answers to reviewers questions or statements:
Harbinger of Kaos: Yep.
treyalexander63917: Ehh I gave him the ability to do that to show that his Terrigenesis caused him to develop more spider attributes without him growing extra arms or something and in this instance, it's being able to create natural webbing, only it comes out his mouth and it has different properties to the web fluid in his web shooters, sort of a unique spin I gave him to have him stand out a bit more.
Kival737101: It's Ultimate Marvel, that was one of the things that happened in the comics, Wanda and Pietro in this universe were in a confirmed incestuous relationship, Ultimate Wolverine in the past had even spied on them screwing each other. Good news is that their relationship won't last forever, hell not even another ten chapters which will create a sort of rivalry between Peter and Pietro.
MCRasengan: The incest thing between Pietro and Wanda won't last too long, mainly because of Peter gaining her interest. And are you saying that the arrival of Peter's fiancée is good or bad?
spiderman1fan: Yes Peter will be filling in the Royal Family on things and later adventures he'll partake in, some of which a few members will join him on.
Spawn Hades: It's not Emma Frost but close, well sort of close. Yeah Iso, that's Xiaoyi's nickname that she'll be going by will be making the effort to try and bond with Peter
Justafan: Wanda and Peter will be hooking up, just for now she's with Pietro in that she's simply sleeping with him. Yeah Magneto won't be winning any Father of the Year awards anytime soon with how he treats and views Wanda and Pietro and as we'll later see, Polaris, his other daughter who shares the same powerset as him.
CRUDEN: He'll marry a few of them, but not all.
90skid4life: No, mainly because the Brotherhood won't really be around much longer for him to even bother with anyway.
Gamerslegacy: He got his spider powers from the Terrigian mist.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel characters seen, mentioned or used.
"Juggernaut… give me one good reason why I shouldn't find a way to actually kill you and your friend for interrupting my long overdue and well deserved hot bath" a glaring blue skinned woman with shoulder blade length red hair and a small white towel just barely covering her hourglass shaped body that's on many occasions drew both looks of lust and jealousy.
Her name was Mystique, a Mutant capable of changing into anyone she wanted. She was Magneto's top spy and infiltrator and normally the one person who knows what almost anyone of real note was doing around here that wasn't an intrusive telepath.
The large brute of a man shifted on his feet as he and Spider-man stood outside her room at the far end of the compound. After several seconds of being the sole focus of Mystique, Juggernaut nodded towards Peter as he placed his helm on.
"He wants to talk to you about Maximus…" he said as he suddenly turned and began to walk away from the duo.
Peter watched the large man nearly run down the hall before returning his attention to the unhappy blue skinned woman and gave her a sheepish smile as he struggled not to stare at her nearly bare body "Heh sorry, but he said you'd probably know where Maximus wandered off to and well I kind of have to find him"
Mystique stared at Peter for several long moments, her yellow eyes giving nothing away before she nodded "Fine… come in"
"Alright" Peter said with a nod as he entered the room and saw that he was in what looked like a living room of sorts. He also saw that this place was better furnished and larger than where he's been staying "Nice digs, much better than mine or Scott's"
"Thank you" Mystique said as she made her way to the couch, dropping her towel which in turn caused Peter to blush as he, against his better judgement, stared at her shapely rear before what looked like black clothing began to form around her body until she was wearing a sort of black tank top but without the straps for the shoulders while her arms were covered in black elbow length fingerless gloves along with a pair of equally black pants. Her legs and feet were covered by black shorts and a pair of black thigh high heeled boots.
She then sat on the soft sofa and crossed her legs at the knee and gave Peter an expectant look "Now what would one of the Brotherhood's newest members want with Maximus the Mad?"
"Maximus the Mad?" Peter said with a chuckle.
"Have you met the man? He's insane" Mystique said with a scoff as she adjusted her seating "And not the good kind of insane, but the dark twisted one… to this day I'm still trying to figure out why in the hell Magneto let him stay. It's clear that he can care less for us or our cause"
"And you'd be right" Peter said with a nod "Maximus only cares about one thing, himself. Anything or anyone else… not so much"
"So why are you looking for him anyway?" Mystique questioned.
"I've been sent by some people to re-capture him or if possible terminate him" Peter stated.
"You, kill Maximus?" Mystique said with a quirked brow.
