Maelstrom threw the baseball-sized electric ball. Nova ducked, keeping it from hitting him but caused an electrical shockwave to occur at whatever surface it ended up landing on.
"I'm not lying to you, damn it!" Nova held up his hand. "Let's talk, see? I'm talking to you right now, let's stop fighting for a second!"
"You're trying to trick me!"
"Nope!" Nova held up both of his hands now, slowly approaching the mutate.
Maelstrom held up another electrical ball, holding it but waiting to see what Nova would do.
"Talk?" Maelstrom was hesitant to trust him.
"Yeah, you know, parlay?" Nova assured him.
"Then, talk."
"Listen bud, I know you're working for Magneto and all but you don't seem like the average Brotherhood of Evil Mutants baddie, am I right?"
"Brotherhood of Evil… Mutants?" Maelstrom sounded confused. "I don't understand."
"Your leader, Magneto, is an evil mutant. He wants to kill all of us humans." Nova was surprised. "Don't you already know this? Or are you just playing stupid?"
"Kill all humans? I thought we were the good guys! I don't want to kill all the humans, I want to protect our home!"
"Oh boy. What kind of brainwashed kid have I just ran into?" Nova shook his head.
"Then, who are you? Are you a good guy?"
"I'm Nova, I'm working with Spider-Man and the Avengers to help stop Magneto's reign of terror."
"And we were… helping Magneto?!" Maelstrom finally came to the realization.
"Were you brainwashed or something? Memory wipe?" Nova tried figuring it out.
"All I remember was walking out of a very cold sleep, friend. Me and several others did. Magneto came to us and gave us our names and told us to attack you guys."
"So you have no idea who exactly Magneto is or what he represents?"
"I thought he was a good guy, I thought we were fighting our evil enemies." Maelstrom naïvely stated.
"Oh brother…" Nova sighed. "He's toying with all of you!"
"We need to tell the others then, Nova!" Maelstrom came to his senses. "If what you say is true, then we need to help stop Magneto before it's too late!"
"Let's go then!" Nova agreed, the both of them taking flight to alert the other Echets.
On the other side of the fortress, Firebird and Firewalker were practically dancing in a spectacular display of fire blasts aimed at each other. The provocative Latina sent array after arrays of fire at Firewalker, who ignited into a cloud of fire and back to a smoky form, returning the attack straight back to her.
"You know how to fight, girl, I'll give you that much!" Firewalker teased her, wisping away from her to get closer to the ground on the hill near the fortress courtyard.
Taking a glance up, Firewalker saw the immense mass of the Marauder closing up to the island.
"You're not too bad yourself there, boy."
Firebird swooped up to him and vigorously fanned his smoke, causing his form to circulate in a storm-like whirlwind and sending him crashing down to the ground below her.
It had no effect on him, since he ignited into fire on the ground, dissipating and reappearing in his regular fleshy self before her.
"Where are the rest of your friends?" Firewalker glanced over to the courtyard, where Les Echets were nowhere to be seen and he could make out the large green character of the Hulk standing with the other Avengers.
Firebird ignored him. "Where are yours?"
He chuckled. "Let's not play this game, darling. You're honestly too beautiful for me to want to hurt you. So what do you say? Be the flame to my burning heart?"
"I'm not sure whether to categorize that as corny, cheesy, or really lame." Firebird crossed her arms, softly landing a few feet in front of him on the ground.
She slowly walked towards him and stopped, then placing a hand on her curvy waist.
"I'm not even trying here, chica." Firewalker grinned underneath his hood, pacing around her, practically undressing her with his eyes.
"Well, let me know when you start." She coolly answered, keeping her eyes on him. "Don't take too long though, that guy Magneto kinda wants you and your friends dead."
"And you're here to make sure of that? Is there any way I can convince you I'm not worth needing to kill?"
"To be honest, I don't know why he wants you guys dead, but he seems to be all right, I guess." Firebird shrugged.
"Wait… that doesn't make sense." Firewalker shook his head. "What do you mean you don't know why he wants us dead?"
Suddenly, the other mutate that had attacked Nova showed up with Nova next to him. The young-looking domino-masked teammate of Firebird ran up to her anxiously.
"Firebird, stop! Don't kill him!" The mutate named Maelstrom pleaded.
"I was debating it." Firebird shot a suggestive look at Firewalker, who answered with a sly grin.
"These guys are the good guys, they're here to stop Magneto. He's the real bad guy here, trust me!"
"What makes you so sure that they're the good guys, Maelstrom? What makes you want to be the good guy here?" Firebird skeptically questioned, crossing her arms and eyeballing Nova.
"Why should we be evil, Firebird? Whoever… whatever we are, we shouldn't be fighting for someone who wants to kill all of humanity!" Maelstrom did his best to make the situation sound extremely dire.
"That does sound bad." Firebird's sarcasm was easy to detect.
"Oh come on, let's at least bring this up to the others. It looks like they ran back into the fortress!" Maelstrom still tried to convince her.
Firebird sighed. "I don't know, dude."
"Trust us, we're not here to destroy you guys." Nova stood next to Firewalker. "We're here to save the humans that Magneto took from us, we're here to stop him from trying to kill off humanity and start a war that'll cost so many lives."
"Can we talk to the others, at least?" Maelstrom continued to ask.
"Fine." Firebird caved in, looking back at Firewalker. "We're not done."
"I was hoping it wasn't." Firewalker smiled, keeping his eyes glued to her rear as she and Maelstrom flew off towards the interior of the fortress.
"Alright, Casanova, enough flirting, we've got work to do." Nova shook Firewalker's shoulder to bring him back to reality.
"Ah, a Latina after my own heart."
