Writer: Rowland Wells
Disclaimer: I am in no way any part of Marvel Comics or any affiliation of their enterprise. I do not own the X-Men or any Marvel Characters.
Alternate
X-Men
#22
"1000 yard stare"
Clutching the headset to her head while she tried to decipher the incomprehensible garbled message coming through the com, Dr. Valerie Cooper set the image of her correspondent on-screen. The giant monitors of SHIELD ground headquarters in the U.S capital displayed the image of Jamison Atkins, adorned in soldier uniform and at the AV controls onboard one of the twenty SI-03mk2 helicopters. His brow was deeply crumpled, and the expression of anxiety, fear and concern on his face was all to clear as the gigantic speakers next to the mainframe of screens shouted out the crashing explosions hitting outside the interior of his transport. Behind Atkins, the SHIELD operatives could see the active muster of nervous troops who looked fit to burst from the tension. They shivered and shook while the percussion smashed against the helicopter's hull; it was ready to split open. 'Much of the barrage has been evaded,' Atkins shouted down the infrequent line 'I don't know how long the machines can hold together under such vibratory stress. It's truly hit and miss as to whether we can land safely!'
Valerie looked on in mute incredulity.
'…Hang on; I think we've been struck…' The line crackled quickly. 'It seems to be just a graze; alert the captain here. What? Well make sure you're all strapped in! Hold on a damn second.'
The giant speakers throbbed quietly while the line tried to re-establish contact.
'…keep it down, we can't hear outside! Get him off the floor, I don't care whether he's dead – we'll be tripping over… what was that?'
The bright spark went off in the background of Atkins's display, and he pumped out a few last words before the entire cabin was consumed with flame. 'That's a positive hit, a positive hit! We're out of the run…'
* * *
All the soldiers aboard the SHIELD helicopter convoy could do anymore was gaze in disbelief while the smoking gun cloud of fog fluttered majestically above the high cliffs of the Savage land. Such a miraculous effort was being made to defend the sanctity of the Acolytes most reverend domain, that the armed men felt belittled in the face of it.
The grating rotor blades of each of their wondrous helicopters masked the roar of hissing steam as more and more projectiles were hurled at lightening speed toward them from the shores and concealed banks of cliffs, hills and caves. Hundreds of explosions burnt the evening sky like fireworks in a garden, only the payload of each was infinitely more deadly. The convoy was quickly being diminished, Fury's flying accomplices brought down over the icy Antarctic waters in a blur of fire. He was able to do nothing about it.
The rockets were sent from Surface-to-Air sites stationed at all points over the network of natural volcanoes and cliffs that decorated the borders of the Savage land. Such a flurry of shooting missiles and other weapons was creating quite a fog over the atmosphere of the small nation. The noise was incredible for those below – the simultaneous launching of more than a hundred individual weapons from their housings at different locations.
It became almost impossible to navigate the flooding influx of objects; some went off beside the speeding helicopters, others missed, and a few struck the convoy procession straight on target. Even with the technology of countermeasures and nerve-sense movement within the vehicles, they were dropping like flies over the clear blue water below. Explosions rocked the very sky through which they ploughed, and the chilling inevitability of mortal danger sent everyone into a schizophrenic panic onboard. The pilots tried as much as they could to dodge and evade incoming projectiles, but the oncoming barrage proved too fortified for many of the drivers to handle. Either dropping lower or higher to escape such a beating, they were eventually caught in the fire and burned. Many let off their own armaments before going down, and a stream of gunfire and trailing missile vapour cried their resistance to the very end.
Fury watched from his view port on the side of the leading SI-03mk2, aghast. His entire team operation hinged on the reliability of their stealth approach and overwhelming assault, and now both were diminished to hopeless levels. Having no way to escape the impending danger either was adding to his fear. The convoy had come too far into the perimeter of Magneto's defences by flying low, and to turn about and run would simply result in total annihilation. His mouth went dry, his throat burned with gathering self-pity, and a terrible feeling of responsibility clenched at his gut. He sweated straight through his combat suit.
More and more wingships were destroyed in the orange smoky plumes of bursting slaughter while the thinning convoy progressed shamefully. Missiles flung at speed past the remaining vanguard as it attempted to navigate the jutting rocks and great icebergs that poked from the shoreline of the Savage land. They weren't particularly far from touching down, but the constant hail suppressed the helicopters to a hovering crawl. The crosswind billowing in from thousands of miles of desolate white ice beat against the convoy suddenly, and knocked them off course. They came dangerously close to smashing into the side of a stretching jut of land, able to escape it only by the abrupt lift of pressuring air that bypassed them in favour of going over the land higher up. It worked to their advantage as well, sending oncoming projectiles reeling from altered trajectories.
The five remaining SI-03mk2's were nearly passed the rising falls of the shoreline cliffs, and any defences still active amongst the coast were incapable of preventing their ascension into Magneto's hidden realm. Through the smoke, wind and fire, they had arrived to bring their adversary to his knees. Granted their ranks had been thinned considerably, but to all intents and purposes they were still a fighting force.
Making it past the gauntlet, the convoy hovered low of the serene jungle vistas, spitting low-intensity gunfire greeting them from the postings dotted throughout the land. This was the time to fight back, and the SI-03mk2's shot off every armament they were carrying. Spiralling rockets and missiles dashed across the dirt jungle floor, clearing a path for SHIELD to get to Avalon, the epicentre of the Savage land.
* * *
Cortez ran through the grand halls of Magneto's fortress, trying to reach his master in time. His message was urgent, and the news grave indeed. Wishing to incite as much inner anger and hatred within the dread lord as possible, Cortez had catalysed the rise of mutantkind with his folly. Already discovering how to manipulate the weapons systems to their full potential, he had wielded the arms to deadly extent, and nearly obliterated the helicopter convoy. Several had slipped through, and now the coastal defences could no longer handle internal infection. He had to brandish the natural fury of Magneto in order to deal the coup de grace to their opposing force. Further hostility could be treated in time, especially that of Xavier and the rags of his X-Men. The Acolytes thankfully already had the Wolverine in their grasp, but several more were needed to bulk their cabal, just to display force of power when necessary. It would be his dreams come true for Fabian Cortez to lord it over the entire mutant race, free from any shackles of aberrant human tyranny and oppression, and the fundamental emotional envy that sprouted right along with it.
Rounding the last corner at a quick pace, the Spanish mutant entered his master's throne room, observing furtively the arrayed audience. Magneto stood at his high glass window overlooking the Savage land in all its rare grandeur. Xavier and Logan knelt by submission from his sister, Anne Marie and Delgado who stood opposite Magneto; the rest of the Acolytes were present in their final hour as well, flocking for their master. Cortez acknowledged their attendance, and went to the high lord of the domain. 'SHIELD, the United States funded agency is assaulting our borders; they may have already touched down in our midst. Do I have your permission to confront them?'