"Yep"
"…You do know that he's possibly the most powerful Telepath and Telekinetic on earth with literally no known rival and if he wanted, could toss your ass all the way to the moon, right?" Mystique said with a dark grin.
At this Peter's shoulders slumped "I know… buuuut I have something that just might be able to even the playing field"
At this, the metamorph's interest was further peaked "Oh, and what's that my dear?"
"It's a secret" Peter said before he cleared his throat "But can you tell me where he is since he's not in the compound. Do you know where he goes when he leaves?"
"Yes…" Mystique said with a slow nod "There's a cavern that I've followed him to a few times that he goes to every few weeks. I tried to enter but…" she shrugged at this "He's erected some sort of forcefield to keep me from getting in and sadly almost everyone here that could breach it is too afraid of the man to try"
"Why?" Peter asked with a frown.
"Because the last person to try and invade his privacy was a random telepath that thought he could try and blackmail Maximus or something" Mystique said in a serious tone "And Maximus responded by tearing the man apart one cell at a time before re-forging his body into a freakin ball of flesh that he then fed to a giant crocodile in the nearby river. After that, no one tried to poke their nose in his interests"
At this Peter's eyes widened "Shit…"
"Yeah… Even Magento is somewhat weary of pushing Maximus, at least for the time being" Mystique said with a shrug.
The two stat there in a weighted silence for several minutes before Peter gazed out the window towards the vast jungles of the Savage Land "So where's this cave of his that he's taken a liking to?"
At this Mystique smirked as she stood up and began to approach a panel in the wall the she pushed open to reveal a large arsenal of weaponry that cased Peter to openly gape behind his mask.
"Damn… that's a lot of firepower" Peter said as he watched the mysterious woman slide on several holsters that she quickly filled with a side arm before grabbing a few clips for each gun before finishing off with a AK-47 that had a reflex scope and a grenade launcher attachment.
"Well when you live in a place where your only power is to take the form of another and everyone around you has the power to level a building or in people like Magneto's case, the ability to tear apart nations single handedly, gotta compensate somehow" Mystique said as she slapped in a fully loaded clip before glancing at Peter "Come on, it'll take a few hours to get to the cave and the jungle gets far more dangerous there after sunset"
"Hurraaaaaay…" Peter said with a drawl as he followed the beautiful but deadly woman out of the room and towards the main entrance of the compound.
Meanwhile unknown to the two, a small little fly like drone watched the two leave Mystique's room and had also been listening in on their entire conversation. The figure watching them on a small tablet was none other than Maximus who was currently standing on a small hill that overlooked the compound used by the Brotherhood of Mutants.
"Hmm looks like my little secret is about to get out" Maximus mused as he watched the duo make their way down the hall before switching off the tablet and dropping it on the ground and crushing it with his foot before letting out a sigh as he closed his eyes and rubbed his brow in annoyance "I was hoping to do this later, but might as well get it over with…"
Powerful as a telepath he's become in recent years, expanding his mind thousands of miles to touch one covertly so as to not arouse suspicion and slowly manipulate him into convincing his allies that the best way to deal with Magneto's 'Mutant Utopia' with a battalion of Sentinels took quite a bit of effort on his part...
…
"So Mystique, how's a gal like you end up here?" Peter asked his sort of guide slash partner as they trekked through the jungles of the Savage Land.
"Well I'm a Mutant that lives in a world that hates me for being better than all the rest. You tell me" Mystique answered with a shrug.
"What I meant was why join up with Magento's side?" Peter clarified as he stepped over a large snake that he almost mistook for fallen tree trunk "I mean you do know that things won't end well for Mutant kind if you let him keep doing his terrorist crap"
"What makes you say that?" the blue skinned woman inquired with a curious expression.
"Oh, you know a little thing called common sense" Peter said with a shrug "I mean it's not like human history isn't filled with men like Magneto who've tried to take over the world and wipe out other races because he thinks his is better"
"Well the difference between them and Magento is that he actually has power" Mystique said.
"So did Hitler but that didn't help him in the end now did it?" Peter said with a flat expression.
"Magento's power allows him to counteract every weapon in the world's various militaries" Mystique countered.
"Perfect reason for people to good back to the good old days of sharp wooden spears with stone tipped spear heads. Let's see him stop that with a flick of his wrist" Peter said as he waved his hand in the air to brush a few large mosquitoes away from his face "How much farther is this place anyway?"
