Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men, nor the Incredible Hulk; they are the property of Marvel. I, also, do not own The Gargoyles, who are the property of Disney.
Note: I'm not sure, but I think "vader" is German for father, if not it's something like that. Also, if anyone is wondering, the reason why it takes me so long to get my chapters up is because I have so much homework, especially with chemistry (over 11 hours were spent working on our last take-home test, and this was ten to fifteen people, people).
Rogue now stood next to Remy in the street, who, to her annoyance, had decided to light up. She didn't really mind the fact that he smoked, but rather the smell that accompanied it. But, she thought, there's nothing I can do about it. She looked around to see her brother appear. He had, up until a few moments ago, been at the castle guarding the pregnant women and Jubilee with Bishop, Betsy, and Bobby. Their mother, Mystique, had already been sent back, the switch on her transporter being activated by Hank.
"Kurt," she asked, "how's everythin' goin' up there?"
"Okay, but Jubilee was madder zan Hell when she couldn't come and help out. The frauline has become so much like her vader; she already talks like him."
"Ah know. They can really put up a fight, can't they," she said, motioning to Angela and Broadway, who had fought Magneto without much help.
While the X-Men had been teaming up on Juggernaut, the couple had been left to face off against the Master of Magnetism. Though they knew about him, from the briefing they had gone through, they still underestimated his power. So, when they had begun fighting him, they had not been anticipating the fight he would give him. Broadway had made a lunge at the old man, but had been sideswiped by a speeding hubcap, that, fortunately, had only hit him in his stomach with the bulging side of it. The blow only achieved in making angry, though. It had been something that Magnus had not expected; the blow would have easily killed most humans. But, the fight had only escalated from there. In the end, Magneto had been throwing cars at them, trying to crush them. Because of one of these cars, Broadway had been forced to back up into a lamppost, and was surprised when it began to wrap around him. It had, in fact, almost crushed the rotund gargoyle, and would have, had it not been for Goliath, who, after just throwing the armored giant to the ground, managed to somehow rip the post in two. Meanwhile, Angela had cornered Magneto, and, with a powerful punch, had knocked the old man flat. She and the others present had not noticed that he had pressed the single button on a remote-control device he had in his hand, which would later make them regret not sending him back to the X-Men universe then.
"Hey, Hank, wasn't there another guy," Angel asked his blue-furred teammate.
"I do believe so, Warren. But, yet I do not see him anywhere," Beast answered, looking upon the scene of the battle that had just occurred. The blue-skinned man was right; there was someone missing. It took the good doctor several moments before he realized who it was. "It is the individual who was new to their organization. What did Robert call him, the Cybernaut?"
"Yeah, Hank," the younger man said, with only the slightest hint of uneasiness. The fact that the guy was supposedly stronger than Juggernaut was frightening. Especially considering that the person that they had brought along for the sole purpose of defeating this guy was still at the Eyrie building. Before the winged man had any more time to think about it, a volley of shots hit the ground to his left.
The shots had been aimed at Gambit, but as luck would have it, Rogue had seen the thing that was about to attack him. She had grabbed the Cajun, tossed him on the ground and had covered him up before he knew what hit him. "Gambit t'ink we be goin' to fast, non," the Cajun said jokingly, noticing they were face to face on the ground.
But Rogue had not heard him. Instead, she had been focusing on what had attacked her. It seemed to be a robotic gargoyle. She was slightly surprised at the new development, until she remembered that Xanatos had told them that some of his robots had been stolen. As she watched, it turned around and lined up for another attack run. As the robot picked up speed, Rogue lifted herself in the air and charged at her new enemy. Easily dodging the oncoming bullets, she drew her arm back and hit the machine with a strong uppercut, strengthened by her weight and momentum. The Steel Clan robot blew up in a brilliant flash of fire, and as Rogue turned around, she saw at least a hundred more of the machines coming at her.
"Ah, Hell."
The battle between the Steel Clan, the gargoyles, and the X-Men had now begun. Wolverine seemed to be having fun destroying the robots; they were small, as compared to the Sentinels, and were easy for him to cut through, despite the armor of their metal hides. Angel was leading any of them that followed him on a suicide run into the asphalt, which most of them couldn't pull out of the dive; those that did survive were now being taken out by Goliath, Rogue, Angela, and Broadway. Those that were coming too close to the castle were being picked off by Bishop, Xanatos, in his battle gear, and Jubilee.
It was during this foray that the man known as the Cybernaut tried to get away. He had with him a great amount of the money they had taken from the banks they had robbed. He came out near the end of the battle; it didn't look good for their side. The robots were getting their asses kicked, royally. I told Magnus that they wouldn't work as well as we wanted them to, he thought. As the last robot was destroyed, the blue-furred doctor stepped in front of him, trying to block his path..