Magneto turned wearily from his based position. 'I know of their insolence, Acolyte.'
'What can we do to combat them, besides the defences?' Pietro asked, standing by his father's side as a son.
Magneto scorned him, but his impatience seemed directed at everyone. 'Perhaps it is not my power and utmost influence defending my people from the Americans' butchery outside of Avalon's walls, then? Rest-assured that I am taking steps from this spot to ensure protection over my people is paramount among my concerns.'
'Will you stop now that Fury and his forces are making you listen to reason, Erik?' Charles enquired in a self-aggrandizing way, even though he lay crippled on the floor with Anne Marie's hand clasped firmly around his collar. 'Will you ever give up the "noble cause"? Do your very people have to fall in cold blood in order for your clouded judgement to accept that blind fact?'
'I say now that my hand resides over every man, woman and child's head under my care in this land. The indomitable will I hold over my far-reaching abilities certifies that perception!' He shouted, stepping down from the pedestal. His steps were abnormally laboured, but he maintained dignity despite.
'And how long can you keep it up for, while the blood courses from old wounds as if they were fresh?' Charles replied, indicating to his adversary's arduous performance.
A clout to the back of the neck stopped Xavier from further aggravation, and Anne Marie stepped over to her brother. 'Please lord Magneto, we are ready to defy their intentions to the last one among us! We will not fail you.'
He conceded after mere moments, perhaps knowing that she was right. 'You had better not, woman, or your lives will pay for the consequences.'
* * *
The tumultuous jeering cry of the enraged mob echoed dissonantly through the X Mansion's damaged darkened hallways. Electricity was out for the entire building, and even the backup generator had run down in absence of replenishing the original source. At the moment of elimination, the monitors inside the secluded com station died, and the cold glow that illuminated Ketteridge's features like a beacon of hope cut out. He was left in a shroud of black evening light, with little comfort other than a discarded, empty shotgun and a warm spout of crimson blood oozing continuously from his ribs. He had only been put down several minutes ago, but the frenzied rush to chase the sprinting mutants had left him all alone. The Friends of Humanity were in the upper levels of the giant estate, and the officer chosen to lead the final raid was by himself. The wound was fatal, he knew that, but he only wished it had knocked him unconscious for the ride first.
* * *
The three young mutant outcasts ran for their lives down the abandoned corridors of the Mansion with all the desperation of frightened children. The mob followed behind them, trying to assemble its members into each of the exits so to cut off the mutant's escape. Cries went up into the charged atmosphere for blood: 'Cursed muties! They're all dead anyway! Kill them! Hate 'em!'
The racket resounded in their ears, and the three made a quick dash for the conservatory at the back of the main compartment of the estate. The glass shook with thundering footsteps and shattered above their heads, coating Wanda, Scott and Betsy with falling shards. Panicky howls went into the air and suddenly, the mob was upon them once more. Mustering as much hate-fuelled strength as he had just moments before with a gun in his hand, Scott raised his glasses, and a red beam of force drove a thorough wedge straight through the ranks of the FOH. Burly men and woman hooked on the adrenalin from the chase launched themselves at the helpless three, exhausted and drained to their toes from such frantic exertion. 'Leave us alone! God, why don't you all just leave us alone? We're only kids!'
'And one day you'll be old enough to despoil the land on which our descendents fought wars over to claim! You don't deserve existence in such a rich land!'
The people brandished clubs, knives, custom-made swinging weapons and even guns. They circled menacingly, ready to lynch the mutants. One darted for Scott, but he dodged, and let a blast into the man's back. Another made for him in the wake of his battered companion, but Betsy managed to fling him away with a quick wave of her hand. They were snatched up in cold, unyielding arms, and prepared themselves for the pathetic end. 'No! I won't let you butcher more of us to satisfy your unfounded bloodlust!' Wanda proclaimed defiantly. She conserved her physical energy, and readied herself. 'Magneto was right to try and kill all of you! You're a virus, and cancer eating away the very substance of your well-being! To the end, your motives and actions will have killed off most of the population! I condemn you all forever!' She brought about a catastrophic turn of events with her influence over the natural chaos within the world, and shattered the bending structure of the conservatory. Timber burst and glass fell out of place while heavy footfalls vibrated throughout the destructive scene. Furniture crumbled to pieces, blocking the path of retreating protesters, and Scott and Betsy were dropped to succumb to the falling mess.
Quick to react, Betsy projected a psychic bubble up around the three, while her fellow former X-Man let loose with his blasts. Had it not been for the plummeting flow of crumbling debris, they surely would have held out against their harassment.
* * *
Battle cries flew up into the darkened skies over the Savage land as Magneto's Acolytes poured out from the veiling security of Avalon to fight off the SHIELD soldiers. The SI-03mk2 helicopters had touched down, and their cargo fought back the vicious assault on the accompanying vehicles with a vengeance. Machine gun fire and scathing screeches of mutant powers blistered across the atmosphere and it became truly deafening amid the once verdant jungle vista floor. Clearings had been made by burning branches and shrubs set alight with rocket fire by the previously airborne helicopters. Avalon itself was safe from harm, but only through Magneto's competency.
Ducking under fire from such aggressive assertiveness, Cortez directed his comrade Acolytes into the fray with all the commanding intensity and majesty of Magneto himself. The helicopters had been placed in a rather haphazard vanguard on the ground, and the soldiers had taken up an offensive stance around them. Indicating to his troops, Cortez ordered Delgado, Cargill and Javitz to take out the transports while Anne Marie, Chrome and himself took on the troops with their superior combat techniques.
A screaming war cry tore the air mightily, and in the name of their leader, the Acolytes hurled themselves into the destructive carnage. Many of the Savage land's innate defenders were already contesting the soldier's invasion, but their attack was dying off. Cortez led a mutant-power energized assault on their stability. Bodies were dashed to the side and flares of power launched into the sky while blood stained the dirt ground a gruesome red. Machine guns and rockets blasted into the fray, scattered people while many took cover among the discarded wreckage. The pilots aboard the helicopters fired off the remaining artillery, and colossal blasts rumbled the ground like a devastating earthquake.
As the battle maintained in its earth-shattering design, the Acolytes were confronted with many of the SHIELD soldier's machinations of war. Hailing bullets and forceful blasts of natural might did nothing to sway the slow-moving warhorses upon which many of the soldiers rode. Gigantic cybernetic bots, designed to mesh with a human operative via controls headed the assault. They took the form of human structure, but they were heavily armoured walking annihilators; rockets, gun turrets and self-manoeuvring limbs helping to induce the image of fear in the eyes of the defending mutants. The bots advanced, taking ground while Acolytes like Delgado, Kleinstock and Javitz were brought under heavy suppressing fire.
