Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men or the Incredible Hulk; they are the property of Marvel. I also do not own the Gargoyles; they are the property of Disney.
"Early this morning, the homes of several of my friends and families were burglarized. During the course of the burglaries, however, the men and/or women who did this took it upon themselves to take the lives of each and every single one of them. To think of what was done to them before their deaths, however, is what hurts me the most. I am told that many of them were tortured to death, and that a number of the women, and some of their daughters, were defiled and violated before their untimely deaths. I am also told that it is believed that the same people responsible for the actions last night were the ones responsible for the death of a great man, my predecessor, Mayor Bernard Pentarelli. These delinquents were even so vain as to spray-paint the name of their group at the crime scenes. Thus, I, and my staff, will have a midnight vigil, in two day's time. Then, we will march to the homes of each of the victims. Afterwards, we shall march towards the headquarters of these . . . these X-Men. Anyone who wishes to join, please contact my office, and we will let you know the location where we will begin."
As the speech ended, the television flashed back to the blonde reporter. "It is unknown to the police at this time the headquarters that Mayor Lehrsser spoke of. However, Commissioner Williams said that he, and a select few of the Mayor's closest friends know of the location of the alleged headquarters of the people responsible for the deaths of these people. For those interested, the number for the Mayor's office is (212) 633-2789. In other news . . .
They may not know where Charles and his "kids" are, but I do, thought Magneto, as he turned off the T.V. He was sitting in his temporary mansion, awaiting Mystique. She had taken on the identity of the Commissioner after she had killed him, and now had all the police in the city looking for the X-Men. But, he thought, they won't find them. They had become professionals, especially after that damnable Wolverine took over as field leader. All of them were, now, incredible fighters. They had been before, but now were much more dangerous. He had them train hard; so hard, in fact, that now, even the best-trained assassins could not get close to them. Despite that, though, Magnus knew all of their weaknesses. Even their feral leader had his weaknesses: his women.
That had been the idea, Magnus mused. He had had Sabertooth kidnap the kid to trick them into coming here so they could be set up for the murders of the Mayor and the others. All had gone well, except for the fact that that cretin lost her. I was even planning on letting him use her as a plaything before I killed her, he thought. He had wanted them to come forward for the crimes in return for the life of the girl. "We still would have killed her," he thought out loud. In another world where all of them were totally unknown, it was quite feasible that he could make people think that they had been the ones behind the crimes.
His ponderings were interrupted by the sound of hard-soled shoes hitting his marble floor. He looked up to see the form of Commissioner Williams change into Raven Darkholme. "Everything is going well, Magnus," she said, looking straight at him. "We have the police force behind us, and there will be a number of them coming. Some will be in riot gear, just in case, and others will be there to protect you. Still others have decided to join the group in the vigil."
"Good," he said. "That will give us the upper hand. If Charles and his students engage us, we will have civilians that they will have to watch out for and police to look out for. They can always call for reinforcements. But, I do not believe that they will launch a full attack on account of all the innocents."
Castle Wyvern
Logan was pissed off more than ever. After watching the news broadcast, he sulked off, cursing all the way. He came back, nearly an hour later, to see his fellow X-Men beginning to make a plan that would effectively cut Magnus and his cohorts off from the civilians, and allow them to engage the criminal mastermind. He saw that the gargoyle clan was also helping in the production of the strategy. Storm, the second in command, was now arguing with Goliath and Elisa over whether the clan should participate in the conflict.
"I do not believe that any of you should be involved. It would not be prudent," the woman said, trying to prevent herself from getting angry.
"Yeah," Elisa said, "but we're all adults here. We can do whatever we want."
As Logan watched, the Professor came into the room. He had intentionally stayed out of the argument until all of his team had gathered. The man seemed to be annoyed, but whether it was from the bickering or the fact that they may very well have to fight the mayor of New York City, Logan could not tell. Before anything else happened, the Professor shouted with his telepathy, Silence! The very force of the message nearly made Logan fall to his knees.