"It would be unwise for you to retreat any further," Beast said, his voice polite, yet powerful.
"Whatcha gonna do 'bout it, freak? Ya ain't got the strength to stop me!"
"That is quite true, but I do not intend to challenge you," he said. "The gentleman behind you will, though."
The Cybernaut turned to see one of the most frightening sights of his life. In front of him stood a mountain of a man, almost literally. He was about 7'2", or so, and maybe weighed about half a short ton*. His skin, hair, and eyes were all green. His fists were each about the size of a bowling ball, and his muscles were so large that he could see every movement of them under his taut skin. It was, he knew, the Hulk. And, it looked to him, as if he might be pissed off.
"No hurt Hulk's friend," the thing yelled.
The Cybernaut slowly turned back towards the blue-furred mutant, and then, in a display of raw strength, delivered an uppercut to the Hulk's chin, sending him flying into a wall. He stood up quickly, his irises glowing with iridescent fury fueled by his mutated adrenalin. Then, with a grunt and an exclamation of "Hulk mad," the great personification of primal rage leapt almost straight up, seemingly aiming for his new opponent. The Cybernaut was now looking in the sky for the behemoth, but he had not landed.
"Seems like your champ ain't gonna fight, don't it," he said, turning around. Before the sentence was completed, the Jade Giant landed on his back, forcing his own 1100 lb bulk and the man in the robotic replica of Juggernaut's armor through the pavement and into the sewer. Banner had not jumped vertically, but horizontally, covering over a mile in a single bound, out of sight and hearing range of all of the combatants. He had then jumped back, and landed on the man's back.
Climbing out of the gaping hole now in the street, the Hulk was now covered with dust from the crushed asphalt and concrete. Before he could fully extricate himself, a large hand grabbed his ankle, trying to drag him back down. Instead of letting that happen, the gamma-radiated scientist grabbed the man by the wrist, and flung him, his body landing in front of a car where Beast and Gambit had just been. Picking up the car, the cybernetic giant threw it with all his might, aiming for Banner's chest. As the car came flying at him, the irradiated physicist cocked his fist and let loose with a powerful blow, splitting the car in two and bathing him in a blazing inferno as the gas tank exploded. Bellowing with primal rage, the immense mountain of mutated flesh and bone rushed the artificially enhanced combatant, and, with strength equal only to his infinite fury, hit his opponent dead in the chest plate, his entire weight behind the blow. The Cybernaut was knocked fifty feet back, and as he tried to stand up, alarms began blaring into his ears, warning him there was a breach in his armor.
"Ah, shit," he said. Looking down, he saw a large crack going from his right shoulder to his abdomen on the opposite side. Now, sparks were beginning to scorch his skin as some of the robotic motors began to act on their own accord. He now saw that the Hulk was advancing, and seemed to want to finish what he had started.
"Listen man, I wasn't gonna hurt your friend. In fact, he's my friend too," Wilkes pleaded. He realized, though, there was no way to try and rationalize with a creature running on pure emotion. He was trying to protect himself now by holding out his hands in front of him, because he knew he wouldn't stand a chance if the Hulk were to decide to hit him again in the chest. Despite his pleading, the Hulk was too mad to calm down so easily. Before the Cybernaut even knew what was happening, he found his arms in the vice grip of the Jade Giant, his own motors straining against the immeasurable strength of the monstrous being before him. Looking at his own arms with horrid fascination, he realized that the armor there was cracking too. Finally, the Hulk's power overcame the armor's strength, and crushed the man's arms, leaving only two bloody stumps.
Despite this, the Hulk's temper was not satiated. In a moment of pure emotion, he let loose with a punch to the man's chest plate, obliterating what was left of it, and causing immeasurable internal damage. The blow knocked the Cybernaut back over one hundred feet, one of his lungs crushed, and most of his ribs broken beyond repair. Coughing up blood, the man now only wished for his life to end quickly, for no more pain. He got his wish as the Hulk jumped, his right fist drawn back, and landing, punched through the man's helmet and annihilated his brain, turning it to mush, with the force as an atomic bomb.
The body of the Hulk now started to become smaller as his anger began to abate. Slowly, his humanity regained its foothold in his consciousness, and he realized what he had done. "What have I done," the doctor asked out loud, his voice filled with grief. Rogue flew slowly over to him, and half-lifting, half-walking, she brought him over to the X-Men and the Clan of Wyvern, both groups having witnessed the results of Dr. Bruce Banner losing control.
The battle was finally over.