From the hold of one of the lasting SI-03mk2's, Piotr and Kitty emerged, searching for Cortez's betraying form. Wading into battle as if they were one with the SHIELD troops already, the two mutants took on Delgado's force. Piotr faced the leading enemy in a fit of exacting retaliation, and before they clashed, an understanding of competency between them was established. Piotr was already in his towering organic steel form, whereas Delgado had been manipulated by Chrome in his bodily form, only moments before. Charging like blinded bulls speared in the hide, the two collided heavily, and dust sparked into the air from muscled exertion. After many blows, Piotr was successful in grounding the Acolyte to the floor, blood wetting the earth beneath their feet. Delgado collapsed at the dominating mutant's strength, and the former X-Man retreated to press the fight further with other, surviving antagonists. His vigour ignited by raw violent energy, Piotr waded through the battle solely for Cortez. Kitty was quick to follow, downing several of the lesser followers with her particular powers.
Captain Fury was in the thick of the fight as well, having a potent wall of armed-to-the-teeth soldiers surround him as they took on Cortez and Anne Marie personally. While guns flared all about, and blood was spilled, Fury and Cortez met on the battlefield.
'I'm glad to see you have the honour of at least facing me man to man, Nicholas.' Fabian announced, yelling above the raging clamour. His stubble-swathed jaw was broken, and blood had caked about his mouth, but the pride and arrogance remained intact.
'I wouldn't have it any other way, fool, now step aside while we storm Magneto's fortress and bring about an end to this genetic war.'
'I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to allow such a useless gesture, Captain, so you'll have to settle with storming me and my sister here instead. I hope we provide a challenge to your gun-totting GI's. I'm surprised you didn't carpet bomb this place first, like so many of your cowards in power would suggest. Perhaps I might even confess to having respect for you.'
'I'm afraid the same can't be said for my views, Fabian, for I haven't taken so much of a beating to the head yet.'
In a split second action, the guns were raised, and cries of zealous passion ascended their shaking bodies. Cortez fired up his power and charged the wall of soldiers, dashing them out of the way with all the ease of doing so to one man alone. There was a courageous tussle, yet Fury broke the mutant's concentration hastily by pulling from his overloaded strapped harness, his bigger weapons, on the two Acolytes; and opting to break off the assault, he let a bolt of fire off at a diving Cortez. The mutant dodged at the last second, and disabled him with several quick strokes to the body. Standing over almost victorious, Cortez couldn't help but revel in his own narcissism. He was the one man, representing humanity's most dynamic forces, in his defeated state at another born leader's feet. It was almost ironic.
'It's a shame I haven't got Earth's attention on live camera feed to do this, Fury, for my relish will be something of a spectacle! You've been a particular thorn in my side for too long – you are the one who ordered the retaliatory strike on my comrades when we hijacked your transports all those months ago, and many of my allies died in your damning gesture. How fitting, then, that I apply the pressure to you just as you once did to me. Only this time, you don't have the luck of an all-powerful king on your side!'
About to apply the killing blow with only a demonic grin to serve as a lasting image, Cortez was ripped from his untainted elation by an unanticipated giant, probing metal grasp.
Using all his might as he reduced to a flesh form, Piotr slung him into the air, and then hurled him to the ground in a sickening thrash of snapping bones. 'Cortez!' He screamed his chords wet with coughing blood. 'This is for my cousin whom you betrayed so readily in the past! You'll die today, just as you meant for everyone in my family to when Ahmed was paid off for our weapons! What is the price for death among simple tools of war?' He shouted, looming over the deceitful traitor.
Weeks gone by of agonising over what he would do to this slithering piece of work finally concluded, and for such a time, this was the only moment Piotr felt his life had been building too. 'How about we find out Acolyte?' Transforming himself to the hardened metal form for its deserved climax, Piotr raised his foot and stamped down on the man's chest with all his welling rage and fervour.
Cortez countered a fraction faster.
The Acolyte rolled off of the dirt suddenly, and Piotr would have caught up with him had Anne Marie not fortunately shot Kitty clean through the leg with a lead slug.
Instantly, the Russian was by her side, but while he tended to her, the two snakes escaped into the fray. Fury was left by their side thankful, but very alarmed.
* * *
The Mansion was collapsing all around them to the very earth and stone from which it was constructed. The walls were falling in brick by brick, and the floors were splitting apart by the timber used to lay each surface down. Having to escape the devastated conservatory had taken its extreme toll on the three young mutants, and the Friends of Humanity mob had still not stopped hounding them. Attempting to exit the estate that had so much as only brought trouble for them since their arrival so many days before, they found the outlets blocked by die-hards at every turn. Screams radiated throughout the collapsing hallways, and the Mansion itself began to crumble. Scott indicated to Betsy and Wanda to race for the concealed hatch placed behind the main corridors. If they were to escape, it would have to be through there. The mob was gaining space between themselves and the wounded mutants at an ever increasing pace, and only the power of sheer determination might separate the two feuding parties long enough for some to survive. It was becoming a race against time itself, to leave before the inevitable conclusion began.
Already the foundations of genocide had been laid, and now the only incentive was to satisfy insatiable blood lust. It would be the quick turn of a dream into its terrible counterpart.
* * *
Falling back over the same ground the SHIELD soldiers were quickly gaining, the remaining Acolytes fled to the hallowed walls of Avalon. The helicopters had been reduced in number by one, and although many of the soldiers had died during the courageous battle, some were still present to chase Magneto's followers to the grounds on which they adamantly defended. The Savage land had been a different matter altogether, as Magneto's Fortress was sacrosanct.
The walls were high above ground level, and an arcing closed entrance greeted the sights of both parties while each waged a terrific last stand. Making it past the palisades for which the Acolytes had erected in order for such a baptism of fire, Anne Marie was quick to rally the remaining leaders of their glorious higher cause. She was exhausted, physically as well as mentally, but her determination stood constant. She brushed away the sweat, blood and tears to look over her ranks. Delgado, however damaged he was, physically was still present, as was Chrome and Cargill. They looked to her for command, but Anne Marie found herself dwelling nervously on the whereabouts of her brother. Her thoughts were dissolved by more claustraphobic cracking gunfire from the soldiers across the bare locale. She turned to embrace it.
* * *
Chancing a look after the noise had diminished somewhat in the landing area, Victor Creed snuck out from his holdings inside an abandoned SI-03mk2. Deciding to go it alone, instead of operating under the pretence that he was now working for SHIELD as an agent like Piotr and Kitty, he disappeared into the jungle, watching hopefully for any signs of Logan, who he supposed was already here as part of the X-Men. He was wrong, but it didn't bother him.
He avoided much of the fighting occurring just outside the huge metal fortifications of Avalon, and attempted to find a back way in. Fury was busy taking on the Acolytes, so Victor presumed it would be his best time to leave. 'I'll be free of a holding grasp yet.' He mused, stalking through the undergrowth toward the fortress.