"Ha, so that's how the web-head must've felt with Ava." Nova snickered. "Come on, Firewalker, let's go re-group with the others."
In the sub-levels of Magneto's fortress… (Phantom's POV)
The air got colder, cold enough for the heroes to be able to see their breath the higher the island was getting in altitude. With lack of oxygen becoming abundant, the fire in the dungeons died out, leaving them to have to traverse the lower levels in pitch black darkness. Luckily for them, White Fox's clairvoyance illuminated their path with the guiding light they needed.
"How much further, Fox?" Phantom curiously asked, keeping his eyes open as they walked by empty chambers.
"We're almost there, Phantom. It seems Magneto escaped to a large central chamber within these corridors."
I wonder what he's doing there. I would've assumed that he would've gone out to hunt us down on his own, but he seems to be biding his time until we go to HIM.
"It seemed that you gave us the run-around back upstairs, did Magneto move rooms or something?" Powerman questioned.
"I believe so. I sense a great deal of telepathic energy being channeled throughout the fortress right now. Professor Xavier is probably trying to locate Magneto as well. It's only a matter of time before we run into the X-Men."
"Good, we will need their help against this mutant." Iron Fist commented with confidence.
Definitely. They have experience in dealing with him before, it'll surely help us here.
"Guys, can we address something before we go on this super-climatic showdown with Magneto?" Spidey quickly pointed out.
The group stopped and all looked at him.
"Well, speak up then, spider." Wolfe gave him a hardy pat on the back that nearly knocked the wind out of him.
"Alright then, Phantom, remember when we faced off with Taskmaster back in Manhattan? Remember how he used these machines to generate an electromagnetic field that made you really weak? Magneto has the ability to generate electromagnetic fields, doesn't he?"
Phantom nodded.
"So, what if Magneto ensured your weaknesses to be specific to his powers and abilities? You'll be walking into your doom at this point, man."
I already knew that Magneto made our weaknesses unique. He's going to use it against us, this is expected. There is nothing we can do about that now. We're not going to let that stop us from making the attempt to stop him.
"That's exactly what he did, Spider-Man." Phantom agreed with him. "I did my research on the Athena-Class Projects, he purposely made our weaknesses to electromagnetic fields so that we could never best him."
"That's why they have us, webhead." Powerman pointed out. "We outnumber him, we should be good."
"Don't underestimate the tyrant." Phantom warned. "Magneto is possibly the most dangerous mutant on the planet. He's not going to go down quietly. We just need to work together as a team, effectively, to outmaneuver him and outsmart him. He can only fight off so many of us at once."
I won't discount the fact he's just as smart as Xavier, either. He might detect that we're attempting to outmaneuver him and might possibly cave the whole chamber in just to kill us all. It's possible.
"Don't sweat it, webs, we've faced off worse before." Tiger tried to lighten the mood.
No, you haven't. Not like this. Not like him.
"Wait a second." Wolfe began sniffing the air around them, following his nose closer to a corner that led to another hallway. "I smell something."
"Wolfe…" Phantom spoke. "Don't attack something without…"
"Aha! I found you!" Wolfe physically attacked whoever was around the corner.
He grabbed the person by the shoulders and pushed him to the floor. Then, he was suddenly taken a hold of by an invisible force and shoved backwards onto the wall opposite the corner.
The others ran in to see who he had attacked: Wolverine and the X-Men.
"Damn it, couldn't you see that it was me?!" Wolverine angrily asked Wolfe, who was getting back up after getting knocked backwards by Jean Grey's telekinesis.
"I didn't know, I just followed my instincts, Logan!"
"It was those kinds of instincts that almost got you killed in the Yukon, Bruce!" Wolverine growled at Wolfe. "Better tone that down."
Ah, a friendly reminder that Wolverine and Wolfe have crossed paths before in Canada.
"Whoa, whoa, let's all calm down here." Powerman stood between the two.
"Yes, let's not get in a fuss here." Professor Xavier came rolling out behind Jean Grey and Cyclops. "Phantom, Spider-Man, so good to finally meet back up."
"I had sensed that you all would end up here. Did you four run into Magneto earlier?" Fox asked them.
"Yeah, we did." Cyclops answered. "We cornered Magneto into his throne room but he was too strong, too unpredictable."
"He made short work of us, goddamn it." Wolverine cursed.
"What happened?" Tiger curiously asked.
"He caused a seismic wave as a result of a magnetic force-wave that shook the metal of his throne room." Jean Grey explained. "It pretty much tore a hole into the island."
"That does not sound good." Iron Fist sounded surprised. "Imagine what he can do with the whole island?"
Besides having it slowly ascend up into the atmosphere?
"Let's try not to think about that." Spidey gulped.
"We're currently tracking him with the help of White Fox here, he should be located in one of the chambers down here." Phantom informed the X-Men.
"Interesting." Xavier glanced at Fox. "And what kind of power is it that you're using to achieve this, my dear?"
"I call it, clairvoyance." Fox politely answered. "It gives me the ability to see what's already happened in an area, following footprints, re-creating recent events."
Imagine what kind of superhero would just enjoy having those kinds of detective powers. Commissioner Gordon would be proud.
"Fascinating." Xavier sounded more interested in her powers.
"Magneto, professor." Wolverine steered the professor's train of thought back to the present situation.
"Right. Well, I believe there may be a way to successfully subdue my age-old rival without necessarily killing him." Xavier stated.
I can't possibly fathom how naïve Professor Xavier is when it comes to keeping his arch-enemy alive. I understand they were both once the best of friends but…
Phantom gritted his teeth and subtly shook his head, catching Xavier's attention.
"Problem, Phantom?"
