"Erik, release them!" Charles yelled, but Erik ignored him, his focus solely on the missiles and their rapidly closing distance between the mutants on the beach, and the American and Soviet war ships. "No!" Charles cried, running at Erik and launching himself at his friend, sending the two of them into the sand.
With Erik's concentration broken, the missiles began to fall out of the sky and land in the ocean. Some exploding before they could hit the water, some exploding when they hit other missiles in midair.
Erik grunted loudly when his back hit the sand, as Charles immediately took the opportunity to get his hands on the helmet and tried to pull it off. Erik tried to roll away from him, but Charles yanked him back sharply, his fingers fumbling over the smooth metal around Erik's head.
"I don't want to hurt you." Erik growled under his breath before slamming his elbow into Charles' jaw. "So don't make me."
Charles fell heavily to the side, clutching his face with a gloved hand as Erik gained the upper hand and straddled the smaller man. Wanting to step in and help the professor, Alex, Sean and Hank started to step forward but upon noticing their movements, Erik extended a hand towards them.
"Stand back!" He commanded, sending the boys flying back towards the ruins of the airplane, noticeably leaving Raven and Ivy untouched.
And they could do nothing but watch the men grapple around in the sand until Erik had gained the upper hand, he put his arm on Charles' neck and lifted up his hand, controlling the missiles once more.
"Erik, stop!" Charles tried to use his powers to control Erik, but it didn't work; Erik shoved his arm out of the way and punched Charles across the face before standing up and taking control of the remaining missiles.
The missiles flew with terrifying speed but then bullet bounced off Erik's helmet, causing him to flinch and distracting him from the missiles yet again.
Moira was walking towards Erik, a gun in her hand, firing the bullets at the mutant, a look of steely determination on her face. All the bullets bounced harmlessly off of the metal helmet but they did manage to distract as well as annoy Erik as turned to her, using his powers to simply flick the bullets away before they hit somewhere other than the helmet.
However, one bullet, which was flicked to Erik's right, suddenly hit something.
Time seemed to slow down as Charles arched upwards unnaturally, clutching his lower back with a cry of agony on his lips.
Raven clutched her mouth, tears of horror forming in her eye, Moira stared in horror and shock as Charles slowly fell to the sand, his face creased in pain.
Erik ran forwards to his friend abandoning the missiles entirely, sliding to his knees beside him and began rolling him over, using his powers to remove the bullet from Charles' spine.
The missiles across the sea fell and exploded before they could hit the ships.
"I'm so sorry," Erik muttered to Charles. "I said get back!" he yelled at the young mutants who had started forward again to help Charles but stopped at Erik's command, "You," Erik growled looking up at Moira with a glare in his eyes. "You did this." His lifted up his hand, pointing it at Moira, whose dog tags tightened around her neck, slowly choking her.
"Erik," Charles choked out, pain in his voice. "Please…" Erik ignored him and carried on using his power to kill Moira. "Erik, she didn't do this. You did."
At Charles' words, Erik looked down at his friend, tears and pain evident in his eyes as he realized Charles' words were true. He lowered his hand, the chains around Moira's neck loosening and dropping as she collapsed on to her knees, gasping.
"Us turning on each other, it's what they want," Erik reasoned, "I tried to warn you Charles; I want you by my side. We're brothers, you and I – all of us, together, protecting each other. We want the same thing."
"My friend," Charles let out a small laugh. "I'm sorry, but we do not."
Erik's hopeful expression dropped and changed to one of resolute anger, as he saw Charles wouldn't change his mind. Glancing up at Moira, he sharply jerked his head gesturing for her to move closer.
"I'm so sorry Charles," Moira gasped, running over to Charles, taking Erik's place and resting the injured man on her lap.
"It's alright," Charles told her, but gasped in pain shortly after.
Erik got to his feet and turned to face the young mutants.
"Their society won't accept us," he gestured to Moira. "We form our own; the humans have played their hand, now we get ready to play ours." He paused looking individually over the standing mutants, before his gaze landed on Ivy and he offered his hand, "Who's with me?" she stared at his hand, before meeting his gaze and shaking her, moving a half a step to stand slightly behind Alex.
She saw his face fall and he blinked, before his gaze moved on to Raven and he spoke again. "No more hiding."
Raven began to limp forwards, towards Erik, but she looked at her brother, lying on the ground and diverted making her way over to him, kneeling beside him and grasping his hand.
"You should go with him," Charles said looking up at his sister through tear-filled eyes. "It's what you want."
"You promised me you would never read my mind."
"I know, I promised you a great many things I'm afraid. I'm sorry."
He lifted up her hand and kissed it gently, before Raven kissed his forehead in goodbye. "Take care of him," Raven spoke to Moira, who watched her cautiously.
Raven got to her feet and turned her back on her brother taking Erik's outstretched hand. Angel, Riptide and Azazel had all walked across the sand to join with Erik.
"And Beast," she called out. "Never forget; mutant, and proud."
Hank looked away, as if trying to ignore her. Ivy refused to look at Erik instead keeping her gaze directed to the side of Alex's neck. Erik stared at her as if he could will her to change her mind, if she'd only look at him, when she didn't he directed his gaze to Alex instead whom he offered a single nod. Alex hesitated but responded the same.
Erik then turned and nodded to Azazel, who used his power to transport the mutants off the beach. Once there were gone, Alex, Sean, Hank and Ivory, ran forwards to Charles and Moira. Hank kneeling beside Charles' left arm, Sean standing beside Hank, and Alex and Ivory on their knees by Charles' head.
"Help him up, help him up," Moira demanded, her voice shaking. "We need to get you to a hospital."
Hank tried to lift Charles, but Charles cried out in pain as they tilted his torso slightly.
"Wait, wait," Hank urged, his medical knowledge kicked in. "Don't move, Charles, just wait."
"I won't. Actually I can't. I can't," He stammered blinking hard a few times before he whispered five terrifying word," I can't feel my legs," He repeated the words over and over, as the others stared at one another in shock, at what Charles was saying meant.
Fin-Fish Jun-Tenshi: Lol, thanks.
Ivana Bocanegra: Like I said in the end note of the last chapter that I've been wrongly imagining Ivy's powers as plant manipulation, when in fact it is earth manipulation, which allows the user to control a variety of different materials, including sand.
Why did this chapter take me so long to write, when it's so damn short -_-? Apologies for that folks. But next chapter will be longer and it will bring First Class to a close.
So next chapter Ivy will be coping with the fallout from Erik's departure, as well as Charles' new developments. As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.