* * *
Navigating the bare hallways of Avalon once more in search of his master, Cortez discarded the heavy weapons on his back, favouring speed over anything else. He could see outside through the giant glass windows, and his jaw went slack as the view came startlingly close to the construction in which he moved. The oppressive fire was being directed at the entrance, and before it broke, the defending Acolytes would die. He was sure of that.
He arrived, breathless, at the throne room and nearly slipped on the polished marble floors placed within. Brushing the fair hair from his face, and wiping away the stains, his voice bellowed in the high room. 'My lord, the agents of America are about to penetrate your defences! We must counteract their movements with our own majesty. Send the missiles over to Washington and we shall see if they can justify their attack on our home!'
Magneto stood from his throne, and stepped down for the last time. 'I shall go out to defend my home from their senseless violence, Fabian, and it will be my will alone that brings about their punishment in the end, not yours – my servant.'
'You are not listening to me, my lord,' Cortez panted out, his aggravation rising while the shaking anxiety of recent events coursed through his veins 'the time is now! We must wreak a terrible vengeance on their homeland, lest ours be consumed by fire! How long will you wait for such an act of retribution for the thousands – millions – of lives needlessly erased by the same government who initiated the Sentinels? We must exact our revenge on them before they break apart Avalon from the inside!'
Magneto whirled around on the pedestal of his platform. 'I will not be goaded into carrying an apocalyptic age for mankind on this planet, so that your wrath can be extinguished Cortez!'
'But your people need you, for god's sake, now more than ever!'
'See what you have become in your race's hour of need, Erik?' Charles called urgently from the side of the room. 'You have no compunction about letting them die, to save your own skin! You are not the man I remember at all!'
'Silence! You will speak only when spoken to!' Cortez barked, spitting at the floored Xavier. 'Launch the missiles my lord! Show them you will not be reasoned with!'
'No – you must stop your conflict –' Charles yelled.
'I must dominate them!' Magneto screamed, silencing the entire room with a thunderous clout of his voice. 'I will not make peace with them, and I will not wipe them out in a foolish fell swoop, just to show humanity that I can, Cortez. My dream is to supplant leadership, not drown under unprovoked combat or demonstrate my vast force by obliterating and therefore condemning the entire planet with a nuclear arsenal!'
'Unprovoked?' Charles uttered astonished. 'Have you truly become so bewildered with irreverent delusions of world-wide megalomania that you can't even remember your own history? I would have thought your mind be returned to normalcy, not subverted to a fantasy dream concocted by your most trusted slave!'
'You will keep your tongue held, worm, lest I clamp your mouth shut with my bare, bleeding thumb and forefinger!' Cortez threatened, stepping close and looming over Xavier's crippled body.
A rupture from outside made the entire building shudder with disturbing vibrating pulses. The blocked entrance had been destroyed, and successful cheering soldiers were quickly leaking through the jagged gaps.
Watching the conflicting interests in the room with mounting disgust, Logan jumped up from the floor where he knelt under Magneto's watchful eye, and insolently blocked Cortez's path to Charles. 'Keep at a distance, bub, or you're gonna wish you'd severed my damn hands off when you took me.'
'Enough!' Magneto snarled intolerantly. 'I have had enough of this turbulent insanity that has somehow dawned on you all! I wish no more to hear from you of how my dream must be changed, or carried out. My vision is the way I constructed it – resolute – and to all intents and purposes, I am the sole being able to play god with my pawns in Avalon. My Acolytes acted under your advisement Cortez, and now you run from them to persuade me to strike out retribution unto my supposed enemies from thousands of miles away? I never suspected that cowardice was a part of you!'
'You will pray you had never uttered those words, my lord.' Cortez replied, grating his teeth as the sounds of battling agony inched ever closer to their inviolability.
'You're gonna pray you'd never said that, either, mongrel.' Logan chimed obnoxiously, while Magneto rebuked his protégé.
'Can you hear those cries for help outside, Erik? Can you? Or do they fall on deaf ears? Ears that would rather listen to a symphony so sweet of an immediate and unchallenged victory granted by the pitiable United Nations – giving up all land, wealth and power under their jurisdiction, unconditionally and without petulance – to you – the self-appointed master of magnetism and saviour of all mutantkind on God's Earth. Perhaps the designation you have so appropriately heralded yourself is simply a malapropism! Maybe you cannot rule over even your own children! Where is Wanda Maximoff? Why is she not by your venerable side? And where is your wife, Erik? The woman who left you for fear of her life! I'll tell everyone present why: because your daughter recognises the insanity with which you carry, reaching new heights in your naive judgment! Never was there a fool greater than oneself when the realisation of arrogance dawns! Your Acolytes were nothing more than loyal terrorist partisans, inspired by simple, mindless rhetoric which meant nothing to their limited worldly understanding! And these then, are the people unto which you place your life, you livelihood, your health and the stability of a small nation with the ability to eternally change future history for the better or worse? Call me a fool Erik, but I believe you've escalated a grave error in your logic to immense proportions. I only feel pity for such a mislead fool as yourself – taking comfort in self-conceived lies and misappropriated faith.'
'You defy the essence of intellect, Charles Xavier, the fabric of a man's understanding, because you can do no better! Such a mistake is going to cost you dearly as I deal out a blow I should have brought down many a year ago when you first confronted me. Little did I think that you would appear as a thorn in my side for so long a time after that one moment! Had I the foresight, I might have changed your fate so that you weren't let off so easily!' Magneto scowled hatefully.
'And that, Erik, is why you shall never prevail. Even if you kill me now, you will still lack that simple element of a man's rationale. You lack foresight. If I am defeated today, still will you be without it until the day you die too – lonely and wizened – and no amount of worthless slugs that proclaim your dream is the perfect vision for a race on the brink of extinction can ever change that lacking in your flawed personality; because you, like your followers, are nothing but a flawed man with a defective mirage as grounds for your argument and reasoning! Cortez, the man whom you hold in such high regard is the same villain who stabs you as deeply as he tries to mask his effects with a veil of fanatical adoration! He is the one who deals you the physical and mental blow which you feel others have contributed so wholeheartedly too. It is him, and solely him!'
'So you, on the other hand, Xavier, with your trail of gangly, incompetent children, are perfect! You are going to change the world for the better!' Magneto screamed, burning a hole of untamed revulsion and detest straight through his raw vocal chords.
He let loose a terrible pitching cry, and flung out in frightful bleak anger as his power disintegrated the arch at the top of the high-ceilinged room. Tons of marble, steel and splintered rubble cascaded downwards lethally, and Charles just managed to deflect the onslaught with the urgent questing of his great mind. Magneto grappled with the metal restraints fastened about Xavier's body, and lifted him off the floor. It took great strain from his weakened body and such exertions produced visual flailing bolts of uncontained power that struck out as if commanded by his subconscious. He illuminated the giant throne room while darkness began to descend through the giant windows.
