In Mexico it took a moment for Wanda to realize that Pietro had pulled her
out of the way of the falling Sentinel wreckage. She turned and saw the
rest of the Brotherhood. She had reinforcements, but she didn't think they
could win. All they could do was delay and hope that someone, somewhere
succeeded where they failed. Failure may be the one constant in the
Brotherhood but it was ok because no matter how bad things got they were in
it together.
She'd been the power player here, but she wasn't making the slightest difference. Most of the team was grounded and thus useless against what was coming. Sunspot could get to Magneto and was whaling on him, but from where she stood she saw that he was a minor annoyance at best. For a moment she idly wondered just what the Brazilian boy was screaming at Magneto and whether the thing that had been her father could even understand him anyway. She kind of hoped he couldn't; that way, at least he would miss out on what had happened to him if this did end up being the end of everything.
Angel had quickly figured out that merely flying in and trying to hit Magneto wouldn't work, so he'd flown down to pick up Alex. Angel flew them out of the way of Magneto's offensive while Alex attacked. Of course, with the haphazard attack, many of the shots were going wild, luckily not so wild that they hit their own teammates. From the looks of things on the ground, part of the problem was that they could never work together. Havok was trying to attack at the same time Angel ducked and wove to keep ahead of Magneto. She hoped that they didn't have an aerial battle between the two stressed mutants in a minute.
It only took moments for Wanda to realize that, grounded as they were, the Brotherhood would be good for nothing but picking up and guarding fallen teammates, and from the look on their faces, Wanda realized that they'd come to the same conclusion. Of course, that didn't make them back off. The Brotherhood might fail its fights, but it would never back down or retreat if there was another option. She suspected she'd die, but at least she'd die with her real family. She wasn't alone anymore, and that made all the difference in the world.
********************************************************
Back in China, Bobby had extended his powers directly to Storm. To do this, he'd had to neglect the ice shield and for a moment Evan had thought it and Bobby would fall, but then Ray proved he hadn't forgotten the lessons he'd learned from the Morlocks: do what you have to do to protect the group, even if you might get yourself killed in the process. Ray leaped in front of the shield, taking the lightning bolts as they came and drawing them to his own electrical power, away from the group. Evan could smell burning flesh, but Ray just gritted his teeth and held his position. He had a family that wouldn't try to fry him the first minute he goofed up and he obviously wouldn't let go of it without a fight. When smoke started coming off Ray, Evan started wondering if this was Ray's last stand, ever.
In a moment what was left of Storm saw what was happening and started sending hail instead. Evan saw it coming and leaped in front of Ray, strengthening and extending his armor to protect the other boy. He might not be at the mansion anymore, but he'd never stop protecting his teammates. He grunted as the ice stuck him. He felt bones within him shatter from the force of the hail, but he wouldn't move. This was his family, and he would not leave them. He extended his armor further and dug several spikes into the ground to anchor him in place. When he saw the beating the ice shield was taking, he knew what else he had to do. He started shooting spikes, creating a wall of spikes in front of the ice and watched as the hail got stuck in the barrier, making it even stronger.
Just when Evan believed it wasn't working, he felt the hail start to slacken. Finally, it entirely stopped, and the clouds looked as if they were considering clearing off. Storm began to fall, but they were too late. Behind her, the pyramid flew up into the air. They were too late. Whatever was going down was happening in spite of them.
Evan saw the pyramid and realized what it meant, but at that moment he didn't care. A quick glance behind him showed that though Ray had been knocked off his feet, he was still alive and breathing. Evan turned back to where the pyramid had stood and started running toward where Ororo had fallen. The broken bones within his legs were improperly splinted with his spikes, but he didn't care. He had to go see his Auntie O. She had to be ok. She was all that was left of his innocence. If she was dead, he had nothing.
*******************************************************
In Mexico, the flyers had finally figured out that what they were doing wasn't helping and taken a new track. They flew down to those on the ground and together they outlined a new plan. Carefully at first, Havok shot his power at Sunspot. His powers were from the Sun and Sunspot was powered by sunlight, so they tried using Havok to charge him up further. Once they figured out that the charge-up plan would work and not fry Sunspot, Havok poured all the power he had into the Brazilian. He couldn't fly up to Magneto and Warren would be needed elsewhere. Once Havok was done, Sunspot flew up after Magneto. He'd been powered up to the point where he could serve as a good distraction even if he couldn't actually take Magneto out, and that was all he needed to be.
After a few quick instructions, Wanda allowed Angel to carry her up to do war with her father. Sunspot's powers allowed Angel to get in close enough to throw her at Magneto and get out. Wanda latched onto him and released her chaos powers on him, hoping that this would shock Apocalypse's control loose. Somehow, Apocalypse's control of him and her genetic link to him let her get a look at him. An ancient, angry power looked back at her through the link that was between her and her father. She still unleashed all her chaos power and was terrified to find that the link had increased her powers. The trees started dancing, Fred started floating, and part of the top of the pyramid transformed itself into bubbles before its programming immunized it from her attack. Magneto wasn't so lucky. He managed to throw her off eventually, but she could sense that the battle had taken too much out of him for him to be able to do anything but run.