"Not far, just over a mile" Mystique answered as she hopped over a fallen tree.
"Cool" Peter said as he leaped over the tree with a flip and landed on a vine.
Mystique eyed Peter with a thoughtful expression as he leaped up to a branch and hung there for a second before he flipped himself on it "Are you a mutant?"
"Hmm?" Peter said as he glanced down at the blue woman with a raised brow under his mask.
"A mutant, is that the reason for your powers or are you a mutate?" Mystique asked as she continued her way through the jungle, mentally retracing the path she's taken several times before.
"Neither" Peter said with a small shrug as he grabbed a small flower growing on a thin vine hanging low above him "Not everyone born with inhuman powers is a Mutant"
"So what are you then?" Mystique pressed.
"Why so curious?" Peter asked as he glanced back at his companion.
"It's in my nature" Mystique said with a grin.
"Well, curiosity killed the cat as they say" Peter replied before he heard Mystique stop and turned back to see her looking at him with an unreadable expression.
"Is that a threat?" she asked in a low voice.
"Not really" Peter responded with a shrug "But there are those that I'm close to that would be... unhappy that you know what I am and may decide to silence you to prevent you from going around telling everyone that'll listen"
"Their more than willing to try" Mystique growled.
"They won't have to try very hard" Peter whispered to himself before he felt his spider-sense buzz, causing him to stop and scan the area for whatever it was that set it off.
"What is it?" Mystique asked, noticing her companion's behavior and had her hand drift to one of her pistols and grip it as her eyes darted around for any possible hostile animals or even Maximus himself.
"We're being watched..." Peter muttered as he looked around until his suit's lenses picked up something a few dozen meters away hidden in the brush, watching him and his blue skinned ally. His lenses gave Peter an outline of what was watching them and felt his blood run cold at the shape he was seeing "Oh shit..."
"What is it-" Mystique began only to be cut off by a sudden tremor in the ground followed by another, and another and the sound of something large moving through the jungle, brushing past trees and snapping limbs that were in it's way.
Mystique followed Peter's line of sight and was greeted to the sight of a large red Tyrannosaurus Rex slowly emerging from the foliage, it's eyes set on her and Peter. The large Rex made a deep rumbling in the back of it's throat as it stopped just shy a dozen meters from the duo. Mystique already had her rifle aimed at it's head while Peter stood perfectly still, his red lenses staring up at the Rex as it let out a low growl.
"Peter..." Mystique hissed quietly as her finger slowly went to the trigger for the grenade launcher "On three get ready to run-"
"Hold on" Peter said as he suddenly reach out and grabbed the barrel of Mystique's AK and pushed it down, causing her to glare at him with surprise and anger as he had his mask retract and he slowly approached the massive dinosaur before him "Easy big guy..."
"Peter!" Mystique snapped before she was silenced by the growl the Rex gave her before it's focus returned to Peter as he slowly approached the scarlet colored beast.
"You remember me right?" Peter said in a calm and what he hoped was soothing voice "I helped get that big nasty looking splinter out of your leg?"
The Rex quirked it's head at Peter as he took in his scent and what Peter hoped was recognition flashed through it's eyes. After a few tense seconds of staring one another down, the Rex slowly lowered its head and waited. Mystique watched with surprise as Peter slowly reached out and placed his hand on the Rex's snout and rub the red scales gently with a small grin on his face.
"Man, I can't wait to tell crystal that I get to pet a Dinosaur" Peter said, more to himself than for anyone else.
The Rex grunted as it pulled its head back and glanced briefly at Mystique before it opened it's jaws wide and then snapped them shut, creating a loud 'snap' that sent a chill over the red head's skin as the Rex turned around and began to slowly re-enter the jungle, leaving Pete to watch it go.
"See you around big guy!" Peter called out, ducking under the Rex's tail as it melded back into the exotic foliage the jungle was made up of. The Inhuman then turned to see that Mystique was looking at him with an odd expression, causing him to frown as his mask slid back on "What?"
"That was... interesting" Mystique stated.
"I helped him out the other night" Peter said with a shrug.