The audience ducked and dived as the angled skewing magnetic strikes smashed into walls, into the floors and ceiling, and skewered clear through the high glass windows. His scream cut through the audience as the glass shattered terrifically, and Xavier was hurled maliciously into the air with the lord's last iota of will. 'I no longer require you in my presence, Charles, for you_bore_me! I will break you!' Magneto's throat split under the strain, and he coughed up red-stained spittle, before toppling to his knees.
* * *
Xavier felt his every fibre begin to snap under such a sprain, and it felt as if the bones in his body were becoming dislocated from their sockets at every moment. He cried out in confused and unregistered agony, desperately seeking for any form of help be it friend or foe while Magneto's compelling might fractured him apart from the inside. It took his entire learned mastery of his mind to stop the essence of Charles Xavier becoming undone. Nerve endings were burning under unbelievable tension, his bone cartilage was cracking sporadically and flesh was literally tearing at the seams; he was slowly being paralysed internally. 'Erik – don't be the one to do this to me! I remain a friend through all our differences; can you not even see friendship in common companionship when it stares you in the face? Dear god, if you cannot feel me now, you never could in our previous lifetime! Make the one good decision of your life, right here and right now, the single one truth that matters between us, and leave me be!'
Maintaining his unshakeable conviction and even hardier control over Charles's suspended, tortured soul, Erik crawled to the floor holding steady in his vigour as his last ounce of life drained under simple bodily tension.
'I'll… show you I was right…' Magneto gargled out as he sensed Charles on the final, fatal brink of death.
Cortez traitorously rounded his struggling form, unchallenged, and gripped Magneto roughly by the scruff of the neck. 'So too does another life end in the process; the existence of my lord, my master, and my god!' He channelled his innate malevolence into his reserves of deceitful control, and fuelling the demise of his master all the sooner, cried out his success ferociously. The two men's lives were finally in his hands.
With an animal roar of uncontained rage and sombre realisation, Logan leapt from his shackled restriction and extended all six claws evocatively through the covering metal cuffs. The ripping sound of crumpling metal echoed throughout the tense yet silent throne room, and Logan screamed viscerally, ploughing through the barrage of the lord's guarding consultation. 'No! I won't let you defile the one man whose dream could sprout to fruition among our dying world! Not in this goddamn lifetime of mine!' Logan jerked his arm back, ready to plunge the fateful blow through Magneto's exposed neck. A last shred of dignity from the man's power kept it at bay for mere moments longer by will alone. He breathed out lasting traces of a sentence even with the tormenting war corrupting his body from the inside out. '…Go on, Wolverine… you seem so content to lay waste to me… it's the role you have always been ready for… the executioner... [aaahh]… to kill a bull… a raging bull.'
The invisible barrier receded almost as quick as it was erected, and Logan thrust his claws into Magneto's back, piercing the armour, flesh, bone, blood and tissue as if it were the softest earth and clay.
'Father – don't leave me!' Pietro screeched rushing to the man's dying side in a fit of paternal respect and climbing sorrow.
Cortez threw himself at Logan, ready to tear out the man's heart for all his trouble. 'Race traitor – you have solely condemned our species forever!'
A mighty clash ensued, and while they tangled fiercely, Charles dropped the distance to the rubble-littered marble floor. He crashed down, his body barely registering the pain from impact, but rather concentrating on the pure relief of freedom from strain. He almost passed out, but managed to stay afloat in a sea of blurry-eyed, agony-induced consciousness.
* * *
Logan battered away Cortez's raging arms and legs, the Acolyte's focus in combat lost completely with unsubstantiated grief. As the two contested each other, the walls and floors rumbled with the tumult of approaching footsteps from both the soldiers and remaining fanatics. The fighting was retreating into the heart of Avalon, and Cortez managed to break from combat at the distraction. 'So be it… farewell Wolverine, I've made my point unto your species and masters… my manipulation has at last reduced this world to a hopeless mass of dry land, where none can rule – not even a follower of your precious dream. I'll see you in another lifetime perhaps…' He turned tail and ran for the main hallways where the windows were rattling from the increasing stress of vibrations.
'Let him go, Logan! We have to… see… to Erik.' Charles breathed out, crawling hand over hand to his destroyed friend. His body may have been wrecked for the time being, but Xavier was still the same man under such effort. Much of the same could not be said for Erik Lehnsherr.
* * *
'They're closing in! Wanda, Betsy come on for chrissakes, we're not trying to goad them into tailing us!' Scott lifted the concealed panel in a flurry of sweat and blood; he wiped the trail coursing down his nose, and then patted Betsy as she dashed in through the exit in the wall. Closing in behind them were the Friends of Humanity mob, who had so far blocked their every turn and exit with sheer numbers of grass-roots political die-hards, ready to gut and lynch the three young mutants for their very genetic make-up.
Wanda dashed foot in front of foot toward the exit Scott was positioned at. She slowed to a halt beside him suddenly. 'I never should've led you both back here. This entire city has become a death-trap for our species.'
'I haven't got time to rebuke you for your generous actions, Wanda; it's because of you we're not already dead in that guarded hospital.'
She kissed him suddenly, placing a loaded shotgun into his hands from another storage station found in her excitement.
'I was late, and I'm sorry. It won't happen again.'
She bundled him through the panel door suddenly, shoving the door shut while he stood on the outside begging her to let him back in.
She ignored his protests, and let off several of the shotgun rounds before discarding the weapon into the oncoming fray of mutant-haters. 'I'm more than ready for you in death than I ever was in life!' She cried, accepting the conclusion. Bodies were struck and fell into lifeless corpses as the onslaught of people trampled them under foot. 'I pray the shadows consume me before they do.'
Her powers rippled up the side of the Mansion walls, burning the very essence with which the estate was once constructed. Waves of convulsing tension and pressure echoed through every joist, turning and panel, and in an entire tidal wave wash of consuming fate, the X Mansion fell apart.
* * *
Leaving the warring nations behind through his ministrations of iniquity and downright bitterness and spite, Fabian Cortez charged down the halls of Magneto's Avalon with all the vigour and energy of one attempting to escape his closing confrontation with God. He screamed his release from the manacles of oppression under his former-master's regime of preordained destiny, and a schizophrenic laugh of victorious conquest rattled the cages of those he passed in his wake. They stared on in mute anticipation as Cortez prepared to ignite the fires of hell underneath their feet.
* * *
'He's almost too fatally wounded, Chuck, I dunno whether I can do anything for him. My knowledge of medicine don't go beyond that of first aid an' all – and you know more than I do.' Logan described, pulling apart the jutting stems of wet, crimson flesh. His finger passed over the wounds, and he stared guiltily at his handiwork. Pietro hovered over them mutely and pierced their ears with his worry. 'I never wanted anything to turn out like this, you must believe me, Xavier – it was never an intention… I don't know what happened to him, I swear.'
Charles slowly and tenderly displaced the red on purple helm from Magneto's greying looks. 'My god, Logan, did you ever think to realise? He might be dead because of your resilience.'
