Chapter 4

The Brotherhood Part II

It was a busy day as usual in New York City. Every road was congested with traffic and bustling people in a rush, trying to get wherever they were going, as fast as possible. This was New York routine. What happened next definitely was not part of the normal person's every day routine, and it sent terror across this one particular street. Suddenly rushing people became a crowd of scared people running for their lives.

From a moderately tall building, Sabertooth jumped down to the street and landed on a car, crushing it upon impact. The monster of a man ripped off the car door and threw it towards a terrified mother and daughter, who just barely moved out of the way. Police officers opened fire on the mutant, but their bullets were unable to penetrate Sabertooth's tough skin. He leapt onto one policeman, knocking him out and roared wildly as he picked up another officer and chucked him into two other cops.

Sabertooth's rampage continued, without any worthy opposition for about thirty minutes. As expected, as the brotherhood brute terrorized the streets, finally from the sky a red laser beam of light shot into Sabertooth, knocking him violently into a wall. As the beast-man pushed himself out of the caved in wall of the building, throwing debris to the ground, he looked as his attackers jumped out of their X-jet, known as the Blackbird. Sabertooth growled at the X-men, feeling his excitement for battle grow as the team grew closer.

The one who shot him with the laser was the group's main field authority (under the master leadership of the powerful telepath, Xavier, of course). His name was Cyclops, and he shot powerful optic lasers from his eyes. In fact he couldn't open his eyes without special equipment otherwise the lasers would destroy anything in sight. He wore a visor that had a special kind of glass that could contain the lasers until he wanted them released.

Accompanying Cyclops were three other mutants, Jean Gray, Wolverine, and Beast. Jean Gray was a very powerful mutant with telepathy and telekinesis, which was rare among the mentally gifted mutants. Wolverine was Sabertooth's arch nemesis and rival, and had very similar feral mutations, including the regenerative abilities. Additionally, his exo-skeleton was encased in a rare metal known as Adamantium. He could extend claws out of his hands that were made of this metal, which was his main weapon in battle. Wolverine and Sabertooth had an entire textbook's worth of history, and words can not express the level of hatred they had for each other. Finally Beast was just that, a big, furry blue, muscular, and highly intelligent mutant who was…well, a beast. Compared to Sabertooth especially, and Wolverine, Beast (despite his name) had the most control over his feral nature and often was viewed among the X-men as more of an intellect and pacifist then a raging monster.

"Same story, different day, eh Sabertooth?" Cyclops yelled out as the X-men stepped over the ruin of the street that Sabertooth had caused, moving closer to him. "I'm only going to ask once. Just leave. You know the X-men can stop you by other means, just like we always do."

"I'm not even going to ask." Wolverine growled as he extended his metal claws and rushed towards Sabertooth. "I just want to jump to those other means!"

"Logan, wait!" Jean Gray yelled to Wolverine, as he jumped to tackle Sabertooth.

Sabertooth caught Wolverine as he attempted to tackle the mutant and twirled him around, then tossed his enemy into a pile of trash nearby.

"X-men, get him!" Cyclops said as he opened fire on Sabertooth. The mutant roared in pain as Scott Summers optic lasers hit his body.

Suddenly hopping down to the ground from a nearby street lamp, Toad appeared behind Cyclops. With his quick, long, and slimy tongue, Toad grabbed Cyclops visor off his face and flung it away onto the street. The leader of the X-men's eyes flared with red optic power, and the full force beam pierced through buildings, instantly leveling them. Cyclops struggled to move his head so that he faced the sky, harming nobody with his optic beam. Pushing through the burn, Cyclops shut his eyes, containing the blasts.

"It would appear that Sabertooth did not come alone." Beast spoke, as he reflected the team's overlook. "And with Toad and Sabertooth together, it is very clear that Magneto and his Brotherhood are to blame for this disastrous scene."

"Well it's obvious these two aren't the brains of the operation." Wolverine grumbled as he rushed towards Sabertooth again. The two locked arms and growled at one another as each tried to overpower the other.

