Doom and Magneto looked at the beaten, broken and battered man as he lay dying on the floor.
The numerous holes on his body were still trying to heal themselves but they were reopened by a flex of Magneto's will.
Doom scowled as he saw the man's hand healing. The man who laid at his feet had cut off his arm during their first confrontation much to Doom's rage and shame. And although he had wiped off the shame of defeat with the glory of victory, the rage still remained.
He was Doom.
He was supposed to revel in his enemies defeat as they laid begging at his boots but he just couldn't accept this outcome. The man who bested him was not this weakling.
He refused to believe that the man who made him flee in retreat and cut off his arm as spoil could be taken down this easily. What then was the proof?
What was the proof that he lost an arm to a worthy foe and not just some fool?
Where was the validation for that claim?
Doom refused to accept his loss to someone who couldn't even put up any single fight.
He managed to calm himself down lest he did something stupid and with a flex of his hand, the transfigured chains grew small sharp barbed spikes and tore his thick skin as they wrapped all around his body.
"Find solace in the fact that you would be remembered by Doom as one of those who fell at his feet." Doom squeezed his hands and felt as the chains which were now covering the whole of the mutant's body crushed his bones, spine, and skull.
Doom waved his hands and felt the last breath of life leave his heart confirming the death of the man named Draul.
He turned to look at the man who did him a little favor as they both had the same goals.
"With this I believe our cooperation is-?!"
An ominous air blew through the mansion so much so that Doom and even the magically inept Magneto felt it.
Something was wrong.
Immediately they both snapped their heads to look at the last participant in the room.
The man who they both felt dead was getting up in a slowly ominous way. There was no urgency in his gait for someone who just magically escaped death.
The two men immediately erected barriers around themselves and got ready for any confrontation with the still waking Draul.
Magneto being the opportunist and realist that he was, used his connection to the various amounts of metals in Draul's body and manipulated them to skewer his heart.
It seemed to work as Draul staggered and started coughing blood.
He wanted to push it more and rid the earth of this man but he felt a wave of something and immediately he lost control of all the metal he had stored in Draul's body.
Tap. Tap.
The sound of walking echoed through the destroyed room as the two men looked at the man who was dragging himself forward – one step at a time.
Magic circles appeared around Doom's hands while metals orbited around Magneto's form.
"You know, all I really wanted was just a little peace and quiet. Just for a little while." Draul stopped when he was a few feet away from them and spoke, sounding really genuine about the words coming out of his mouth which creeped the other men in the room.
"If you had waited a week, hell even a few more days, then we'd be cool. Would've thanked you for the reprieve, truly." For the first time, Draul looked at both of them in the eyes with clarity.
"But you just had to ruin Christmas." He sighed as if it was truly a loss or some kind of unfortunate choice.
"Quit the rambling, fool. Doom grows tired of the words of a weakling." Doom had had enough of the dismissal the man was showing him and made to strike.
The roof of the house crumbled and was transfigured into a ball of spike that fell down at amazing speed to Draul.
The man in question didn't move a muscle to show that he was concerned about the danger falling on him literally.
Doom and Magneto almost had a smirk wiped off their face but unfortunately, it didn't completely form as they watched the man's eyes shine red before lasers came out.
They had made to block the attack they perceived was aimed at them but could only stand more shocked as the lasers, as if having a mind of their own, changed their directions at precise angles, making sharp turns before going upwards and skewering the spiked ball.
That action of Draul sparked the tension and immediately, the house devolved into a mad frenzy of promised death.
Magneto tried controlling the metal in Draul's body once more but it felt like something around Draul was preventing his influence making him abandon that path and used the metals around him, sending them hurtling at Draul.
Eric Lensherr was a man of few fears. There were not enough bane things on the earth that would produce such primal emotions in him but the scene in front of him made the all too unfamiliar emotion flash through him.
Everything he had sent at Draul were stopped a few inches around him with him still having that bored calm look on his face.
What he was doing was eerily similar to Magneto's electromagnetic fields and Magneto would know as no one could sense such fields as clearly as he could.