"I do not intend to leave Magneto alive." Phantom sternly stated. "He is too dangerous to be kept alive."
"That's not what you truly believe, is it?" Xavier began to read through Phantom's thoughts. "You want to exact revenge on what's been done to you… starting with Magneto."
Stop looking through my thoughts, Xavier.
Phantom ignored him.
"I agree. Magneto should be put six-feet under if we can." Wolverine added. "He's been nothing but trouble all these years."
"He's being influenced, can't you see? The Reaper is responsible for all of this, he's responsible for making Eric think the way he is now." Xavier tried pleading with him.
No, Reaper fed on the hatred Magneto already had for humanity. It wasn't exactly hard for him to influence Magneto into committing these atrocities.
"I don't care." Phantom coldly answered.
"I see…. Then, may I still suggest my alternative?"
"You may, professor." Phantom allowed it.
The man is much older than I am, more experienced. I won't disrespect him by keeping him silent.
"Thank you. We'll need to be able to distract Magneto long enough to be able to remove his helmet off of his head. A task easier said than done. Once removed, his mind will be open for me to control and in effect, we can force him to stand down, and perhaps even influence him to fight the Reaper alongside us."
"A bit of a stretch, don't you think?" Spidey skeptically asked.
Very.
"It's the only plan we have." Jean Grey vouched in. "What we must remember is that Magneto is fighting for the rights of mutants. The professor's telepathy is strong enough to be able to influence Magneto to go against all of the actions he's done now. That helmet is purposely designed to prevent that kind of power to penetrate the mind of whoever wears it."
"Reaper's come close, however." Xavier pointed out. "I've seen the strong influence Reaper has over Eric, it can potentially take over should the helmet come off, and that's why we must be ready once it happens."
That's the larger risk of this whole plan. I KNOW Reaper is keeping a very close eye on us, waiting for us to come to him, waiting for us to do the work of taking out Magneto for him.
He's holding my daughter hostage somewhere here… but so long as we stay on this island, he's got nowhere to run.
Phantom took a deep sigh. "If we do decide to keep Magneto alive, professor, I'm going to place you responsible to ensure Magneto is given the justice he deserves for all he's done."
"You have my word, Phantom."
"Very well. In that case, we'll go along with your plan. We'll enter the chamber and my specters will go invisible and Wolfe should be silent enough to sneak behind Magneto and remove his helmet before we get into a violent skirmish."
"You really don't expect it to go that simple, do you?" Powerman skeptically questioned.
"I don't." Phantom agreed. "When things go haywire, we'll need to fight him long enough to remove the helmet."
"Once the helmet is removed, I'll quickly train my telepathy into Eric's mind. He'll cease all voluntary actions and I'll be able to protect him from Reaper's grasp." Xavier explained.
It's a long-shot, but we can make it work.
With the plan in tow, the superheroes, led by Fox's clairvoyance, trekked through the sub-levels together, getting closer and closer to the main chamber where Magneto lied in wait.
Main foyer of the fortress… (Les Echets)
After being violently attacked by whatever weaponry those agents had, Les Echets retreated back into the main foyer behind the grand doors that led out into the courtyard, gathering themselves, re-collecting what they had just witnessed.
"Blasted damnation!" Riptide angrily slammed his bolo staff to the floor, nearly smashing it. "I don't know what kind of powers this vermin have against us, but they're not getting past us here!"
"It wasn't an easy fight, that's for sure." Ember added. "I hope we didn't disappoint Magneto by retreating back. We killed off most of their men."
"We didn't kill the Avengers, however." Aeolus concluded in his wispy voice. "We need to attack them head-on, stop them directly and fight past this power those people had in their weapons."
"And risk getting ourselves killed?" Tectonic questioned. "Come up with a better conclusion, why don't you?"
"How about starting with throwing you off this island?" Aeolus threatened. "Don't tempt me, boy."
"Please, let's not argue here." Mercury stepped in. "Let's state the truth here. We don't know why we're even fighting here. Let's speak to these Avengers, see what they're here for. Maybe they have reason to be here. Maybe we can help them?"
"And betray Magneto?" Valkyrie sounded offended. "You're naïve, woman."
"Mercury's right." Kinetic concurred. "What the hell are we even fighting for?"
"To survive, you little turd!" Goliath shouted at him. "The whole bunches of you questioning Magneto are all ungrateful shits! You see the power we hold in our hands? All Magneto has asked of us is to help him and you throw back his kindness in his face!"
"Nobody is questioning him. It just doesn't make sense to us." Permafrost pitched in.
"Oh no, not you too, Permafrost." Riptide disapproved.
"Well, what do you think, Moros?" Aeolus directed his question.
"Magneto awakened us from our sleep. If the Avengers weren't kind enough to awaken us and give us purpose or a chance for peace, then they are our true enemy. They fight us to erase our existence, no matter what side of the field Magneto lies in." Moros responded in his fear-inspiring voice.
Tombstone nodded in agreement.
"So you pretty much agreed to be Magneto's puppet, even if he's using us?" Velocity pointed out.
"Don't speak against the truth, bastard!" Riptide silenced him.
"Bastard? This is coming from the guy who woke up from the same test-tube as me?"
"You want to fight me for your honor?" Riptide offered.
"Wait! Stop!" A voice called out from one of the hallways leading into the foyer.
Les Echets turned to see Maelstrom flying towards them with Firebird behind him.
"Where was this runt?" Goliath murmured.
"Stop! Please!" Maelstrom landed in front of them, catching his breath. "My friends, the Avengers, those men outside, they're not our enemy."
A few of them snickered amongst themselves.
"Okay, Maelstrom, we'll bite, why aren't they our enemy?" Ember sarcastically asked.
