Sam Guthrie slowly goes over the piles of notes of the last four months sitting in front of him. His surrogate father-figure, Cable, is dead. His life-long mission of destroying Apocalypse revealed to be nothing more than a plan of Apocalypse to allow him access to Cable's body, destroying his mind in the process. Apocalypse, now possessing the powers of Cable's extraordinary mental powers, is at the height of his powers and has begun recruiting mutants for a coming war. Sam, thrown into the role as general sooner than he ever expected, wonders how he will be able to pull together and lead his teammates.

They were once the new mutants, then known as X-Force. They have always been the most pro-active of the teams Charles Xavier inspired into creation. Now they are called what they have become, X-Squadron. The first line of defense in the coming war against Apocalypse. They have been training for this since Cable took leadership over them from Xavier. They would have died for him, but he has died for them to finally step out of the shadows.

Sam's main problem is their newest recruit, X-Man. He is Cable's other-dimensional self from a world ruled and eventually destroyed by the presence of Apocalypse. His powers were never meant to be stored in any container, and is slowly breaking down his body. He knows he will die soon, and plans on sacrificing himself to rid this world of Apocalypse. Sam is trying to find another way. So far.. Nothing.

Outside the current headquarters of X-Squadron, one of seemingly thousands of decommissioned Sentinel production facilities, stands a lone individual hidden in shadow. He stands and watches, nothing more. He is the first of the children of Apocalypse, born before the birth of Christ, he has waited and trained for his father to fulfill his plans. His time has finally come. Genocide has been released and today the war begins.

Inside their home, X-Squadron are training. It is what they have done since the news of Cable's death was brought to their knowledge. They believe they are ready for anything. As X-Man hovers above the rest of his teammates, psionicly linking all members together, Domino still begins to yell out orders above the clatter and yells of their simulated battle.

"Magma… you and Meltdown take out the armored troops, leave the flyers for Nate and Sam. Proudstar, with me."

Running behind the other members, Moonstar and Richter share a concerned look with each other.

"She's trying to hard, Richter. We really need to help her deal with Nathan's…"

"We are. We get rid of Apocalypse and worry about feelings afterwards. She's tougher than any of us. She'll get through this, with us by her side…"

Before Richter could finish what he was saying a blast of enormously powerful energy crashes through the bases far wall leveling Richter where he stood. Danielle Moonstar was in such shock to see the body of her limp almost lifeless teammate laying against the wall behind them, she failed to prepare herself for the second shot. The energy fired off by Genocide ripped through her chest and her last sight before dying was Richter struggling to his feet moving towards her body.

Seeing the carnage going on, Cannonball uses his mutant powers and rockets towards his two teammates. X-Man, Meltdown, Magma, Domino, and Proudstar are right behind, dodging holographic fire and battle troops.

Domino screams, "System override, Alpha… Shut down now!"

The training simulation system shuts down immediately, leaving only X-Squadron and a giant hole in the wall. Finally reaching their teammates, X-Squadron are on full alert preparing for the next attack.

"Dom, what's goin' on here? We ain't ready for this sh-"

As Meltdown begins to question the situation, a figure steps from the shadows. All heads turn and everyone sees the attacker. Genocide walks and then stands a few feet in front of them, glowing with power. Magma and Meltdown both power-up and are ready to avenge their fallen teammate.

"Don't move, either of ya'll," Sam orders. "I'm givin' ya'll one chance to tell us who ya'll are. Talk. Now."

X-Squadron stands there awaiting this intruder to speak. They are all ready to attack at any moment, they know who sent him, but need to know if this is only the beginning or just an attack to test them. They restrain themselves for the betterment of the world.

In a voice, not very different from his father's, Genocide speaks, "Who am I? I am the scion of Apocalypse. I am the heir to eternity. I am your death given flesh. I am Genocide, first son of Apocalypse, rider of the storm."

"You can tell he's telling the truth, only Blue Lips talks like that," Meltdown said under her breath.

"Tabitha, not now. Why are you here," Domino asked.

"This is your first and final warning. One has died and the other has felt my power here today. Do not proceed to go up against my father or you will all join the girl."

"Enough of this!"

X-Man charges through his teammates and fires a psionic spike of energy at Genocide, knocking him backwards towards the hole he created to enter. X-Man uses his powers to enter the mind of Genocide, but lacking the precision and skill of other telepaths, he relies solely on his power to accomplish what he wishes. While Nate and Genocide are locked in a heated battle, the rest of X-Squadron can only sit and watch due to the amount of energy the two are producing. For minutes the battle rages on, with neither gaining a lasting advantage. Domino finally tries to take control of the situation, while Sam looks on at disbelief.

"Magma, see if you can fire at him, without hitting Nate. We've gotta help him out."

"No problem, Dom," Magma says as she moves around the two combatants, charging her powers to emit lava as she does so. When she is completely behind Genocide, she fires a ball of lava directly at him. Before the flaming ball could reach him, Genocide turns his head to the side and redirects the ball towards Magma's other teammates, who scatter to avoid being hit. Then before she can react, he attacks her with the same psionic attack he was just seconds earlier use to defend himself against Nate. Magma collapses, catatonic, her mind completely wiped clean. This attack gives Nate the opportunity he needed and quickly takes advantage. Redoubling his previous attack he nails Genocide, knocking him unconscious.

Nate drops to his knees exhausted as his teammates run over to Magma's body. His nose and lip begin to bleed and his body starts to tremble.

*****

-Author's note-

Ok, I'm not getting reviews and I wanna know what's wrong, if anything with this story so far and if I should continue it or change it or whatever. To possibly get some reviews out of you people I've added a pic. Check it out from the link in my bio. If I get some reviews I'll make some more pics of scenes in the story. Get to the reviews people, I think I've said it enough now. Gimme reviews. Thanks in advance.