Mystique hummed at this before she gestured for Peter to follow her "Come on, the cave's just up ahead"
And by up ahead, the cave was another thirty minute walk though a section of the jungle made of carnivorous vines, car sized Venus fly traps with teeth, some sort of evolved velociraptor the size of a horse and a river filled with sixty foot prehistoric crocodiles.
"Mystique, you really need to re-evaluate 'up ahead', because that was more than just a simple up ahead" Peter said with an annoyed scowl towards the woman as he and his blue skinned companion arrived at the side of some rock face with a large forty by forty foot cavern.
"We would have gotten here faster if you didn't try to pet the vines" Mystique said with a glare at Peter before she nodded towards the cavern before them "This is the place"
Peter activated his suit's lenses and had them begin shifting through various spectrums and frequencies so that he could see the forcefield and find a way around it, assuming it wasn't just covering the cave entrance, if that were the case, then he'd just have to go either over, under or around it. Mystique stood back and watched while keep on the alert for anything that Maximus may have left to guard the cave or some passing animal that may decide a mutant and some super powered individual would make a tasty snack.
"Got it" Peter said suddenly, dragging Mystique's attention back to him "Got what?"
"The shield's frequency" Peter said as the data began to fly across his lenses "Interesting..."
"What is it?" Mystique asked.
"The frequency the shield's energy is running on" Peter nodded towards the cave entrance "It's running on a spectrum that's usually associated with electromagnetic-"
"Can you get it down or not?" the Mutant beauty asked in an impatient tone as she slapped a mosquito that was on her arm "I don't feel like spending any more time out here than I already have. I have a bottle of wine and a body waiting to warm my bed back at the compound"
"And we were having so much fun to begin with" Peter said with a sigh as he cracked his knuckles as he approached the forcefield and placed his hand on it while he had his suit divert all power to his palm and prepared to hit it with an EMP on the same frequency as the shield "Stand back, just in case"
Mystique took several steps back as Peter stood there and waited for the proper amount of energy to build up and his suit to synchronize with the forcefield's frequency before he activated the EMP. Peter felt a jolt run up and down his arm as the energy was blasted into the forcefield, causing it to spark around where his hand had made contact with it. The entire cave entrance and the surrounding rockface lit up in a bright orangish glow as the energy ran rampant and whatever regulator that Maximus had set up tried to compensate. After a few seconds, the shield flickered and then vanished, causing Peter to switch off the EMP and wait to see if anything else would happen.
"Guess he didn't count on anyone to break his shield" Mystique observed when she saw no fail safes went off.
"Or he just doesn't care" Peter muttered as he stepped into the cave cautiously "Whatever is in here probably holds more value to him than anyone else so if they happen to get in, he wont have to worry about them taking it, assuming it can be. Or this is just where he comes to hangout and brood. A literal man cave"
"Splendid" Mystique said in a dry tone.
Peter chuckled at the woman's response as they made their way further into the cave. The floors and walls were covered in some sort of stone that Peter first thought was maybe diamond but a quick scan of it's composition with his lenses told him otherwise. It was diamond to a degree, but it was heavily altered... mutated. The Inhuman made a mental note to retrieve a sample to study later and after this whole mess with Maximus was done, assuming he was still alive, he'd come back and give this Savage Land more attention.
'I could spend years studying the things in this place and barely scratch the surface of the proverbial tip of the ice berg' he thought before he noticed an odd glow up ahead. A sense of dread filled Peter as the glow looked familiar and he quickened his pace.
Mystique noticed this and quickly followed, being mindful to keep an eye out or Maximus, she hadn't seen him in a while and it'd be just her luck he would appear now. She was so focused on making sure that she and Peter were alone and not being watched that she didn't see him stop and thus walked right into him. Peter barely budged while Mystique felt like she walked right into a slab of concrete. She shook her head before glaring at Peter's back and was about to demand why he stopped before she saw what he was looking at.
It looked like some sort of glowing crystal, the likes of which she's never seen before.
"What is this?" Mystique asked with a frown as Peter stared at the glowing crystals with horror under his mask.
"Something to give my uncle the edge he needs" he said in a low voice.
"Need?" Mystique said as she glanced at Peter in confusion "Need for what? What are you talking about?"
"To amplify his powers and build an army of his own" Peter said as he wandered towards one of the crystals and ran a finger along it's surface, wondering just what Maximus has been able to accomplish with what he had here.
And if there were other veins of Terrigian Crystals out there that his crazed Uncle had uncovered.
