Starfire: Wrong Avalon.  In the Comics, Magneto's final base of operations before the X-Men finally defeated him was the Star Fortress Avalon.  On it, he gathered all the Alpha class and Omega class mutants he could find. (Alpha class and Omega class mutants are the ones who are on par with him, Xavier, Storm, Jean, etc.)

CB: D'OH! Forgot about her being blind! And Kyle's Blind too, how could I do that? ::slaps self::

AN: Time to start wrapping this fic up!  Welcome to… The Avalon Saga.

Chapter 63: Death in the Sky

The X-Men landed at the institute, where they quickly rushed to change into their uniforms.  Magneto had told them that his base would be floating over New York City in three hours.  If they weren't there, he'd begin to level the city.

The X-Men rushed out in uniform, boarding up onto the two air transports.  Blue team boarded the Velocity, Blob, Toad, and Wanda joining them to give them some added firepower.  Gold team boarded the X-Jet with the remaining back-up members.

(AN: Time to describe all of the remaining character's uniforms. Fun, fun.)

Colossus's uniform hadn't changed much, just gaining a black pair of sleeves and pant legs.

Wanda's was in her original uniform, having not joined the X-Men. John was in the same situation.

Toad was wearing a black under-base with a dark green on his lower legs and forearms.

Blob's was a standard black, with heavy boots, gloves and shoulder armor.

Sarah's uniform was a black under-base, with a cream-colored chest and stomach.  Light combat boots, so as not to encumber the agile fighter, covered her feet.

Jono had a uniquely contrived uniform that's chest was made of strips that allowed small wisps of his energy to show through, and, without moving his hands; he could project good amounts through them.

Paige wore a standard issue suit. Since her transformation shredded her uniform, wearing anything flashy was not necessary.

Lorna's uniform had a deep scarlet on her forearms, lower legs, chest, and stomach.

Jubilee had a uniform that bore silver colorations on its forearms.  Her collar rose up slightly, to protect her face from the sparks she threw.

Betsy's uniform bore a light purple as a stripe around her thighs, and on her forearms.

Alex's held a resemblance to his older sibling's, although it was without the two X marks on the shoulders, and it was in silver instead of yellow-gold.

Tabby's uniform was accented by a hot pink coloration on her chest, and she had a raised collar to protect her face from debris.

Roberto's uniform was similar to Bobby's, with orange strips up the arms and legs instead of ice-blue.

Amara's uniform had scarlet coloration on the chest, stomach, upper arms and thighs.

Sam's uniform was of the raised collar variety, with a dark gray X across the chest that ran down the arms and legs.  He also bore the same pattern on his back.

"Let's go." Said the Professor, as the X-men flew off to NYC, intent on stopping Magneto.

Upon arrival, they saw the massive flying fortress that was Avalon.

"Whoa! That thing is, like, totally huge." Said Kitty.

Suddenly, Professor Xavier's wheelchair lifted up off the base of the jet, which stopped in mid air.  The side of it was ripped open enough for Xavier to be removed, and then it was sealed up again.

On television screens across the world, programming was interrupted as Magneto appeared on screen as Xavier landed before him in the command center to his fortress.

"Welcome to Avalon, Charles.  It's good to see you believed me."

"What did you expect us to do, Magnus? Let you destroy New York City?"

"No, I knew you would come.  You value human lives to much to have taken the risk.  No matter though.  It is time to see if your X-Men are as good as you believe them to be."

At this point, the X-men's communication systems began to display the conference.

"For your X-Men to be able to retrieve you, they will have to make their way through the entirety of Avalon, all one hundred levels of it.  They will have riding on their success or failure not only you, Charles, but the lives of everyone in New York City.  Believe me when I say that, if they fail, I will destroy the city.  Let their challenge begin." Said Magneto, as the docking bay in Avalon opened.  The X-Men, knowing they had no choice, docked.

They disembarked, and took stock of the situation.

"So, to sum this all up, we're quite possibly now on global television, being watched as we walk through Magneto's base of operations. I'm willing to bet that he's got enough Acolyte's on this thing to choke a horse, and we've got to get to the top to save the Professor and to keep him from destroying NYC?" Asked Bobby.

"That's about it, Icicle."

"Sounds like fun. Who's up for some bucket-head kicking?" Asked Kyle.

The X-men chuckled, releasing some of the tension.

Heading out of the docking bay, they found themselves facing two doorways.  Over the intercoms came Magneto's voice.

"To progress, you will require a group on each path.  The actions of one will unlock the doors on the other."

The teams traded looks, and Kyle spoke up.

"I'd suggest Blue on one side, Gold on the other."

"One problem, grasshopper." Said Logan. "That leaves you younger kids alone.  How bout Beast and Remy go with you younger guys."

"Works for Remy." Responded the thief.

Beast nodded, and the two groups split ways.

(AN: Now we get to have fun.