I need all of you to listen to me. Starting to speak with his voice, he said, "Goliath, I do not doubt that you and your clan can hold your own in combat. However, all of these enemies that we have been speaking of are exceptionally lethal. Each is more dangerous than the previous. Nevertheless, I cannot control any of you; nor do I want to. Thus, if you do wish to assist us, I would like you to do two things. One, I would like you to attend we will hold an informational meeting in which I want each of you to attend - the reason behind this being your self-preservation. As I have already said, each of them is extremely deadly, and have specific abilities which lend them to that trait; it would be better to know what they can do before you get into a fight with them. Two, I want all of your clan to train with my team for even though you all are exceptional fighters with great strength and speed, our enemies have greater strength and speed. They are also exceptional combatants. Can you and your clan accept these provisions, Goliath?"
"Yes, we can agree to those terms."
Hank brought a 3-dimesional holographic imager to allow their new allies to see the enemies they would be facing. The image producer was nearly three feet wide, and had four legs supporting it. The light shone from underneath a grid-like lens, making the image. Standing only a foot high, it weighed almost fifty pounds and was powered by a radioactive isotope of cesium. As it was powering up, Lexington noticed, it sounded like electrical wires full of current. The first figure was now being shown. He noticed that the man was old, with long, white hair and a purple suit of what appeared to be armor. Despite the man's geriatric appearance, he was clearly well built.
"This," Hank began, "is Eric "Magnus" Lehrsser. He is also known as Magneto and is the mastermind behind whatever their plan was. He is able to create magnetic fields around his body, which can attract or repel any magnetic material. His abilities also allow him to fly, in a certain sense. He repels away from the earth with his magnetism, thus giving the impression of flight.
"This is Raven Darkholme, otherwise known as Mystique. She's highly skilled in the martial arts, and is a professional assassin. She has infiltrated government institutions of the highest secrecy. She is able to do this because of her shapeshifting abilities; she can change her form at will. This allows her to take the form of any human or humanoid organism or structure. She only has two disadvantages: her smell does not change when she changes form and she cannot perform any specific abilities that individual can perform."
Hank pushed a button and another image replaced Mystique's. The next person was a large man with blonde hair who had an almost feline appearance. He had large hands with sharp claws at the end, and a mane that traveled from both of his pectoral muscles and met behind his head. "This is Victor Creed, Sr. He is basically a larger form of Logan, here. He's nearly seven feet tall, and is extremely powerful. He has all the same capabilities: he heals rapidly, he has increased olfactory, auditory, and visual senses, and also has an adamantium-laced skeleton. It should be noted, however, that Sabertooth's skeleton is inorganic adamantium, just as Logan's used to be. But, since I came upon a form of organic adamantium that Logan now has for a skeleton, Logan's bones are much more stronger than Creed's and Logan can easily cut through Creed's bones.
"This fourth man is Omega Red," Hank said as he changed the picture. The image was now of a big man with blue skin and long, blonde hair pulled up in samurai fashion. He had a suit of red armor covering his entire body with a large omega on his chest. "He is a Russian criminal who is considered to be exceptionally lethal. His armor is made of an alloy of adamantium, but we're not quite sure what the combination is. On the underside of his wrists, he has areas from which he is able to launch tentacles that are made of the same alloy. These tentacles are able to absorb the life force of any individual he has coiled in them. He must absorb other's life forces because of he is able to produce pheromones, which, when inhaled, cause fatality, even to him. The only way we know how to stop him is to freeze him, but other than that, we know of no other manner."
He pushed the button again, and a giant of a man appeared. He had a gold-colored armor that covered his entire body, complete with a dome-shaped helmet. "This," Hank explained, "is Cain Marko. He is known more widely as the Juggernaut. His armor is of a magical nature, and is, to our knowledge, completely indestructible. The armor also gives him phenomenal strength; he can lift a large tank as if it were a basketball. The helmet protects him from telepathic interference. The armor, because of its magical properties, also protects him from most magic. He is also quite slow, both physically and mentally. We know of no way to defeat him save one. His only weak spot is his helmet; if you can get it off, you can turn him into a vegetable using telepathy or hit something vital in his brain with some form of projectile."