That application of power rang warning bells in the head of the two smart men. Of course they've seen Draul use multiple abilities but he was always restricted to them. All their information had said that those were the only abilities he had which could be attributed to the experiments he went through.
Culturing of X-genes had been going on for almost a century and there had been few successes of the subject having multiple X-factors.
But this?
The omnidirectional beams had been a big newsflash and now this?
There had been no mention of him having the ability to manipulate any kind of field.
A thought flashed through Doom's head and the danger and importance of the man before him skyrocketed.
Working in tandem with Magneto, he sent a force blast, while Magneto did the same, at Draul which worked as it pushed the man and flung him backwards destroying a part of the house in the process but who cares? Not them.
They didn't know why but the bland look on Draul's face had been sending them the wrong signal ever since he woke up. Even now, the way he got up from the ground with a small look of surprise on his face before it faded away did nothing to assure them.
Draul on his part, looked at his ruined shirt and ripped it off, showing his impressive musculature to the two men.
His body started looking like cracked clay as thin crack marks appeared all over him. But different from how it was before, the marks on his body now had some sort of direction to it. It wasn't as random as it once was.
His eyes were already blood red as his mouth bent into a small imperceptible smile.
Without waiting for anything else to happen, Doom brought his two hands together as green energy and yellow magic matrix joined together. The result of his actions were the ground under Draul's feet disappearing, making him fall into the deep burrow and green chains bursting out from the sides of the wall and striking Draul.
Draul reached the bottom of the hole as the chains of energy struck him repeatedly before binding him to the floor.
Above him was a metal construct that was of the same size as the hole in length and circumference that was heading towards him, intending to squash him against two hard choices.
Still the blank expression did not leave his face.
But he had to do something. Getting squashed by such a huge thing wouldn't do him any good.
'What to do?'
With a small exertion of force, he broke the restraints keeping him aground with ease. The metal was already near him and there was not much space for maneuvering or doing much about it.
He braced himself as the metal was a few inches above his head and stretched his hands upward to hold it.
He felt like he was holding up three trucks a few seconds ago only for it to be increased to five as the influence of Magneto increased the weight of the metal due to the force the metal master was exerting on it.
Draul's senses alerted him of what Doom was doing – another spell – but he didn't have the luxury to care about it as he thought of what to do with the metal block he was holding.
An idea came to his mind which he immediately implemented.
He charged a huge amount of electricity through the block which disrupted Magneto's influence for a brief second which the metal master gained back but that brief second was Draul needed as he, using the metal as a medium, molded the electricity around the block to the top of it.
All it took was a flashing second for a ball of electricity to form near Magneto and another fraction of said second for it to detonate at close range which sent the metal and magic masters flying and crashing into the rubble of the destroyed house.
With Magneto's influence gone, the metal black floated above Draul's hand before flying out of the hole. Draul tore a piece of the metal off and made a flat board which he controlled to bring him out of the hole Doom created.
The moment he landed, his sense alerted him of something behind him which prompted him to move his neck sideways, avoiding the overhead slash that Doom sent.
He hadn't brought his neck back to its former position when high pitched sounds hit his ears. He glared at the irritation as his lasers shot out and destroyed the eight devices Doom had dropped.
Magneto appeared above him with metals that were contorting in shape before spewing out like tentacles as each of them made their way to him.
He dodged between tentacles while sending attacks of his own and at the same time keeping a low head for Doom's strikes.
Both of his adversaries were masters of their field and were terrifying enemies to face on their own, talk less of facing them together, but he held his own.
This did not faze him a bit. Not a single bit.
Compared to what he saw between the veil,… that thing, that maniacal smile, nothing else had any worth.
The moment Doom crushed his bones he died. But only because 'it' allowed it.
It did all that just to see his face. To it, all he was going through, even this very moment, was all a joke.
He couldn't remember what it said but he could very well remember the presence and that smile.
'Entertain me!' was all that it wanted.