Twenty-Two Hours Later
"Authorities are at a loss to explain the destruction that occurred here overnight. Several buildings have been destroyed, with only rubble remaining of what were once immense skyscrapers. The amount of damage would seem to indicate an earthquake, but no other buildings have been damaged. The one thing that is clear, however, is that Mayor Lehrnsser has mysteriously disappeared, along with several of his advisors. After the first buildings collapsed, it was unclear to the demonstrators as to what happened to those people. This is Melissa Briden reporting for Channel 12 Action News. Back to you Bob."
As the brunette reporter stopped talking, Hudson turned off the television and went to see the X-Men before they left. Jubilee had finally healed from the wounds that Sabertooth had inflicted upon her, so it was safe for her to go through the wormhole without being harmed by its antimatter. As the old warrior stepped out into the courtyard, he saw that the snow that had been falling earlier had finally stopped. Now, as he reached his clan, he saw Beast press several buttons on his matter transporter, and a bright light enveloped him as his body disappeared from sight.
"I hope ye will come back soon, lad," Hudson said to Colossus. "'Twas a good thing to meet ye, an' I think I might jus' decide to take ye up on yer offer fer me to visit the mansion."
"I would like that, Comrade Hudson. It would be good to show someone else my new paintings. But, I think that I will begin a painting entitled "The Protectors of Wyvern Castle", soon."
"That would be an honor, Piotr Nikolaivich," said Goliath, walking over to shake the Russian artist's hand.
"Aye, lad. 'Twould be th' first time someone 'as made a picture o' us"
Now, as the last of the X-Men left, the old gargoyle couldn't help but to have a premonition of something very bad about to occur. He had such a feeling of foreboding, that he was actually beginning to scare himself, something that had not happened since he was almost a hatchling.
"Goliath, lad, do ye feel that?"
"Yes, Hudson, I do. Something is coming. Something terribly devastating, I fear," the leader of the clan said, his stoic features showing a rare sign of distress.
Meanwhile
. . .
"Hey, Marty, would you look at this," the old homeless man said to his friend.
"What is it, Al?"
"Look what I found." Marty turned around from the barrel fire he was warming his hand next to and turned to see his friend wearing a weird looking watch. It had numbers on it, but it didn't look like it told time. It had a red insignia at the top of it that looked like a horseshoe. Had either one of them knew what it was, they would have realized it was the last letter in the Greek alphabet, an omega.
"Hey, Al, I wouldn't play with that. It looks like it's been through Hell and back," the man warned his friend as he began fiddling with some buttons.
"Uh-oh. What'd I do?" The liquid-crystal display (LCD), on the watch was counting back from ten, and at every number, the watch-thing emitted a loud beeping sound.
As the countdown reached zero, the watch made itself into an odd looking conical structure. The small machine was now getting incredibly hot, and burned right through the man's arm. Landing on the ground, the device began spewing antimatter, each atom of antimatter reacting with an atom of matter, annihilating each other and producing an incredible amount of energy.
The stream of antimatter shot into the atmosphere and began to spread itself, slowly at first, and then picking up speed.
Castle
Wyvern
The clan of Wyvern stood in their castle watching as the beam of energy was spreading throughout the sky. It was reminiscent of scenes from the movie "Independence Day"; only this was destroying everything it came in contact with. The Xanatos family was standing with the clan, watching helplessly as their world was destroyed. Turning to his assistant, Xanatos asked, "Owen, is there any place the Puck can take Alex to get him away from this?"
"I'm afraid not, Mr. Xanatos. Even Lord Oberon cannot do anything about this. It is beyond his power. There is no place in the universe that will remain intact."
Xanatos cleared his throat. He looked to his wife, Fox, kissed her forehead, and embraced her as his own eyes began to moisten at the thought of what was happening. It was the end of the world. He now stood there with his family waiting for the inevitable.
Goliath was standing with Elisa next to his perch. They were all alone, the rest of the castle's inhabitants in the courtyard. He was holding her in a powerful embrace, trying to face the fact that he and all that he had ever known would be destroyed in but a single moment.
Looking down into the detective's eyes, he said, "I love you, my Elisa."
"I love you, Big Guy."
They then lost themselves in a kiss as the wave of energy washed over them, and all they had ever known. In less than a second, the dreams, hopes, and futures of two families, linked now for eternity, were shattered.
Then, all things ceased to exist on the planet known as Earth as the wave of antimatter spread to the sun, obliterating its glow, and continued on its course to the ends of the universe.
Note: The reaction of antimatter and matter presented above, does actually take place, however, the amount of antimatter ever produced in a nuclear reaction is only present as a positron, or a positively charged electron. And, don't fret, this ain't the end, people. There's still 1 chapter to go.