"Beast let's lend Logan a hand." Jean Grey hovered to her ally. As she levitated down the street, the mutant used her mind to pick Cyclops visor of the street and return it to her lover's face. "Toad is mostly just a threat to himself. Scott will take care of him."

As the two ran towards Wolverine and Sabertooth, a whirl of blue and white light sped in front of them, harshing knocking Jean to her feet and throwing Beast in a way that made him do a backflip to regain his equilibrium. The X-men quickly recovered to see Quicksilver standing between them ready to fight.

"I believe we have no properly been introduced." Beast said with a friendly smile.

"It looks like Magneto's gone recruiting again…" Jean Gray sighed, thinking about how many mutants the evil master of magnetism had negatively influence to ruin their lives with misguided crime to serve his cause. "Look, whoever you are…this isn't a place for you, step aside so that we can prevent Sabertooth and Toad from causing any more damage."

"Oh your one to talk…" Quicksilver retorted, "Magneto's told me all about you X-men. You defend the very same humans that want to hunt us mutants down. Your traitors to your own kind, and harm innocent mutants on a regular basis! You're a mutant hate group…full of mutants!"

"It is clear that this youth is misguided." Hank Mckoy (the real name of Beast) observed as he hopped onto a telephone poll near Quicksilver. "We are not the monsters you claim us X-men to be. And might I add, at the risk of stating the obvious, we were not the ones that started a scene here in New York City today."

"But if you insist on fighting us," Jean continued, "we'll finish it."

"Oooh," Quicksilver gave a mock sense of intimidation. "that sounds like a challenge!"

With his super speed, Pietro ran up the telephone and quickly knocked Beast off of it. This disoriented the mutant, and he fell to the ground hitting his head. Then Quicksilver ran towards Jean Grey who began to levitate high in the air with the hopes of avoiding the speedster. Unable to hit Jean, Quicksilver began to run circles around her, creating a tornado vacuum sucking the air from where Jean hovered.

"Scott!" Jean gasped.

Cyclops heard his girlfriend's cry and knew he needed to aid immediately. Toad leapt towards him again, and Scott looked at his approaching mutant advisory and launched a concentrated optic blast which hit Toad in his head. The gross mutant hit the ground dazed and confused.

"Jean!" Cyclops yelled as he ran closer towards where his lady was being attacked. He observed Quicksilver moving so fast that he could not be targeted. Knowing that his enemy was creating this whirlwind by moving so fast, and being multiple places seemingly at the same time, Cyclops shot a beam into a central area of the blue and white whirlwind, under Jean. The beam hit Quicksilver, who fell to the ground.

"Okay that was a cheap shot." Quicksilver spoke swiftly, as he shook his head to shake off the pain. "It won't happen again."

Pietro aimed to up to his feet and run once more, but before he could, the mutant realized he could no longer move his body. He was being pushed into the ground by Jean Grey's mind. Cyclops moved over Quicksilver and his visor gleamed a bright red, showing he had an optic blast ready.

"Go on, keep trying to get up…I'll put you down for good, Speedy."

"It's Quicksilver…" Pietro spoke struggled to move. "And just you wait, you'll get yours…"

Not to far from the three battling mutants, Wolverine and Sabertooth were locked in another knock down drag out death match. Each primal mutant would land deadly strikes, but then the other mutant would recover due to their fast regeneration. Finally Wolverine found himself on top of Sabertooth with his claw at the beast's neck.

"Looks like even with your new friend the Loserhood lost again, Sabertooth."

Sabertooth slowly chuckled as Wolverine looked at the mutant, perplexed at his reaction. Unable to get up at this moment, Sabertooth decided to spill the beam.

"The goal was never to beat you and your precious X-men." Sabertooth's voice was gruff and arrogant. "We only came to keep you busy so you didn't interfere with the real operation."