Hank motioned for the lights, and turned off the machine. As he did so, he said, "There is also another one of them. It is unknown whether this person is male or female, but it is known that this person possesses a biomechanical form of the Juggernaut armor. It gives the wearer triple the strength of the original magical armor, and presumably, protects him or her from physical and psychic attacks. That is why we brought our green ally here, to engage this unknown person. Now, if you don't mind, I think we should begin some physical exercises."
Moments before dawn, the gargoyles stood in their customary stances, awaiting their stone slumber. They had been worked hard, all of them sweating profusely, their hair matted down with sweat. They had been "exercising" all night. They had been in the courtyard all night learning the strengths and weaknesses in the ways their newfound enemies fought. Hank had brought a number of the holograph machines and had placed them all around on the walls, creating a Danger Room effect. As Elisa watched, the sun came up over the horizon, casting a bright light across Goliath's smiling face, freezing it in cold stone until the night came.
During the night, Xanatos and her had also been practicing alongside the gargoyles, in case it was necessary for them to get involved. It was during this time that he told the rest of them about a major robbery that had happened to one of his warehouses about a month before. He had started out by saying that some laser rifles had been stolen along with what he called, at first, "other items". It took him a few more minutes to tell them. He explained that he had had a surplus of the Steel Clan robots, and had been in the process of destroying them all, when it happened. He showed them the video from that night. On it was a clear picture of Juggernaut, Sabertooth, and several others stealing the warrior robots. He had been, for the last month, searching for the things.
"I didn't put two and two together until just now," he explained. Despite the bad news, the clan and the X-Men had gone over their plan for separating the civilians from the villainous group. They were planning on evacuating two buildings, and then toppling them when the crowd came. They were going to have Storm push the people back, and then Colossus and the Hulk were going to collapse the skyscrapers, creating a sort of arena to prevent them from getting in the crossfire.
Going into the castle to get some sleep, Elisa thought to herself: It's gonna be one Hell of a night.
Central Park, Dusk
The procession was now beginning with Magnus at the front surrounded by his closest friends. Mystique looked back to see the large throng of people stretched out behind them. It is going to get interesting, she thought. She had no doubt that the X-Men were prepared for them. But, she thought, they probably don't know about the multitude of robots we stole. Magnus had insisted on taking nearly a hundred of them, and giving each one a laser rifle. He had also taken it upon himself to make sure they had weapons they had stolen from the FOH mounted on their bodies. Now, many of them had Mini-guns attached to one or both of their arms, each being able to deliver nearly three hundred rounds per minute. Thanks to Wilkes' mechanical involvement in the designing of several publicly unknown aircraft for the USAF, he was able to attach numerous forms of missiles to the wings of the robots, as well.
"There's no way in Hell that they're ready for this," the chameleon-like woman said to herself as the procession headed out of Central Park.
Eyrie Building
Warren landed in the courtyard of the castle, coming face to face with Goliath, who had just woke several minutes before. He was out of breath, having flown as fast as he could from the park to the building, getting there in only about seven minutes. "They're coming. I was just over Central Park, and I saw a large group of people beginning to march in this direction. So, I flew in for a closer look only to see Magnus leading them. I think they'll be here in about fifteen or twenty minutes."
"Brooklyn, get Xanatos. Tell him that the marchers are coming and to get ready for battle." Turning to his beloved, Goliath said, "Elisa, if you do not want to be a part of this, I understand completely. With your captain behind the mayor, it might not be the best idea for you to be involved."
"Hell no! If you're involved, I am. It's that simple."
"In that case, would it not be better if you were to wear the armor that Xanatos constructed for you? It makes you as strong as a gargoyle, and it prevents you from getting hurt as easily as without."