He couldn't even be angry at himself or at such a being because only he knew how grateful he was to it since it decided to give him a new life in a new universe. He couldn't even be angry at Doom and Magneto for long because to his knowledge and that thing, none of them mattered.
At the broad spectrum of things, they were all the same with tiny differences.
They were all in the same game, just different levels. Dealing with the same hell, just different devils. And oh, his devils were just built differently.
His house compound had been completely destroyed and he was thankful of the fact that none of the others were here. This wasn't a fight that they could participate in.
He created multiple orbs around his body and sent them at the ones Doom had created while he sent out ice to meet Magneto's.
He jumped up as he felt the lines under the earth start rising up due to the metal masters influence but didn't lose his composure even as he was airborne. He twirled to dodged Doom's magic blast and drew electricity around his finger tips in a fraction of a second and sent what was reminiscent of a lightning bolt at Magneto.
Magneto tried using his force field but the change was too much as it burned through and struck the metal master, sending him a few meters away from the epicenter as he shrieked in agony.
Doom not wasting time, invoked a high tier space displacement spell that affected an area rather than a single target. He wasn't strong enough yet in his mastery to create an illusory dimension but he could perform a much simpler space displacement.
If he were to be facing a Master of the Arts then such a spell would have been redundant as they could sense when magic is used and re-orientate their senses with magic, but a mutant being like Draul would find it almost impossible since he couldn't use magic.
Magic truly was the antithesis to all.
Draul frowned as he felt something washing over his senses but didn't pay it any mind and sent out jets of flames at Doom.
His frown deepened as he saw how the images flickered and how the flames completely missed Doom who was still flying.
'Sense warping magic?'
He could feel that the edge of his vision was stretched more than normal but other than that nothing else was wrong.
'Fool.'
He grinned inwardly at the thought of how victorious Doom might be feeling now and rushed at him. He punched at the air with a bang as his frown became more pronounced as his fist completely missed Doom.
He didn't just use his senses when he attacked but also the bioelectricity he could sense which was bolstered up by his brain waves. If it were magic that affected an illusion of senses, then his application of power would have bypassed it since he did not use his senses but rather something like echolocation. It was like him biting the bait of Doom's bioelectricity and using it to reel himself in but that wasn't what happened.
He crashed back to the ground and did a flip to escape the spells that were sent his way. He thought he had dodged all of them but one he thought was missing him by inches, defied the laws of space and hit him square in the chest. He had to force himself from coughing out blood as the spell wrecked his innards. Magic really was cheat stuff.
It was bypassing 80% of his durability to cause him damage.
Something was definitely fishy with whatever spell Doom had cast as it was not only messing with his senses but also with space.
Meanwhile, Doom, seeing as how his spell was having the intended effect, rushed at Draul as he sent out blasts of energy and spells, alternating between them so as not to give Draul the edge he had.
Midway through his attack, his sensors told him of an incoming projectile but he didn't relent as he knew who sent it. The metal hit Draul and pinned him down for a second while Doom sent out a lethal spell that was used for cutting things that were 'hard to cut'.
That spell would have taken a limb from the mutant had he not dodged it at the last second and sent out those omnidirectional lasers of his which caused both of them to retreat.
One of Doom's fears became real as he saw Draul dodging attacks one after another which made him know that the young man had somehow adapted to the space discrepancy.
They had to find a way to kill him now or he would be way too strong if he ever decides to hunt them down and Doom is no hunted prey.
With a rageful shout of indignance, Doom powered up his spells to an absurd degree that he hadn't mastered yet and Magneto seeing the level of importance his teammate took, decided to follow.
The earth cracked as dust rose in the air around Magneto while sparks of power and symbols of runes shone on Doom's armor.
Draul wasn't left in this show of dominance as his red pupils changed in flares as wisps of red flames covered his entire eye socket.
His body also grew an additional foot as new cracks came into being looking more like writing than cracks. Red lightning coursed through his entire body as he stared as his two biggest foes yet.
"Round 3. Start!"
KRAKOOOOM!