"I spoke with one of them. His name was Nova. He told me that Magneto is using all of us! He's trying to kill all of humanity, he's the evil one!"
"What the hell? What's he blabbering all about, Firebird?" Valkyrie questioned the Latina.
"Look, I'm not saying he's a hundred percent right, but listen to him. He's not wrong, either." Firebird spoke out. "I wouldn't trust Magneto until we found out just what kind of a person he is. Just because he woke us up from whatever we came from doesn't make him our savior."
"Ungrateful bitch." Goliath grunted.
"Excuse me?"
"She has a point." Tectonic agreed.
"This… this is blasphemy!" Riptide shouted out again. "You're all making yourselves enemies of Magneto!"
"How thick-headed do you need to be to not see that Magneto is using us?!" Geode commented. "We need to be on the right side, not the bad side!"
"How about we just don't involve ourselves, eh?" Tinker spoke, breaking his eerie silence and a change-up from his fidgety self. "I propose we neither fight for nor against Magneto."
"That just makes you a coward!" Goliath continued rambling.
"There is no pleasing you." Kinetic shook his head at Goliath.
"Enough." Moros silenced the chatter. "I will not ally myself with enemies of Magneto. If we truly are in allegiance with him, then we will go to him, fight for him. We will depart to our separate ways, then."
Tombstone nodded in agreement.
"Those in favor of defiance against Magneto..." Moros called out.
Maelstrom quickly shot his hand up, followed shortly by Flurry, Aspect, Mercury, Velocity, Geode, and Kinetic. Permafrost, Firebird, and Tectonic hesitated to raise their hands, but ultimately did.
"You disappoint me, truly, Permafrost." Riptide gritted his teeth. Permafrost ignored him.
"Those in favor of allegiance with Magneto…"
Riptide's hand shot up, followed by Titan, Goliath, Ember, Aeolus, Valkyrie, and Dragonfly. Moros and Tombstone raised their hands up last after counting out who did.
"Nothing from you, Tinker?" Moros questioned.
"Nay, I will not partake in this fight."
"Coward." Goliath murmured.
"Fine. So we shall part ways." Moros stated. "Tombstone here has located our leader, Magneto, within this fortress, so we shall follow him and see what else our leader needs us to do."
"And the Avengers?" Riptide questioned.
"We'll let those standing against Magneto face them." Moros grinned.
Riptide chuckled.
"See you on the other side of the battlefield, ingrates." Goliath taunted them as he walked off.
The mutates that sided with Magneto stalked off into the interior of the fortress, leaving those who stand against him in the foyer by themselves, officially breaking apart Les Echets.
"I hope you're right about this, Maelstrom." Velocity commented, crossing his arms.
"I hope so too, guys."
Suddenly, the two superheroes that Maelstrom and Firebird had fought earlier came flying in through a side door from the foyer that led to the roof. The golden-helmet of Nova was distinguishable, followed by the fiery cloud that was the ignited form of Firewalker.
"Nova!" Maelstrom greeted him. "…and fire-man?"
"Firewalker." Firewalker corrected him. "…Fire-man, what kind of cheesy-ass name is that?"
"Well, well, well, more of you." Nova spoke to Maelstrom while glancing at the other mutates. "Is this everyone?"
"No, half of us separated from our group just now because we couldn't come to the agreement as to whether or not to ally ourselves with Magneto." Mercury explained. "We chose against Magneto."
"Good choice." Firewalker stated. "Magneto is trying to bring doom to everyone, folks."
"How can we be of service, then?" Flurry politely asked Nova.
"Well…" Nova looked at Firewalker, who shrugged.
"We just spoke with the Avengers." Nova stated. "They're evacuating the surface of the island since the Marauder is about to hit us."
"The Marauder?" Kinetic questioned.
"We'll explain all the stuff you guys don't know, in time." Firewalker answered. "But first…"
"I located the rest of our team in the lower levels of the fortress…" Nova looked at his communicator. "We're going to go down there and help them fight Magneto…so I please ask of you to help us. Once we stop him, we'll stop Reaper, stop this island from flying higher, and go home and eat some bomb barbeque!"
"Bomb-barbeque?" Geode didn't get the slang.
"We've got a lot of work to do…" Firewalker chuckled. "Let's go."
In the hallway leading to Les Echets chamber… (Spidey's POV)
"There." Fox stopped several feet in front of a steel door. It looked like it was frozen now that the island was higher up.
"Good." Phantom studied the door from afar. "Wolfe, Fox, ready your gear."
Wolfe happily obliged, checking his rifle and ensuring it's loaded up and ready to fire. Fox withdrew her katanas and loosened her muscles by swinging a few practice swipes.
The X-Men stood by, with Cyclops waiting on the order to break the doors open with his optic blasts.
"You guys ever notice that there is always a build-up of suspense right before we go after the 'boss'?" Iron Fist curiously asked the rest of Spidey's team.
Meh, I've noticed it in every story I've ever read, in every movie I've ever watched, you just get used to the whole end-boss battle. It's romantic after all!
"That's how it usually ends up, Danny." Powerman let out a small chuckle. "I hope bucket-head shows up before we go in, though."
"I hope they're okay." Spidey sighed, referring to both Nova and Firewalker.
Again, I start another fight without the help of my friends, this gets annoying.
"Sam can handle himself, he always has." Tiger assured them all. "You know his over-confidence keeps him alive even in the most impossible situations."
"You can say that again. But, I'd rather have him here than in trouble by himself." Luke solemnly added.
So true, I can't imagine any situation where Nova hasn't used his cockiness to outsmart our enemies.