"Well, considering what we're up against, it might be a good idea," the raven-haired detective said.
"Yer gonna need it, darlin'," she heard a voice say behind her. Turning, she saw the leader of the X-Men dressed ready to fight. He was wearing some kind of costume that she thought to be kind of lupine looking. It was something like a cross between leather and tights, and it fit him like a tight glove. She had known he was muscular, but seeing him in the tight clothing still surprised her. He had a massive chest, and bare arms, which, despite the cold, didn't seem to bother him. She looked down to his boots and noted that points of material extended on either side of both his legs up to almost his knees. Pulling his headgear over, she saw that it too had points of material that made him look almost wolf-like.
"Rogue, take Doc Jumbo here o'er ta that buildin' o'er there. Flyboy, take Piotr ta th' one on th' other side o' th' street. When Magneto passes ya, level th' buildin's. 'Ro's gonna push th' other people back. Let's saddle up."
On the street
Victor Creed was wearing an image modifying device, IMU, to hide the way he looked. Despite the change in his appearance, though, it did not prevent him from using his animal-like senses, nor his mutant abilities. Because of that, as he passed some skyscrapers, he thought he heard a sound, almost like that of buckling steel. Looking to his right, he thought he saw the building start to bend. That ain't possible, he thought to himself, before realizing the stupidity of the thought. He had seen shit that'd make most men piss their pants, some of it beyond the imagination of even the most insane man. He knew that the runt had seen more, because he was probably older, or the fact that he seemed to be involved in just about everything. Even so, he had seen his share of aliens, madmen, and who knows what else. Now, looking back over his shoulder, he saw that the building was now bending closer to the ground, and before he had a chance to turn his head, a strong, cold wind blew in from where they were headed. It was so strong and so cold that even he had to hunker down. Watching with rapt fascination, he saw that the people were being literally pushed back.
Turning his head, he saw the damned weather witch floating in the air. Those little sonsabitches, he thought. And then, out of nowhere, snow began to fall hard, so hard, in fact, it was almost a white out. Before he had time to notice that the falling snow didn't even touch the weather goddess, his attention was turned towards the buildings again. He now saw that they were falling in front of the marchers. The marchers who were now scared of the force collapsing the buildings and the fact that a mocha colored woman with eyes that glowed like lightning and long hair that was whiter than freshly plowed snow was controlling the winds and snow now chilling them to their very souls. "Why don't ya come an' fight me like a man, frail," Sabertooth cried out.
"'Cause you ain't no man, Creed," said a gruff, booming voice behind him.
The big, blonde mutant turned around and faced his archenemy. Wolverine was in a bushido fighting stance, his unsheathed claws ready to be plunged into Sabertooth's flesh. As he raised his hand to swipe at the X-Man, he felt claws go into the tops of this shoulders just before a big force knocked him down. Getting to his knees, he placed his hand on his shoulder, and feeling blood, stood up growling. Turning, he saw a rust-colored man-like thing. It had a beak, white hair in something like a Mohawk, a pair of small horns on his head, wings, a tail, and claws on his hands and feet. His eyes were also glowing like white hot embers.
"Don' let this sonuvabitch outta yer sights," Logan said to Brooklyn. "I gotta help th' others with that big jughead."
Goliath had faced off against Juggernaut, and had remembered, a little too late, how the invulnerability of the armored giant. He had tried to fight the man in a grapple, but he had nearly broken his arms and had only pushed him back, despite his talons digging into the cement. Finally breaking free, the giant gargoyle had begun attacking with his fists, but had only succeeded in bruising his knuckles. He had finally resorted to using his claws, but to no avail. Now, trying to keep a large distance between him and the armored man, the clansman was surprised when he charged, the large, armored left hand cocked over the man's helmet, ready to strike. Goliath, knowing he wouldn't be able to survive such a powerful blow, ducked slightly, and as the massive fist swung over his head, he grabbed the arm and, using all of his strength and Juggernaut's momentum, managed to throw Marko over his shoulder and onto the ground in front of him.