"What!" Wolverine felt his rage rising. "You rotten pile of horse trash…." Logan's verbal insult swiftly turned to a hard punch in the face which knocked Sabertooth out. He yelled back at the X-men. "This was just a distraction, Magneto's up to something somewhere else!"

Quicksilver felt his body being pressured harder into the rocks. Cyclops shot the ground next to him leaving a large hole with smoking coming from it. Magneto had warned Pietro that this may happen, and instructed him that after Sabertooth broke the news of an alternate plan, he was allowed for full disclosure with the X-men to prevent any more physical harm.

"This doesn't have to get any uglier then it already is." Cyclops yelled at Quicksilver, "Tell me where Magneto is, NOW!"

"You may want to turn on the NEWS here in a few minutes." Quicksilver said with a grin, "Because New York City's biggest mutant containment facility is about to go down…with a bang! You can't stop it X-men. We were sent here to distract you from the real plan."

"Storm, Rogue, Gambit…" Cyclops touched his ear and started to speak into a communicator to the rest of the X-men. "Magneto's target is the MRD…he's taking out one of their facilities here in New York, but I have no idea which one…figure that out quickly, and stop him."

Outside the city at the most heavily guarded mutant prison facility in the US, Mystique, disguised as an MRD officer, entered the building with a handcuffed Scarlet Witch.

"I'm dropping off a threat level A mutant." The shape shifter spoke into an intercom. "You don't want this one getting out, she's a real witch, if I do say so myself."

"We didn't get any word of an A level mutant being dropped of today." The man on the other side of the speaker stated. "For such a dangerous drop off, it's protocol to let us know…State your name and rank, officer."

"Samuel Gibbins, 3rd lieutenant." Mystique lied.

"Officer Gibbins was lost in the line of duty three weeks ago when we attempted to capture Magneto." The speaker replied. "Initiating Security Protocol Omega ."

"Well that could have gone better. "Mystique muttered as she reverted to her blue form, and unlocked Wanda's handcuffs.

"What's happening?" the Scarlet Witch asked as she rubbed her wrists.

"It's time to put your little magic to use." Mystique spoke brashly as she pulled out her laser gun and began to shoot down officers coming her way. "We need to get in and down, as quickly as possible."

"You got it." The brunette seventeen year old replied as her hands turned red and she waved them in the air. As her hands moved, the large secure gate that was the entrance to the prison crumbled into nothing.

As the ladies rushed in, out of the walls came many turrets that charged to open fire on Mystique and the Scarlet Witch. The shape Shifter shot soldiers closing in behind them, as the Scarlet Witch caused the guns to overload and explode. They moved past several levels of the prison with the hopes of getting to the bottom, and the deeper they went, the heavier security was. At one point, Several soldiers teleported in the terminal, surrounding the women. Wanda set many of the guns on fire, as Mystique fluttered around the room punching, kicking, and shoot officers.

"They really are against us liberating these prisoners." Wanda spoke as she caused a large metal beam to snap off part of the structure and hit a few men. "How can people imprison others with such dedicated hatred?"

"The extent of these weaklings prejudice is truly immeasurable." Mystique seethed with hatred as she spoke of the humans.

As the two fought, it finally got to the point where there was too much human resistance. From behind, two heavily armored soldiers shot a prototype gun at the Scarlet Witch, and out of the gun came blue goo that trapped her hands, making the mutant powerless. Numerous soldiers surrounded Mystique, ordering her to drop her weapon.

"Magneto," Mystique spoke into her communicator. "The operation has failed, the facility is simply to heavily guarded. We neutralized the threat of the X-men, but it appears we under estimated the homo sapiens."

The last thing both Mystique and the Scarlet Witch saw before they blacked out was the end of a metal rifle, knocking them out.

Magneto slammed his fists onto the computer he was watching back at the Brotherhood's warehouse. These humans may think they have successfully stopped his invasion, but they clearly have not gone to war with the master of magnetism before. Magneto placed his helmet on his head, and left the warehouse, ready to squash some bugs.