"We need to go, now!" Peter said as he turned towards Mystique.
The blue skinned woman looked at him with confusion but nodded "Fine, but you mine explaining what the hell this is and why it's got you so terrified?"
Peter considered his answer as he glanced back at the Terrigian crystals before returning his attention to Mystique "Long story short, these things were made by a race of hyper advance aliens called the Kree that came here millions of years ago and began to use these crystals to aid them in their experiments on humanity's predecessors. Slowly altering their biology into... well into something different. When they were exposed to these crystals after the alterations, it gave them enhanced abilities and in some cases altered their very nature into something else"
Mystique frowned at this "So... your saying that Maximus, and I'm now going to assume you, are descendants of these things? And their what gave you your abilities?"
"In a nut shell, yeah" Peter said with a nod before he glanced at the crystals again "But I was exposed to a refined crystal. These things, if Maximus has been exposing himself to these, in their raw form, he could have enhanced his powers ten fold at least"
"Jesus Christ..." Mystique muttered with wide eyes.
She's seen what Maximus could accomplish with his powers when he was putting actual effort into it... if he could multiply them several times over, she doubts even Magneto can stop him...
...
It didn't take long for Peter to find Scott after he returned to the Brotherhood's compound with Mystique. Scott had just returned from a mission with several of Magento's people, his children among them and was just speaking to the leader of the Brotherhood himself when Peter ran into the room, nearly out of breath from the speed he ran and swung to get there.
"Scott, we need to-" Peter began before Magneto cut him off with a glare of annoyance.
"Why are you here boy? I do not remember granting you permission to enter" the master of Magnetism said towards the dark clad man.
Peter only spared the man a brief glance before he returned his attention to a confused Scott "We need to get out of here now!"
"What, why?" Scott asked with confusion.
"I need to get back to-" Peter began before he felt his throat conscript and his airway blocked.
His hands immediately went to his throat as he began t let out a series of choked gargles, causing Scott's eyes to widen as he rushed over to his friend "Peter!"
Magneto frowned at the scene before him before he saw Maximus enter the hall with a small grin on his face "Now dear nephew, I believe Magneto here asked you a question. I know that my brother had at least taught you manners after he took you in. Or at the very least his whore Medusa"
He then released his telekinetic hold on Peter's throat as the young Inhuman fell to his knees, coughing as he tried to refill his lungs with air while Cyclops' hand went up to his visor's trigger while he took aim at the newcomer.
"Who the hell are you?" Scott demanded.
"Maximus the Mad" the white clothed man said with a grin before it fell "Well actually it's Maximus Boltagon but it doesn't have quite the same ring to it. Plus I may have forsaken my family name after I left home"
"What's going on here?" Magneto demanded as he looked back and forth between Maximus, Peter and Scott.
Maximus shrugged "Nothing, just reprimanded my nephew here for going through my things without permission"
"S-Screw you!" Peter rasped out as he rubbed his still sore throat.
Maximus turned towards Peter with a blank expression on his face "Now that isn't very nice dear nephew-"
The Inhuman was cut off by Scott unleashing a powerful beam of his ruby colored concussive energy blast right towards the older man's head. Maximus barely even blinked as the beams hit some sort of invisible forcefield and sent streams of the energy all over the room, one of them hitting the massive window beside them and causing it to shatter into hundreds of thousands of pieces. Scott was forced to cut the beam off before his deflected beams hit anyone while Maximus looked around at the devastation with a slightly amused expression.
"Not bad, not bad. You were holding back, a pity, but I can see why Xavier wanted you on his team and not Magneto's here. Imagine the fun you can have if you threw restraint to the wind" Maximus grinned.
"Why don't you drop whatever shield thing you have there and see if you can take my blasts without any restraint" Scott replied.
"Hmmm, I don't think I will" Maximus said as he glanced out the window "I don't wanna miss the show"
"Show, what show?" Magneto asked as he stepped between Maximus and the two young men behind him and glared at the white clad man "What are you going on about Maximus?"
"Let's just say that I've gotten real good at mental suggestions" Maximus said with a grin, causing Magneto to frown as he took another step forward while his face darkened even further and the room shook ever so slightly from Magneto's power.
"What are you talking about Maximus?" the master of magnetism demanded while Peter felt his 'Spider-sense' begin to flare and the young Inhuman knew it wasn't because f Magneto's show of power.