'Better him than you – I'm not interested in which one takes over the whole planet, but with both of you dead, I wasn't about to let that rat Cortez stand above humanity.' Logan removed the armour set up on Erik's chest and inspected the depth of his attack. It repulsed him, staring at it in so close a detail.
'…Cortez…' Pietro uttered menacingly. His eyes turned to the broken archway through which the fighting was shocking the foundations of Avalon. 'I must pay my respects to that snake devil.'
As Logan looked back, the son had disappeared.
'There's too much at stake here, we can't save the man with medicine… I'm afraid I can no else.' Charles placed a hand over Erik's blood-stained forehead.
'I hate to say this, but you must try, Xavier… we cannot have him die as a martyr; not t'live in infamy, and not to live in martyrdom it seems.' Logan replied forlornly.
Concentrating as much as tried amid the approaching wail of battling noise, Charles placed his hand at Erik's disengaging mind. He attempted to connect to the brain through which he had done before, but navigating the incredible defences the man had erected in his paranoia made it difficult, even if his hold on life was as tenuous as it could be. The Acolytes plunged exhausted and beaten through the giant arch of the throne room, and Logan leapt to waylay their fanatical insurgence. Fury's troops followed through, many of them dead or dying through the sheer force of will set about on the opposing side.
* Reach out to me, Erik, in death as you have in life. *
Charles communicated silently by thoughts alone, trying to establish a link that could somehow satisfy his aim. * Open your mind as you have before… * All he could see was a murky fog issuing from the furthest recesses of Erik's mind; clouded thoughts, judgments, opinions and barriers stood in the way, proving far to defensive than Charles had bargained for. He penetrated the first layer, finding the progress slow, but as known and anticipated, the speed of thought meant nothing to time travelling under normal circumstances. Charles could eliminate Erik's fences in no time at all, yet it took him great concentration to navigate the terrifying gauntlet of open thoughts. Erik's in-built resistance was another aspect Xavier had not counted on.
With all the damage done physically to his body, it was a wonder that the man had any strength left to fight in mind.
'… Let me die alone, Charles… you poor man… just turn away.' He managed to murmur out loud.
His words fell on deaf ears while the X-Man drove deeper into the enveloping abyss. The blackness of the depths felt foreboding, unyielding, but it let him penetrate as far down as possible due to Erik's incapacitation. Charles reached through the fog with his probing thoughts, ploughed down further into the cavernous unknown with all his tenacity. He pleaded for an end to the damage, a final fight to draw out a victory dream in the sand so that they might follow the path together. He was becoming delusional.
'Fury, we have to stop Cortez – the bastard's getting away and there ain't anything we can do to catch him up if we fight amongst ourselves!' Logan hollered, trying to reach across the great expanse of the warring throne room. Guns blazed to the left and right of him, and for a spilt second, he thought he might fall apart from the welling, densely-felt fanatical hatred and resilience echoing in emotions throughout Avalon. It was tangible among the smoky air.
The defying Acolytes brought up the resistance still, fighting to the last man standing.
'We are kings upon Earth, human slaves! Bow before us, or we will crush you to dust! Magneto Rex lives on!'
Logan had to drive away the threat of Cortez's sinful nurturing actions.
* For once in your life, Erik, let me feel you from the inside! * Charles screamed desperately. His telepathic flare stretched out from Magneto's mind like a rising phoenix, and through both men's aged bodies; the essence of life inflamed them both in glowing turmoil. Magneto's form arched upwards as if ripped apart at both ends. He loosed a terrible cry of agony among the noising, claustrophobic fighters, and he sucked in longing mouthfuls of polluted air, trying to grasp onto the few shreds of animated life still present in his mind.
'My measures bring forth a new life…' Charles gasped, at last resting from his search. Such efforts ravaged his body, and he fell to his back.
Magneto shot into the air encased in a white light, the purest visible form of all his energy and vigour. His eyes were aflame, and he bulged outwards, filling the form of his original self intensely. He rushed the helm off of his head, and hovered in the air briefly. 'Cortez! Where are you, my nemesis?' Before they might stop him, Magneto had projected a globe through the marble roof of Avalon, and his form flew through it.
'Magneto's gone, leave the Acolytes!' Fury shouted, recalling his battling troops. They let loose suppressing fire, attempting to retreat under cover, but many more were lost as the fanatics pressed back.
Over the pitching wail of spitting shots, Logan crashed down to Charles's side on knees, hoisting him up in arms. His face was grave with anxiety. 'Ain't no way left to go, Xavier, but out.'
* * *
'Where are you, my Acolyte? Are you cowering under your shroud of indecency toward my father?' Pietro crooned maliciously, searching out Cortez's slithering form ahead of any other power.
Wiping away the gritty sweat accumulating on his brow in the immensely humid heat, he then ducked into the Weapons Control Room that Cortez had so easily wielded in order to waylay the storming soldiers. The lights had been dimmed so only red warning bulbs glowed ethereally among the banks of machinery. They were under a spell of alert in the Fortress.
Pietro pierced the darkness with his eyes while a body crawled behind his sight in the veil of blackness. 'Come hither to me, Fabian, and I'll crucify your pathetic body.'
The son edged further, but a hard clout to the back of his neck slammed Pietro to the floor, and he gagged slightly, coughing up blood that pulsed through his throat. The wet crack of bone alerted his attention, and Pietro rolled onto his back. 'You worm, you… you strike me down from behind?'
'You, my dearest slave-son of Magneto, should know,' Cortez began hauling the mutant by his streaking grey hair over to the multitudinous banks of systems 'that I always play the most surreptitious hand I receive. You, then, are the wild card that I shall put forth to ensure my victory stays as a triumph, and not a failure.'
'You arrogant pig…' He muttered.
Cortez splashed Pietro's bleeding head against the hard back of the computers, and let the twin slump to the floor.
Sitting down at the controls, he flicked several switches, and typed in a password. Dwelling on the simplicity of it all in his overconfidence, Cortez sat up and walked over to the main button encased in glass protection. He grinned malevolently, stroking his finger of the barrier quickly. With a focussed burst, he shattered the glass and stabbed his finger down on the seminal button.
* * *
From every cove situated on the part of the Savage land, tremendous rumbling issued as if it were each volcano simultaneously erupting at the same time. The very ground shook with fatal vibrations, and silo hatches popped open with a smooth swish of oiled metal. Within them, the locking mechanisms had been engaged, restraining the launch of each nuclear missile as it shuddered while engine fuel burnt beneath it.
The Savage land had its pilot light lit through Cortez's wrath, and now his actions were about to apply the lit flame.
Colossal sensations rippled throughout the structure of the nation, and balance was destroyed while it rumbled for release from the sparks burning holes through its skin.