"I am still wondering whether or not the Avengers will show up." Danny began looking around.
"Don't hold your breath. If they're not here right now, I doubt it." Luke commented. "Maybe they got caught up?"
"I hope so, otherwise, we're screwed if we can't take out Magneto and Reaper here." Spidey shrugged.
They're the Avengers, they've saved Earth from an alien invasion and a maniacal AI embedded in a robot, they'd be of GREAT help here!
"Bah, we'll be fine." Luke confidently told them, even if they all knew that it won't be that easy.
Tiger then pulled Spidey aside.
"You ready, web-head?"
"Not really, but…"
"Shhh…" She placed her finger on his lips. "Don't let the others know that."
"I'm pretty sure they already know that."
"Yeah but you're their leader, Pete. They look to you for that encouragement, even in the impossible. I know you won't let us down."
"Thanks, Ava."
She smiled, sliding her mask off over her forehead and tenderly kissing him. "I love you, Peter."
He grinned.
"I know. I love you, too."
Like that Han Solo quote I tried pulling off there? Ava would slap me if I didn't say it back, though.
Phantom snapped his fingers, calling to silence them.
"Let's go." Phantom quietly ordered them.
On cue, Cyclops unleashed a strong optic blast, destroying the steel door with the lightning splash of red energy. Wolfe and Fox disappeared out of sight. Wolfe had taken off the fur cloak that covered his upper body and used his surroundings to conceal the rest of his body.
Spidey's heart racing, they stepped forward into the chamber, Phantom and Xavier leading them.
Here…goes…nothing…
They walked into a very large chamber, which looked more like a museum exhibit than anything else. It had large and medium-sized podiums which looked like they had recently been melted based off the frozen ice next to them. There was a set of stairs that led into a lower floor that remained open and visible from the level above.
In the middle of the lower floor, stood Magneto on one of the podiums, watching them as they walked in. Amused, he began to slowly clap, jumping off the podium and pacing about it.
"Bravo, bravo." Magneto chuckled. "At long last, the all elusive Phantom finally joins me in the epic finale of his story. And here he is now, allied with my lifelong friend, Charles Xavier. My, my, what a fantastic ensemble of heroes we have here today."
"This has gone long enough, Eric." Xavier spoke out from his wheelchair. "With Phantom's help, we're going to end your reign of terror, once and for all."
"You place much confidence and trust in your new ally, Charles. Is that so wise?"
"I've learned to place my trust in people more carefully, Eric, especially after your betrayal all those years ago."
"I see that you've faltered now in placing that trust with the Phantom, then." Magneto continued. "Tell me, ladies and gentlemen, how much do you exactly know about this mutate? About my 'perfect' creation?"
"We know enough." Spidey spoke out. "He's a good man with good intentions."
"Ah, perfectly stated, so, Spider-Man. But what kind of intentions does he have? He's seeking revenge, that much is true, but little does the audience know… the man is destined for a greater, much more sinister goal."
"What are you talking about?" Phantom questioned.
Ah, crap, he's talking about the Phantom and Reaper connection.
"I know something that you don't, my ghostly friend." Magneto grinned underneath his helmet, halting his pacing and staring directly at Phantom. "See, Phantom, your true enemy doesn't lie with me, it lies with your counterpart… Reaper."
"He is not my counterpart."
"On the contrary, he's more alike to you than you know." Magneto assured him. "What if I were to tell you that I alone am not solely responsible for your transformation? What if I were to tell you that everything that has ever happened in your life has been orchestrated to follow a specific path so that you would end up here, as the Phantom?"
"I'd say you've gone insane."
Orchestrated? I didn't know that… Is it possible that Magneto's dictated Phantom's life all the way until now?
Magneto chuckled. "Perhaps… but, how would one have possibly known that you would be the perfect candidate for the Vitruvian Project? How is it that I knew you were going to volunteer for the project? Why do you think I acquired the aid of S.H.I.E.L.D.? I wanted you."
Phantom began shaking his head. "You're lying."
"Don't listen to him, Phantom. He's trying to manipulate you." Xavier quietly told him.
He might just be telling him the solid truth here, Professor X… with a little embellishments, I'm sure.
"I knew about you since before your conception, Phantom. I watched, I waited, I sent my mutants to keep a close eye on you. I ensured you grew up a very specific way. I ensured that you would fall in love with the woman of your dreams. I ensured you lived a specific lifestyle that would ultimately dictate your morals, your ideals, who you are, what you believed in. I ensured that not one variable differed…"
"From what?!" Phantom's patience was stretched thin.
Magneto didn't answer, pacing about the podium again.
"I'll let Reaper answer that for you. The two of you have a lot more to talk about than I do with you. I was merely the vehicle, the conduit that ensured that your existence would help elevate mutant-kind to a greater existence. But, my fellow mutants continued to be hunted and persecuted by the treachery of this human-controlled planet.
"So, Reaper suggested a new solution, why not elevate mankind to the status of mutates? Their children would be born as mutants by giving them a specific DNA strand. In order to keep them from questioning my rule, we inhibited their brains, we ensured that they would never question me and that they would never fight against me.
"The Athena-Class Projects weren't the only experiments we tested this theory on. There were many others, Ares-Class, Ouranos-Class, Hephaestus-Class, and so on. But they were based off of other formulas that all concluded in failures. But, I still found use for them, despite their powers of free-thought. We cryogenically placed them in a stasis, keeping them here, this this chamber.
"'Les Echets', Reaper called them. Failures. Just like you, Phantom, you and your pathetic Specter Haven."
"I've brought them here to exact their revenge on you, Magneto. You destroyed our lives!"