…
[Nick Fury POV]
Nick Fury was not a happy camper most of the time but thankfully he could at least spare a day to unhinge tomorrow.
He had few friends in his line of work that he could relax with… scratch that – he didn't have a friend that he could relax with so the invitation that Draul sent was one he would gladly accept, not that he would let the cunt know of it.
He reviewed most of the papers on his desk with extra scrutiny just in case the council wanted to pull one over his eye. Wouldn't be the first time either.
He was reviewing the reports on some missions he had his agents on when someone barged into his office.
In the name of whoever was Most High, there was not a soul that could step inside his office with such impunity and the scowl on his face increased when he saw a disheveled Coulson – that was when he started to panic.
He had never before seen such a Coulson. His partner's game face was so strong that not even him, Nicholas Fury, could compare and to see such a face being broken, Fury was prepared to push the big red button – Global Warfare.
"Sir it's an emergency!" Coulson practically screamed.
"Calm down Agent Coulson. Now tell me the reason for such franticness." Fury asked with his custom deadpan nonchalant expression even though his heartbeat was doing reps.
"Sir they've been reports coming in from Nauticals about irregular wave activities." Coulson spoke as he regained his calm but even Fury could see the twitch every now and then.
"Is that another crap about climate change? Could be one of the different activities that caused it, why should we be worried?" Fury asked.
"If it were just the waves then there'd be no need for worry sir, but NASA, NOAA, and even ESA are picking up these irregularities."
Fury immediately stood up and left his office while Coulson shadowed him and continued giving his report.
"…Homeland's report just came in and they said that the… plates were shifting, causing typhoons at sea and underwater eruptions. We believe it to be artificial… or the work of a mutant. The magnetic fields around the coast of New York and the neighboring states are in a constant state of flux, heavily changing the weather patterns."
Fury's face became hard as he realized that the situation was worse than what he expected. Bells were ringing in his head and it wasn't jingles.
He asked Coulson, "Have we been able to pinpoint the cause?"
"We were able to locate the general location… It's here in New York, but we haven't been able to get the precise location due to the magnetic interference. Electricity and network is down in a quarter of New York and counting. It's like the end of the world out there sir."
Fury grimaced at the irony of what Coulson just said and made his way inside the room full of screaming and shouting geeks hacking away at their screens.
"Talk to me." A simple order was what he put forth before Hill and Barton came to him to deliver their reports.
"Sir, tech picked up the anomaly 15 minutes ago but it was just negligible as it could have been anything so it wasn't reviewed on time." Hill said.
Fury snarled at that and asked with a dangerous edge to his tone, "And how long did it take to devolve into this mess?"
"Less than 5 minutes sir, and the effect is still rising."
Barton interjected at that point. "I sent a team to case and cordon the area around where we picked up as the source but our best reading gave us a 10km range. It's too wide, and also the fact that communication is down and the storm is picking up at an insane rate plus the people panicking… it's fuckfest eve sir."
Fury didn't waste anymore time and reached for his inner coat and brought out his burner and dialed the only number it connected to but the signal was cut before it even rang.
He tried again but the signal was gone. Only he and those around him who knew who was on the other end of that call frowned as the situation was becoming more dire.
"Has anyone got in touch with him yet?" Fury asked after trying again but failing before he stopped altogether.
"I tried calling him to see if he could help check out what was going on in the city… but, it's like half of New York is dead, and the brewing storm is not helping." Barton said.
"What of the others?" Fury said as he began to run scenarios inside his head and coming to conclusions he didn't like.
"I think Bucky and Steve should be out since they invited me the last time we spoke but I don't know about the Widow sisters."
"Barton and Hill, I need you out there. Get to Draul or any of those around him asap. Something big is happening in the city and something tells me he's at the center of it. Move out." Fury commanded.
"Sir, we finally have satellite imaging!" Someone called out to their attention.
"Give me my eye." Fury tapped on some screens and enlarged the picture for all to see.
"Oh my God!" Someone exclaimed.