* * *
Flying high above the Savage land, and his desecrated fortress Avalon, Magneto looked down on his people and bore witness to his misplaced trust in Cortez. His dream had been for nothing, all because of faith gone wrong with one determined individual, bent on his own penchant for unnecessary genocide. If a world must die for one man to prove his supremacy, then truly that man was the devil himself.
Magneto froze mid-flight and chills resonated up along his spine as a lone missile thrust itself into the air, a billowing torrent of orange smoke flowed from its engines. He pulled his hand for strength and influence over the sole object, but his might had been reduced to ineffectual pressure over his own body. Cortez had betrayed him, and that wound hurt the most because it meant he could not save his own from a terrible vengeance.
The lonely missile levitated solemnly in the air, and then twisted into the darkened atmosphere above. It spiralled out into the unknown, and Magneto was powerless to halt its trail-blazing path.
* * *
Leaving the damaged temple of Avalon far behind through the warring duress, Logan grunted and strained, carrying Charles with him towards the abandoned SHIELD helicopters. Finding it hard to talk whilst the weight wrenched at his arms and shoulders, Logan huddled along the trodden paths, trying to find a way back before the Acolytes completely subdued Captain Fury and the retreating soldiers. The Savage land was beginning to fall apart.
'I never should have doubted you, my friend; you were a valued addition to the collection of X-Men. I want you to know Logan; I bear you no ill-will for what you underwent with the others at Weapon X… I was wrong to give up on a search for you; I wasn't aware of your reasons for abandoning them.' Charles said.
'So you know Charlie… I was recruitin' Rogue and Remy for ya team… course, other things got in my way, like they always do. I was tryin' ta be welcomed back into open arms.'
Suddenly he stopped, and Charles stared out at the obstacle. 'Who…?' He asked wearily. Logan dropped Charles's legs to the floor, and stared incredulously at the man before him. 'My god, Creed, you never leave us alone, do ya?'
'Not if I can help it runt.'
Charles landed on his backside roughly as Logan braced himself while Sabretooth lunged at his exhausted form. 'What're you even doing here?' Logan cried out, dodging lethal blows from ten sharpened nails.
'Fool Fury brought me aboard to hunt down Spaskyich – 'course, he ain't even in this goddamn place anyway!' Sabretooth immediately dived to action; he wrought wounds over Logan's body in their flailing fracas and Charles was about to intervene when an arm wrapped itself around his chin and neck. The ripping sound of cartilage sounded amid the scuffling and Xavier was dropped unconscious to the floor.
Sabretooth separated from the Wolverine's clawing embrace just long enough to gape open-mouthed as his eyes met with great dead, dark black ones. His mouth went slack-jawed and Logan took the advantageous moment to strike him brutally through the cheek with three claws. Blood sprayed over the locale in a grisly display, and Logan stared at his new opponent. 'Care to unhand my friend there, pal?' He howled, showing his fangs and spitting blood at the figure. He was near to breaking point.
Stepping from the shadowed darkness of overhanging branches and shrubs, a figure Logan had not recognised at first approached him. 'You are the bane of my existence, Wolverine, and I intend to rip you apart before you cause pain to anyone further in your pathetic existence.'
'Give me a name first; ya bastard, and then we'll have your brawl...' Logan stretched out his claws ferociously, and Sabretooth leapt from the ground, dirt and crimson spittle coursing over all of them. 'It's Spaskyich you worm! Wake up!'
A quick, spiked arm lunged from the ex-Commander's form and impaled Victor Creed through the abdomen. He was sent hurtling into the bush and undergrowth, shrieking wildly.
Logan took the chance to strike, and embedded the claws on his left hand through Spaskyich's chest. Unbelievably, the adamantium phased straight through like he was cutting into the thin mist. The claws plumed tufts of liquid essence into the air, but the flesh seemed only to reform at once. Hawk beamed insanely, congratulating himself proudly for his performance, and then projected another spike from his twisting, warped arm into Logan's neck. An arc of red blood sprung out from the wound and spouted like a whale would, coming to the water's surface.
'I came here to finish what I started so long ago, friends… a definitive retribution over Creed, Logan and finally Charles Xavier – the fool who caused so much trouble for the world with your irresponsible mutant harmony vision. So much for all that, eh?' Spaskyich stated arrogantly, standing over the unconscious man with avowed intent glowing richly in his dead eyes. He emanated glorious conceit through his face, and a wide, smug grin tweaked his grey cheeks at the side. Raising a hand to call down a determined fatal blow, the moment was sullied, for fate stood in the way of the mutant hybrid he had become. Sabretooth protruded from the hedges, sulking intensely, and then struck down his former tormentor with all the voracious lust he might muster. 'Say, Hawk, I don't remember you ever lookin' as disgusting and repulsive as that? What did Essex do to you? Your goddamn head ain't put on right.' The feral mutant grinned toothily, and straddled the man bearing his ten razor-sharp nails. He drew them quickly across his adversary's brow, and was delighted to see a gush of matter fly away with his swinging knuckles.
Spaskyich hurled Victor off him suddenly, warping his body so that he stood behind the mutant in a horrific fluid motion. 'He made me more than a man! I'm the ultimate Weapon X – even you are incapable of killing me with simple blunt force.' Spaskyich stuck several of his spiked fingers through Sabretooth's guts, tearing at the flesh with all the renewed vigour of a hunter making his first kill. 'You always were the worst there was!'
'Goddamn you, ya viper! I'll see to it that you're six feet under before your demented insight has any authority over our world!'
In a lightening-fast sequence of moves, Logan upped from the dirt and dust to combat one of his oldest enemies – a demon waving a presence in the recesses of his memory that would now be stubbed out of existence. He brought down three claws at such a vicious angle that it cleaved Spaskyich's arm clean off. 'Get it into your thick skull, Hawk; you cannot dominate a species who betters you – the original gutter-crawling rat – in every way possible! Take your damn speeches of human dominance, supremacy over mutants, and the ingenious acumen you possess and get the hell away from us!' Logan tossed Spaskyich to the floor in a torrent of flesh and blood, and let him lie wounded. The stillness of the defeated body burdened him for reasons he could not explain.
At the same moment, the rumbling all over the island shook up to terrifying intensity. It was as if it was going to tear in two from vibrations echoing out of the locked-down missile silos stored deep in secluded coves. An almost cramping boom of thunder-clap explosions was closing in on them fast, and it crushed the people in the small clearing as if it were a simple lack of breath.
The thundering footsteps of soldiers rattled past the three squirming mutants unexpectedly and Fury caught Logan and Charles up in the rush. 'The Savage land has been set to ignite through the nukes on board! Logan, grab Charles and get the hell out of here before we're caught in the blast! We don't have no more time!'
The soldiers ran past them, firing periodically at the Acolytes dogging obsessively just behind. It was a stampeding horde, and they would be trampled to death in the escape if not careful.
* * *
From on high, Magneto watched, conserving his power for the burst in which he might save his disciples and the other people aboard his most sacrosanct home.