'What the hell?' Peter thought as he tired to look for the source of his spider-sense going off aside from the fact he was within twenty feet of his crazed uncle and some crazy Mutant warlord.
"I may have suggested to the American Government, through months of mental manipulation and prodding mind you, that the best way to deal with you and your little band of Mutants was with a preemptive strike" Maximus said with a chuckle "I had the man I was influencing suggest sending a task force here but others have decided that sending every working Sentinel that they have here instead would do"
Magneto's eyes widened in shock "What?"
Scott looked out the window in the same direction that Maximus did and paled at what he saw coming towards the compound "Holy shit..."
Magneto turned to see what it was that Scott saw and paled at the sight before him as well. There were dozens of Sentinels flying towards his home, all of them armed and programmed to butcher his kind. He stood there in horror as the massive machines touched down and began to attack and kill any Mutant they saw, energy blasts, rockets and machine gun fire flying everywhere followed by horrified screams of men, women and children.
"Now that's what I call shock and awe" Maximus said with a snicker before Peter lunged at him, moving past Scott and Magento in a blur and towards his crazed relative with a growl.
The crazed Inhuman didn't even so much as bat an eye as he froze Peter's body midair, his fist just inches from the mad man's face. Maximus shook his head in mock disappointment before he mentally flung Peter away and into a wall as he turned his attention back to Magneto who was still standing there in shock at what he was seeing.
"Maximus... what have you done?" Magneto asked in quiet horror.
"In the grand scheme of things, not much really" Maximus said with a sigh before he glanced outside at the devastation being unleashed by the Sentinels "Honestly, whatever happened to sending the troops in first, theeeeen the massive war machines? I swear..."
"You crazy son of a bitch!" Scott yelled as he sent an high powered Optic beam towards Maximus who created another forcefield of telekinetic energy to block the energy blast before he gave a mental 'shove' towards the young Mutant that sent him flying into the wall next to Peter.
"I'll have you know my mother was..." Maximus paused for a second before he shrugged "On second thought, your right. She was a bitch"
"S-Scott… we need to help those people" Peter said as he climbed back to his feet and glanced out the window at the attacking Sentinels.
"What about Maximus?" Scott said as he nodded towards the insane man.
"Trust me, fighting a bunch of multi story Mutant killing robots is the safer, smarter option" Peter said with a pained groan, he was sure a rib had cracked from slamming into the wall with as much force as he did.
"If your sure" Scott said as he climbed back to his feet and helped Peer to his "You gonna be okay?"
"No, but I'll worry about my broken bones and shattered ego later" Peter said as he raced towards the shattered window and leaped into the carnage outside with Scott right behind him.
Maximus watched them go for a second before he sensed and saw Magneto send a shower of metallic shrapnel he ripped from the wall towards him. The mad Inhuman erected a barrier of pure telekinetic energy to deflect the metal before he sent the shield towards the master of magnetism. Magneto narrowed his eyes in rage as he seized the metal in the floor and ripped it out of the ground and use it to defend himself before mentally sending chunks of his make shift shield towards Maximus who responded by stopping them halfway between the two.
"Really Magneto, you want to do this now?" Maximus asked in a slightly strained voice, the older man was putting up a much better fight than he had anticipated.
Magneto gritted his teeth in rage before he mentally summoned numerous shards of metal from the floor, ceiling and walls and shaped them into serrated javelins and aimed them at Maximus "I'll rend the flesh from your bones traitor!"
Maximus snorted at this, sweat building on is brow as he fought to keep the shrapnel that Magneto sent at him before hand at bay and to stop the hundreds of metal javelins around him from trying to skewer him by holding them in place "You could... and while you waste your time trying to kill me, your 'People' will be slaughtered like cattle at a meat processing plant"
Magneto seemed to falter at this as Maximus put all of his energy into his telekinetic grip on the various metal weapons Magento had summoned and crushed them all to the size of coins before he had them thrown outside the window and into the burning city below "Either you kill me or save your people, I leave the choice up to you. Though personally, I hope you try to kill me. Make things infinitely more interesting"
And without another word, the mad Inhuman began to walk away from the still form of Magento as all the work that Mutant put into this small civilization was being burned to the ground...
...
And done.
Next chapter, Retaliation...