"Have I not strengthened your resolve in the process?" Magneto grinned ear to ear. "I know you didn't truly want that administrative career after working in the field for the military and S.H.I.E.L.D. all those years, you loved it. Action was all you loved doing. But, your wife nagged about how long you would be gone, about how this career was ruining your marriage. You were ready to give all of that up, for a woman who didn't bother to wait for you to return from death."
"Hey, you're starting to pull strings on personal crap, Magneto!" Spidey stepped forward, next to Phantom.
Got to stand up for my friend, Phantom, see?
"Ah, and so the 'amazing' Spider-Man steps up to the plate." Magneto laughed. "You, an immature teenager with a doomed infatuation with one of your teammates. You better step aside, Spider-Man, let the grown-ups do the talking."
Whoa, whoa, whoa! I have you know I passed most of my classes with an average B! Watch your tone there, señor hot-sauce!
"Don't talk to him that way!" Tiger shouted, Spidey having to hold her back from pouncing on Magneto.
Magneto ignored her.
"But, I see your eyes filled with the thirst to kill me, Phantom. Who am I to deny anyone that satisfaction? However, when I win and when I kill you, I'll make sure Reaper completes his little science experiment on your daughter, and then we'll have an even better Phantom at our side, serving as our little personal assistant."
Spidey noticed Phantom ball his fists in anger, slowly charging up the electricity in his bracers.
I'd be bloodthirsty pissed right now too…
"Yes, let your anger flow through you, Phantom." Magneto smiled.
Suddenly, in a split second, everyone watched as Wolfe re-appeared out of thin air several feet behind Magneto, with his arms wide open, ready to swipe the helmet off of him. However, Magneto spotted the mutate's reflection upon the steel in the walls, side-stepping and allowing the mutate to fall forward onto the ground. Just then, Phantom disappeared into thin air.
"Pathetic!" Magneto shouted, grabbing Wolfe's rifle off of his back and throwing it across the room with his powers.
He levitated himself up into the air. "Come, face your maker!"
Magneto unleashed an electromagnetic field upon the entire room, causing Phantom, Wolfe, and Fox to re-appear and start crouching down in pain, unable to move, or fight.
"X-Men! Stop Magneto from emitting that electromagnetic field!" Xavier ordered, wheeling back towards the entrance to the chamber. "And for God's sake, get that helmet off of him!"
Spidey swung forward, trying to web up the helmet off of Magneto, but the mutant spotted him too quick, ripping a metal panel off the wall and throwing it at Spidey, swatting him out of the air and crashing down to the ground.
Damn it! I almost had him!
Cyclops began shooting off optic blasts at Magneto, but they were being blocked off by the electromagnetic field, keeping any energetic attacks at bay. Jean Grey created a force barrier in front of Professor Xavier, to keep the quaking chamber from caving in from the sheer force of Magneto's attacks. Wolverine attempted to leap forward with claws spread open to take down Magneto from behind.
Magneto quickly spotted Wolverine and simply needed to push him back with his magnetism against Wolverine's adamantium skeleton.
Tiger tried doing the same, attacking seconds after Wolverine was pushed back, but Magneto had another panel of steel come protect him right before she was able to slash him with her electric claws, throwing her against the steel wall opposite of her.
"Give me a throw, Powerman!" Iron Fist shouted.
"What?!"
"Just throw me!" Iron Fist demanded.
Powerman obliged, grabbing Iron Fist by the waist and launching him upwards to Magneto at a rapid speed. Magneto attempted to stop him but was stopped too late, Iron Fist charged up his fist and punched Magneto square across the face, causing him to lose concentration and temporarily stop the electromagnetic field.
That was… awesome! Score one for Iron Fist making the first punch to Magneto!
Wolfe recovered first, growling and racing to his rifle, quickly propping it up on his shoulder and began firing off hollow-point rounds at the mutant at a rapid pace.
"Die you son-of-a-bitch, die!" Wolfe shouted.
I expected more cursing in that sentence.
Magneto had no issue deflecting the rounds as they shot off towards him. Annoyed, he levitated closer to Wolfe to crush him with the steel walls around the mutate. Suddenly, Fox jumped up and slice a perfect swipe against Magneto's chestplate, ripping through the armor and slashing the flesh underneath.
"Gargh!" Magneto cried out in pain, concentrating on Fox and unleashing a smaller field of electromagnetism upon her, causing her to drop her katanas in pain.
From behind him, Phantom reappeared out of thin air and slashed Magneto down his back with his sword. Enraged, Magneto turned and pushed down a larger electromagnetic field upon both him and Wolfe, but Phantom fought back.
He unleashed the full electrical power of his left bracer to fight back against the electromagnetic wave. Both energies hitting each other at full force and causing electrical charges to spark out and causing panels of metal to start flying around like a tornado around the chamber.
Magneto bested Phantom's powers and shoved him backwards, maiming Specter Haven in an electromagnetic field once more.
Recovered, Spidey and his team went after Magneto once more.
Spidey snuck up behind Magneto and webbed up his back, pulling backwards and causing the mutant to fall back first onto the floor and be temporarily disabled by being webbed to the ground.
Tiger took the open opportunity and jumped up on his chest, vigorously attacking his chest-plate with her electric claws to attempt breaking it further and opening up a vulnerability.
Magneto quickly recovered, ripping off the webbing and shoving Tiger off of him. As he levitated back up, Powerman rushed in and grabbed him by his cape, swinging him back down and punching him hard in the abdomen.
The power of my team, booya!
He quickly pulled together panels of metal off the walls again and crushed them into a giant fist, launching it forward against Powerman and knocking him off, taking aim at Iron Fist, who was racing towards him with another powerful punch attack. He quickly launched the steel fist at Iron Fist, dispatching him as quickly as he did Powerman.