* * *
Throwing Spaskyich off him in a fit, Sabretooth crawled to a standing position with Logan. 'Let me finish him off; for all he's done to us, he deserves it.'
Logan scowled at his adversary, letting a common goal finally come between them both. Perhaps he might, in his urgency, leave Victor to his own means.
Rising beside them from the ground, Spaskyich laughed manically, displaying his warped abilities for them to witness even as the Savage land began to become sheathed in the warm glow of flame. 'You can't kill me… I just grow right back.' He said, grinning through his grey skin and dead eyes. The red mark was prominent on the side of his temple, and Sabretooth indicated to it sullenly. 'Just like Essex; a fool livin' a fool's dream. You're nothing but a failed experiment, and a more worthless one than either of us.'
Spaskyich formed a pasty lop-sided leer on his grey face, and limped over to Creed. He growled at last like an untamed beast, willed into the ensuing brawl by a greater force than his willpower. His spirit and soul were as subject to another's experiments and designs as the unsuspecting victims of Weapon X had once been. Deciding to bring his predestined encounters with his mutant employees to a close, Hawk struck out for Sabretooth's repulsive face, attempting to wipe forever that vindictive and gormless grin off his stubble-infected, scarred features. 'The Wolverine's abandoned us, but you're still here… to the last man standing go the spoils, Victor. I hope you're ready for me after all these years of torment I put upon you… brighten up, kitty; with you, I'm going to paint this place red.'
Logan once again scooped up Charles in his arms, letting the blood from his wounds course of the man's unconscious body. His will was adamant for this man, and even if it took him out of the running from sheer exhaustion and drained strength, he would see Xavier escape the damning condemnation of Cortez's injustice.
Leaving Sabretooth behind to finish what had been accumulated through over four arduous, long forgotten decades of quelled hopes, evoked fears, dashed memories and lost loves, the last of the X-Men vanished into the ether, hoping to escape their relentlessly hounding demons.
* * *
Fury stopped by the helicopter holds, ferrying his deadened men into the compartments with all the zeal of a mother protecting her firstborn from danger. 'Come on! We haven't got long to escape the shockwave!'
Val skidded to a halt by his side suddenly. 'Nick! What about the people here! We can't just leave them to die!'
The ground rumbled once more, trembling debris over the area while Val steadied herself. 'The entire land is going up, Captain…'
The trampling footsteps of the soldiers were halted mid-stride while the tumult of Acolytes slowed to watch Magneto descend among them.
'Let me make amends for my past crimes, Captain. I may not be able to contain the impending disaster, but at least let me speed you on your way.'
'And what of your followers? Do you condemn them to the same fate even though their leader has changed his damn opinions about the rest of us? Will you be that hardhearted for your children in the face of your own mortality?' Fury accused, shoving the rest of his unit into only two of the helicopters. 'Won't at least you come with us?'
'No.' They replied obdurately, choosing to stand as one with their master.
'I suggest you leave; there is nothing more to experience in this fated domain. I can see now that Cortez was my Judas – the one whom my kiss meant nothing too – nothing but a traitor and a turncoat to his race and his deity. That was my error – first and only. Let me not make another by waylaying you any longer, for it is taking nearly my entire diminished reserves of influence to withhold this approaching onslaught. Do not bring me with you, for the single power holding this land together is under my own command.'
'Don't be a fool, Magneto – Cortez ensured you would die a martyr – don't prove him right by shedding your own blood!'
Magneto waved his passing concern away blindly, and took control of Piotr's metal sheathed form suddenly, animating a great arm the Russian possessed. Piotr picked up Fury in his steadfast grip, and depositing them in the back, had control over his body relinquished moments later. Magneto sealed the hatch to the hold, and turned from his saviour adamantly.
'Don't be a goddamn martyr – not for all you're worth!' Fury screamed, as the doors were slammed shut in a silencing swish of displaced air. The lord elevated the two helicopters into the air and hurled them out of the orbit of the Savage land.
'What then, of Xavier?' Fury called as his last words were blown in the sudden vacuum of wind.
Magneto turned to the jungle, cursing his own spirit for such a mistake. He screamed mightily in rash anger and tore up the beaten earth around his body and his enduring Acolytes as the unearthly glow of terrible fire encroached on his waning dominion.
* * *
Logan felt the ground beneath his feet burn as his tearing arms burst trying to carry Charles through to the clearing. They approached the area, witnessing in the low-light and bursting crack of noise Magneto's final egression with his Acolytes. Rebuking himself for the last time, Logan collapsed to the floor, too weak to reach the remaining helicopters. 'I've failed myself…' He groaned, defeated. Charles stared out into the illuminated sky as the warheads encased in each missile reached critical mass. The seconds counted down, and his eyes locked with the everlasting abyss of his own inevitability. 'We tried, Logan – as a race – to survive, but most of the time… it's not worth it. In the end, we are only subjects to our own futility.'
Charles released a pent-up anguished cry that had been nearly thirty years in the making and a flare of uncompromising fury leeched out into the world.
* * *
As the Mansion shook, the foundations crumbling to dust in the earth from Wanda's exertion, Graydon Creed looked on from a distance. A smile painted his face delicately as he pressed a button situated on a small pad within his jacket pocket. 'So too, ends another era in chaos.' He muttered gladly, pressing the tiny object with all his energy.
From a distance, he looked on as a spark possessed the estate, and ignited, sending a shockwave explosion rocketing through the edifice. It plumed out of every available space, and then shook the ground on which he stood. The smoke of a burning vision filtered up into the night sky as the entire dream washed away in a haze.
* * *
The Savage land rumbled as a last scream of resilience, defying the very intent of those warheads locked in place within its caverns burning away the bedrock and grassland. A sight more incomprehensible than anything ever before witnessed by the entire history of mankind resonated throughout the surface ground of the lush jungle vistas turned into nightmare wreckage by warring nations. The mass of land lit up into a colour more beautiful than colour itself could describe. It was a tribute to human engineering and sheer indomitable will, and a testament to one man's evil intent for a world in which he was too good to be brought into. Light was enveloped in the becoming outburst, and even time in its entirety was sucked through the mushroom cloud of the onslaught. Smoke rings issued forth from wreckage, debris and life, and it was all instantly immolated in the shockwaves of each impacting weapon set off by Cortez. People, whose world was solely that of the small land were set alight and fell apart like leaves in the wind. In that determined, fateful instant, their lives ended, and so did that of their world. The land breathed a sudden, justified sigh of relief as its wounds were wiped clean by the rapid back draught purge of fire, and to its end, the contained world remained lost to the rest of humanity forever.
Escaping the cleansing, the two helicopters secured by Magneto's hand flew back to America in search of sanctuary after more than an ordeal might describe.
* * *
Still both in their infancy, it would be some time before each species matured enough to fend for itself. They were all very young, and it would be such a long and difficult unbeaten path to tread.