As the mammoth-like man stood, two metal covered arms wrapped around his own arms and around the back of his neck, placing him into a full nelson. The other X-Men, seeing Colossus put Juggernaut into this vulnerable position, dropped what they were doing to come to the aid of their comrade and to try to ake down the Human Juggernaut. Wolverine jumped and used his claws as levers, and the momentum of his body as torque to make a small crack in the weak spot of the man's armor, between the helmet and the adjoining body armor. Rogue coming swiftly behind him, using her incredible strength, pried off the head piece. Finishing him off, Psylocke made him fall asleep where he stood, his body slowly falling to the ground. Unbeknownst to him, he would not wake for over two days.
Wolverine grinned. He was finally going to be able to kick Creed's ass for hurting Jubilee, his darlin', his daughter. He's too damn confident, Wolverine thought. It was probably the adamantium Creed had on his skeleton. Won't he be surprised when I cut through his arm like a hot knife through butter? He was again in a traditional bushido stance. Sabertooth was in his regular animalistic stance, his legs bent, and arms out to this side with his fingers splayed. But, he was also being a lax. He wasn't keeping his guard up as well as he usually did.
"C'mon, runt! Fight me! Or are ya scared I'll hurt you like I hurt yer frail?"
Wolverine growled menacingly, unsheathing his claws, which were now covered with organic adamantium secreted by his bones. Sabertooth's face reacted slightly, at the sight of the adamantium on his opponent's bones, but immediately covered it up, trying to keep his "game face". Wolverine saw it though, and took the moment of surprise to make the first attack, making a shallow cut across Creed's chest, which quickly healed. From then on, it went back and forth, each one giving the other cuts that would kill any normal man. Finally, Creed made a mistake and charged at Wolverine, his left arm swinging for a deep slash across the chest. The shorter man, knowing what was coming, rolled to the ground, and at just the right moment, raised his arm, one claw out, and cut straight through Creed's arm.
"What the fuck," Creed yelled, looking down. Picking up the stump, and placing it on the remainder of his arm, waiting for it to heal, he made a low growl, and retreated into the night.
Colossus was now fighting Omega Red. He was the only one of the X-Men who didn't have to worry about the other Russians ability to create lethal pheromones. He was having a hard time, though, because of the man's adamantium armor and adamantium-like tentacles. In trying to stay out of the reach of the man's tentacles he was wasting too much energy. He then saw that Logan was through with Sabertooth, and motioned him over to cut the tentacles. Colossus knew that Wolverine couldn't stay long in the area of the pheromones, despite his healing factor.
"Now, Comrade," Colossus said so softly that only he and Wolverine could hear it. Then, in one sweeping motion, the ferocious man cut though both tentacles and made it out of the area of pheromones. Now the big, artistic Russian hit his fellow countryman in the chest, knocking into the wall of a building behind him. Walking slowly to Omega Red, Colossus balled his fist and gave the blue-skinned man a powerful blow directly to the armor of his chest. It did nothing though. After several more tries, Colossus gave up and decided to go for the head, despite his unwillingness to kill another human. Colossus readied himself and threw the punch, only to miss the man's head and hit his wrist. He had moved, but now his wrist had been obliterated, and the transportation unit on that wrist partially crushed. Noticing a faint glow coming from the transporter, Colossus began backpedaling, not trusting the light.
The light was now becoming much brighter, and much hotter. Omega Red was now screaming in pain. Now, though, the light seemed to cover the man, and was beginning to melt the metal of his armor. His body literally seemed to vibrate. Finally, his last scream was uttered as the light became to bright to look at. Those present covered up with their arms, trying to protect their faces. When they looked back, they found that he was no longer there.
"What the Hell just happened," Bobby asked.
Hank said, "I believe. . . I believe that he was atomized . . . alive."