Warning, each and every character will come to a brush with death at least twice.  Whenever you see straight lines across the page, then we're changing to the other group. We start with Blue. Also, to avoid confusion on this later, the television sets of the world, which have been taken over and forced to show only this, change at the lines as well. So effectively, your watching this like it was on the t.v.'s)

The Blue team walked into their pathway, to find themselves in a long hallway.  They looked at each other, not quite sure.

"Why does this seem a little suspicious." Asked Kyle.

"You may rest assured, X-Men, you will face danger only in the central room of each level.  In that room, you will face either a one on one battle with an Acolyte, or a danger of some kind.  On my honor, I swear that the hallways are un-trapped.  Each group will only have to make its way through fifty levels."

"Lovely, what kind of honor does a megalomaniac have?" Asked Kyle.

"He has some, mon ami, not much, but some." Said Remy.

"Fun." Said Bobby, as the group made their way down the hall.  They finally reached an elevator.  Entering it, they saw that it only held one button, leading to 'level 98'

"I guess we're on 100, then." Said Amara, as they entered, and the door closed.

They reached the next level, and exited. Walking down the hallway, they found a door approximately halfway through the flying fortress.  Opening the door, they found themselves in the first challenge room.

In it there was nothing more than a walkway that led across the room, which held an impressive drop.  The walkway bore no railing, but other than that, it didn't seem to have any danger too it.

"How did he manage to put a pit that big in?" Asked Kyle.

"This is probably another Asteroid that he put large repulsor jets into. It floats in mid air on them, and it appears to have the room for three or four times as many levels as it does.  Thus, each level probably has some nasty surprises in it." Said Beast.

"As I've already said, fun." Kyle said, as they made their way across.

Suddenly, when they were halfway across, the path began to shift under their feet, as metal spikes slid out of the base of the room.

"Shit." Said Bobby.  They began to run as fast as they could, as the path was slowly shifting apart.  If they waited to long, then they wouldn't be able to reach any other parts.

Most of the X-Men reached the end, except Jubilee, who leapt to another part of the platform, very close to the end.  She landed on it, only to have it flip over on her.

"JUBES!" shouted Bobby, as he created an ice slide, racing her to the bottom.

She plummeted quickly.  When she was bare inches from he bottom, Bobby's ice slide was under her, saving her from impaling on the spikes.  He created another ice slide, carrying her up to the safe zone.

"That was not fun." Said Tabby.

"No joke." Responded Bobby.

The group continued, shaken slightly.

Gold team had made its way into its first challenge room.  This one consisted of a set of pillars that lead across.   Not easy, but not to difficult.

Jumping from pillar to pillar, the team made it's way across.  Finally, they had all made their way across except for Lance.  Jumping to another pillar, he was shocked when it seemed to collapse as he landed on it.

"Shit! We can't use the same pillars twice!" Said Scott, as he realized that he had used that pillar, and that no one else had repeated a pillar that someone else used.

Kurt teleported, grabbing Lance as the earth-shaking mutant fell to the flat ground bellow. Teleporting again, he landed on the ground up with the others.

Blue team stood at the entrance to the next challenge room, a duel.  The terrain of the room was nothing more or less than a set of wooden beams, pillars, and crosswalks, almost like a jungle gym.

"I'll take it." Said Beast, as he stepped out.

His opponent dropped to the far end of the room, his mutation being instantly obvious. His face had a set of eight eyes, as his lower body consisted of six multi-jointed legs, as his arms also held multiple joints.  He had a pair of spinnerets under his legs, and his hands were tipped with claws.

"This will be fun." The mutant said, it's voice female.

It then jumped onto one of the beams overhead, and began to walk at Beast upside down.

Dr. McCoy flipped onto another beam, as the spider mutant lunged at him from above.  The beam he stood on was just above and behind her, and he took advantage of it, jumping down onto her to flatten her to the beam she was on.  He then jumped onto a pole that was strung across the jungle gym like set up.

The female mutant sent a blast of webbing at her foe, catching him, and pulling him off.  Slamming to the wood below, he was surprised when she rushed forward.  Using her forelegs, she kicked him in the ribs, as he had been sprawled along the beam with his side to her.  He went flying, and he realized she intended to use her web as a bungee cord.

Thinking quickly, he grabbed onto another pole with his feet, and, transferring the momentum by using his arms, pulled her to him by the strong thread connecting them.

The female mutant flew forward, surprised at the transfer in momentum. She was even more surprised when he swung around using his arms again, and, wrapping the thread several times around the post, kicked her in the back on the last rotation.

The kick sent her flying forward, crashing through a set of wooden beams, and knocking her out on the metal wall.

The door on the far side of the room opened, and Dr. McCoy flipped to the ground, as the X-Men continued.

Gold team had reached their next challenge, another duel.

This one's terrain was nothing more or less than a set of blocks of varying sizes.

"I shall take this one, comrades." Said Colossus, as he walked in.

"Bad move, Russkie." Came a voice the X-men recognized.

Out of the door that the Acolyte's apparently used to enter, which slammed shut behind him, came Berzerker.