Cyclops sent another barrage of optic blasts, but Magneto, continuing to hold-out his own, started to grab the steel podiums and began throwing them at him. Unable to escape, Cyclops got buried in a pile of the heavy podiums.
"Summers!" Wolverine cried out, targeting Magneto once more.
This time, Magneto lifted up Wolverine before he even had a chance to attack and levitated him in front of him up in the air.
"This is futile, Logan." Magneto taunted him, throwing him upon the pile of podiums that was crushing Cyclops.
Les Echets chamber… (Phantom's POV)…
Suddenly, a strong force-like field shoved Xavier and Jean Grey forward from the entrance, causing Xavier to fall off his wheelchair and knocking out Jean Grey.
Magneto turned to see Les Echets, Titan, Goliath, Riptide, Ember, Aeolus, Valkyrie, Dragonfly, and Moros, all being led by Tombstone into the chamber.
"Our leader, Magneto!" Moros called out to him. "We are here to serve you!"
Magneto grinned. "Destroy these pathetic creatures, my children!"
"Shit." Phantom cursed, looking at both Wolfe and Fox. "I didn't expect this!"
Les Echets… the bunch of mutants that failed in his experiments now his loyal servants. Why am I not surprised? Who in the right mind follows a man named 'Magneto' anyway?
"Don't worry, Phantom, we got them!" Powerman called out to him, helping Wolverine up.
The mutates all vigorously attacked, Titan and Goliath cornering Wolverine and Powerman, trying to crush them with their immense strength. Riptide had no water to form up his liquid-warriors, so he went after Iron Fist and began violently attacking him with his bolo staff.
Ember and Aeolus teamed up to give Aeolus' air elemental presence into a raging fire, advancing on Spider-Man and White Tiger.
Cyclops quickly recovered, digging himself out of the pile of podiums. Valkyrie trained her sights on him, landing next to him and attempting to dismember him with her large sword. He leapt out of harm and shot optic blasts back at her.
Jean Grey got back up, attempting to help Xavier back up on his wheelchair. Suddenly, Dragonfly came swooping down and grabbing Jean Grey and lifting her up into the air. She countered this by pushing Dragonfly back with her telekinesis and throwing the mutate out of the air back to the ground.
Vulnerable, Xavier was cornered by the mysterious-looking Tombstone, who slowly advanced on him, readying a dark energy power in his hands.
"Stay back." Xavier threatened him. "Don't get any closer."
Tombstone's dreaded silence was the only answer he received.
Out of nowhere, Tombstone received a bullet to the head, causing him to crouch down in silent pain over his head. Xavier looked over to see Wolfe aiming the rifle down from the other side of the room.
Phantom and Fox attempted to outmaneuver Magneto while he levitated closer to them.
"Enough resistance, Phantom, accept your end with honor!" Magneto shouted at them, grabbing a chunk of steel and throwing it at Fox.
Phantom grabbed her by the waist and pulled her out of harm's way. As he did so, Magneto tried to throw a secondary chunk of steel and throwing it at the both of them. Fox quickly leapt out of Phantom's arms and sliced the chunk with her katanas in half.
Great moves there, Fox knows how to handle herself.
"There is nowhere to ru…"
"Hey, Magneto!" A voice called out from the entrance.
Magneto glanced over and saw the other Echets behind Nova and Firewalker. He instantly became confused, not realizing that those mutates had betrayed him.
"Let's show them what good guys do, guys! Come on!" Nova ordered them, flying forward as the rest of them attacked the evil Echets and backing up both Spidey's team and the X-Men!
Unexpected… Some of his Echets defected to our side? Now we've just turned the tables on him!
Nova quickly clapped his hands and projected a wall of solar energy towards Magneto, throwing him back wards against the steel wall behind him, shattering the steel into several pieces.
"Thought you guys might need a hand!" Firewalker shouted out to Spidey and Tiger as he floated by in a giant firestorm.
"You have no idea, man!" Spidey called back.
"No… Noo!" Magneto angrily shouted in face of defeat of being overwhelmed.
The battle within Les Echets chamber (Omniscient-view)…
With Tombstone preoccupied with fighting his former allies, Xavier trained his telepathy towards Magneto, who had landed on his back down on the floor.
"Get that bloody helmet off of him!" Xavier shouted out to the others.
Spidey quickly rushed in to web up the helmet while Magneto was downed. But, Magneto, strong as he is, blocked the web attack with another steel panel from the wall directly behind him.
"Fools!" Magneto cried out as he levitated up into the air again. "You'll never get me to surrender! You'll never stop me! The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants will save mutant-kind from the infestation of humanity!"
Just then, Deadpool teleported right behind Magneto.
"Ahhh, I'm just here to fuck his world up!" Deadpool chuckled, jumping on Magneto's shoulders and covering his eyes.
"What the bloody hell?!" Magneto tried getting Deadpool off of him.
"I'm on the highway to hell, baby!" Deadpool sung as he grabbed the edges of Magneto's helmet and shoved it off of his head.
"Noooo!" Magneto cried as Deadpool teleported back into nothing with the helmet in his hands.
"Now, Xavier!" Wolverine called to Xavier.
But… it was too late.
Everyone's heart sank as time seemed to slow down and the Reaper appeared out of thin air directlybehind Magneto. His evil grin apparent beneath his black mask, he gained control of Magneto's mind.
"At long last, his mind is mine!" Reaper chuckled, disappearing out of sight again as Magneto's eyes turned bright red.
"Eric, no!" Xavier cried out, trying to stop Reaper from grasping Magneto's mind, but failed.