It was surprising and terrifying that even Fury paled as he saw the discrepancies of the satellite image and data while comparing it to what it was an hour ago.
Three typhoons were heading towards New York and that was the least of the calamities that was coming for them. Multiple ships and vessels had already been sunk in a span of 20 minutes.
Signs of earthquakes were appearing all over the city but what shocked everyone in the room was the reading that said that New York had an elevation of 5% and rising.
Smaller magnitude earthquakes had already started appearing all over the state but that recent development would raise such scales to over 7.5 in less than an hour.
"Everyone get off your asses now! New York is flying and unless today is the end of the world then I want it back on the ground… where it should be." Fury barked out his orders while Hill and Barton broke into a sprint as the situation just got way worse than anything they'd imagined.
…
[The X Mansion]
Ororo stood at the balcony with a frown on her face as she watched the night sky. As someone who's domain was the sky, she was among the first of the few people who noticed such anomalies.
She could feel it.
This wasn't mother nature but someone else bending the natural laws to suit their needs. It felt wrong.
Even from where she stood she could feel the anger, hate and other negative emotion that was being projected. There was nothing natural about this, someone forced such changes in the atmosphere and it made her feel uncomfortable.
"So you can feel it too huh." She looked at her side and saw Logan with a tense expression on his face as he looked straight ahead even when there was nothing to see. "Do you know what's causing this?"
She shook her head and continued staring at the sky for a while before she closed her eyes.
Calling forth the power of storms, she floated upwards as the night sky came alive with lightning. Using her connection with the elements of the sky, she spread her power and influence far and wide and used it to trace back the cause of the catastrophes that were happening.
Her calm face fell into a frown as she felt the number of accidents and cause of deaths that the disasters had caused. It was monumental to say the least.
She was able to find the exact direction it was coming from before she canceled her powers and flew down.
"Got it?" Logan asked.
"Yes. I believe it's someone's doing, we have to help." She said resolutely. The recent events had fueled her drive to help others. She didn't want to stand by and let someone suffer when she had the power to prevent that.
"Let's go tell Chuck and the others."
They went inside to find the Professor and the other members of the team already in their combat gear which brought a small smile to Ororo's face. They were getting stronger with each experience.
"Before you all go, I believe there's something you should know in regards to what I think is causing this… or rather who." The Professor said and gained their whole attention.
Cerebro had lit up like Christmas lights on Christmas Eve which was an acute irony but one the Professor didn't want to use.
He had identified three signatures at the eye of the storm and he was very familiar with two of them. The three signatures were powerful, extremely so, but one was at the top with the two others below.
"I believe none of you would be unfamiliar with the three people I suspect are the cause of this tragedy." He said.
"Who are they Charles?" The Beast asked.
"I believe Dr. Von Doom and Magneto are having a rematch with Mr. St. Cross." Charles dropped the bomb.
"… It's a city wide chaos outside."
"That it is."
"And you are saying three people are the cause of it?"
"That I am." Charles nodded.
"Is Draul the one causing the earthquakes and storms?" Ororo asked, recalling the anger she felt through the connection. It wasn't like what she felt sometimes from Draul. This one felt like it was lacking… merely lashing out.
"I don't think so. I believe this is Magneto's doing."
"Is that a joke Chuks? Since when could Mr. Oh-so-important create storms and quakes?" Logan asked not believing that one but. Why should he?
"I don't believe he's exactly creating these phenomena per se. What I think he's doing is manipulating the magnetic field of the earth and the disruption from his actions are what are causing these tragedies."
The room fell quiet as they couldn't help but wonder if this was how strong Magneto truly was. None of them had personally fought Magneto as he always was quick to leave any confrontation.
"If he's fighting Draul then he should be prepared to accept the chance of death because I know for a fact that Draul doesn't take prisoners." Logan said. His few running with Magneto had put the guy at the top of the list of people he hated.
The Professor fell silent at that statement while the others left.
"What have you done Eric?"
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Read up to 25 chapters ahead at pa*treon /Draul_TheOminous.