Magneto fell down to the middle of the chamber, with the battle still ensuing around them between the mutates.
Suddenly, a large seismic quake was felt, shaking the entire chamber and sending everyone scrambling around. The Marauder had made contact with Island M, crushing down the top surface of the island with the exception of the fortress, and making its valiant attempt to keep the island in the atmosphere.
Magneto shot up, fully controlled by Reaper's consciousness now, hearing his thoughts.
Destroy that ship, nothing can stop us from reaching Earth's orbit, now.
Magneto obeyed, using his strong magnetic powers to tear apart a giant rift into the ceiling, back up to the surface. Right then, Phantom jumped forward and grabbed Magneto's cloak, flying up to the surface with him as he ascended to face the giant heli-destroyer that had practically leveled the terrain and using its primary engines in reverse to hold back the island's giant engine.
Tear it in half…
His cape tore off, causing Phantom to fall down on one of the fortress ramparts. He got up and witnessed Magneto slowly levitate closer to the ship. He gathered all of his magnetic might and grabbed the edges of the ship and began to slowly pull.
"No, Magneto! Don't do this!" Phantom pleaded up to him.
He attempted to send waves of electric charges from his bracers, but none of it was affecting the mind-controlled thrall that Magneto had become.
Then, the Marauder began to split in half, the hull tore open, and in a cataclysmic series of events, the entire heli-destroyer became engulfed in explosive flames. Phantom heard a rush of screams charge through his whispering effect… all before being swiftly silenced by one last explosion on the bridge.
As the two pieces of the heli-destroyer fell off the island's surface… Phantom saw Reaper appear out of thin air levitating in-front of Magneto.
"You've served your purpose, my master." Reaper withdrew both of his swords. "Thank you, for all you've done to help me."
In that moment, Reaper pierced Magneto's chest with both of his swords, holding the mutant up into the air. Magneto looked at him, seeming confused as to why his greatest ally would betray him in this fashion.
Reaper then pulled his swords apart, splitting Magneto's body in half, watching as his body halves fell down to the ocean below. He then turned his attention to Phantom.
"I'll be waiting for you in my laboratory, Phantom."
Author's Note: Let me start off by apologizing for my month-long delay, my fellow readers. I know that I stated in my earlier chapter that I had planned to finish my story before the end of March, and now with a little more than a week from Captain America: Civil War from being released, I'm finally able to finish the last three chapters and concluding the sequel to The Phantom. My line of work required me to go on an "unexpected" business trip that required me to put my story on-hold for several weeks along with several days of back-brief and only to return to work with a mountain-load of tasks that kept me busy. I'm only human, dear friends, but I'm doing my best to finish this story, for you all, for me! :) I do hope you've all enjoyed this chapter, and as always, feedback is greatly appreciated, and thank you all for continuing to follow me through this mad story! :D
Reader Responses:
The Night Hunter: I hope this chapter proved just as exciting if not more as the last, my friend! :D There are two chapters left concluding this one, and I'll name them out for you now. The Dream Nexus and Something Ends, Something Begins, both the Reaper showdown and epilogue respectively! Thank you for reading and thanks for the feedback! :D
The Story's Shadow: True Beast 01, right? I admire your new username! :D Sounds really awesome! I hope I delivered as best of the tension in this chapter. I'll admit, I rushed a little bit towards the end, but I'm currently revising right now as I write to you this response! :D Thank you, I think my biggest flaw is character development as well as romance development, so I'm glad I'm doing good in those aspects! :D Nonsense, your stories are great! Always write to improve yourself, write for yourself! It'll only make you better in the end in the eyes of others!
Guest 1: Thank you, dear reader! :) I'll admit, I find it a bit hard to read your reviews because of your broken sentences but it's all right, I do my best and I greatly appreciate you reading my chapters! I hope I did great in this chapter for you! :D Thanks! :D
Man285: Thanks dude, thanks! I know I didn't put tooooo much Peter/Ava in this one, but with everything going on, it didn't seem like the right moment to squeeze that in there, you know? What do you think? Thanks for the review! :D
Sport21: You're too kind, thank you! :) As I write them, I try to play it out in my mind like a movie, so I hope I'm giving the readers the same image that plays in my head when I do write them. Thank you! :D
Burke23: Thanks buddy, I really appreciate it! :D
Jetcore: Thank you, my friend! :) I really appreciate that, I truly do! I'm glad to hear that my story's being read all the way in Europe! Here I am, writing the story in Japan, lol. But, to answer your question, I want to take a break during the summer to spend time with my family and take some vacation time (possibly Australia) to gather my thoughts again and return in late 2016/early 2017 to write out and finish the trilogy, I'm planning to call it either Phantasmor The Phantasmic War, what do you think? Thanks for the review! :D
Jetcore (2): Well, there you go, 200th review! :D Congrats and thanks! :D Sorry again for the long delay, I literally had to burn through several hours to deliver this insanely long chapter! I hope it's good though! :D
Romeosami7: Thank you, my friend, you have no idea how much that inspires me to continue writing! :D I've done some research into how I can go into writing with Marvel, but they don't usually accept user-submitted stories. They claim that if my work is "great enough" they'll eventually "find me". Who knows? I'm not holding my breath, as I'm not that great of a writer. There are far better writers in this community than I. I write for myself and for the enjoyment of the community. For you guys! :D Thanks for the review, friend!
Guest 2: I'm sorry, my friend! :( I hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long!
Guest 3: Thank you, I appreciate it! :D
Burke23: This is the review that kicked the nail into the cross that said "That's it, I have to finish the chapter or I'm going to go insane! :D Thanks for the review, my friend! I appreciate it!
Thanks for reading everyone, I really appreciate it! :D