As she fell, Angel caught her. Before they'd even touched down on the ground, Pietro was there berating Angel at superspeed for putting her in such danger. It was probably a good thing that he was talking so fast that none could understand a single word. As he continued yelling, a lingering presence of what she'd seen of Apocalypse removed Mastermind's influence and let her know what her real life had been like. As she stared at the furious face of her worried brother, she realized that he really hadn't been able to stop their father and it really wasn't his fault. She also realized that he'd lied to her about her past all those months, and didn't know what to do with him.
In a few minutes she saw something else. The pyramid started floating up, and they'd done nothing to stop it. Her chaos powers had wounded Angel so badly that it was a miracle he'd manage to catch her and Sunspot lay in a puddle on the ground after catching a particularly nasty blow from Magneto. They were grounded. They were useless for whatever came next.
She drew closer to her team, even more scared than she had been a few minutes ago. She suspected they'd be living through something worse than death soon, but that wasn't what scared her. She suspected that when this was all over, whoever was in charge of this whole mess would force them apart. She could face losing her home, her friends, and her life, but she couldn't bear the thought of losing her family.
**********************************************************
Within the Sphinx, Logan finally managed to get through Mystique, continuing on inside to stop the madman responsible for the whole mess. Just as they reached the inner doors, something shifted and it began to lift off the ground, up into the sky. Logan leaped for the doors, trying to catch them with his claws, but he couldn't get a grip. He'd done it all. He'd gotten in, taken out Mystique, found what he was looking for, but he was still too late. He could do nothing now. The man who had been called a devil, the unstoppable, and worse had only one recourse; as his legs ceased to support him, he silently cried. He had finally found those who would take him as a friend and make him part of their family, and he had failed them. The mighty Wolverine hadn't been able to even slow this whole mess down.
*********************************************************
In Egypt, the long line of Jamies was interrupted as a SHIELD helicopter landed and asked for the original. One of the Jamies broke out of the line and went with him as the others continued loading up on boom-balls. Several of the Jamies interrupted their line to stare at the Jamie who had left a the helicopter floated off, but all of them got back to business after one of the watching Jamies tripped over his own feet while walking and set off a boom-ball in his own face. Tabby looked at what remained and hoped that it wasn't an omen of things to come.
Up in the sky, something was happening to Jean. Her psychic image was twisting into something different. It seemed to be catching on fire, and the Cerebro unit was glowing. As those below watched, Jean seemed to catch on fire as well, then swell up to fill her image. They could feel a part of her within themselves as well, but it seemed more like she had spread herself so far that they couldn't not sense her than that she was actually trying to contact them. It was a great bird, a great fiery bird, (1) and it was finally starting to do more than hold Xavier back. It was starting to win.
Cheers erupted from below, but little by little, they died off. After nearly fifteen minutes of watching the battle, those below realized that the first thrust had only been temporary. They were evenly matched, and the only thing that had changed was that those below finally had a chance to attack the pyramid. They did everything they could, but they couldn't make the slightest dent. It was all for nothing.
The pyramid itself lifted off, yet neither Xavier nor Jean seemed to notice. It looked like the world they knew would end with two of the greatest heroes they'd known, two people who had been like father and daughter, locked in mortal combat.
___________________________________________________________
Commercial break two. The final, stunning conclusion to the episode will be up soon.
(1) You know everything you know about the comic Phoenix? Forget it. This isn't it.
She'd been the power player here, but she wasn't making the slightest difference. Most of the team was grounded and thus useless against what was coming. Sunspot could get to Magneto and was whaling on him, but from where she stood she saw that he was a minor annoyance at best. For a moment she idly wondered just what the Brazilian boy was screaming at Magneto and whether the thing that had been her father could even understand him anyway. She kind of hoped he couldn't; that way, at least he would miss out on what had happened to him if this did end up being the end of everything.
Angel had quickly figured out that merely flying in and trying to hit Magneto wouldn't work, so he'd flown down to pick up Alex. Angel flew them out of the way of Magneto's offensive while Alex attacked. Of course, with the haphazard attack, many of the shots were going wild, luckily not so wild that they hit their own teammates. From the looks of things on the ground, part of the problem was that they could never work together. Havok was trying to attack at the same time Angel ducked and wove to keep ahead of Magneto. She hoped that they didn't have an aerial battle between the two stressed mutants in a minute.
It only took moments for Wanda to realize that, grounded as they were, the Brotherhood would be good for nothing but picking up and guarding fallen teammates, and from the look on their faces, Wanda realized that they'd come to the same conclusion. Of course, that didn't make them back off. The Brotherhood might fail its fights, but it would never back down or retreat if there was another option. She suspected she'd die, but at least she'd die with her real family. She wasn't alone anymore, and that made all the difference in the world.
********************************************************
Back in China, Bobby had extended his powers directly to Storm. To do this, he'd had to neglect the ice shield and for a moment Evan had thought it and Bobby would fall, but then Ray proved he hadn't forgotten the lessons he'd learned from the Morlocks: do what you have to do to protect the group, even if you might get yourself killed in the process. Ray leaped in front of the shield, taking the lightning bolts as they came and drawing them to his own electrical power, away from the group. Evan could smell burning flesh, but Ray just gritted his teeth and held his position. He had a family that wouldn't try to fry him the first minute he goofed up and he obviously wouldn't let go of it without a fight. When smoke started coming off Ray, Evan started wondering if this was Ray's last stand, ever.
In a moment what was left of Storm saw what was happening and started sending hail instead. Evan saw it coming and leaped in front of Ray, strengthening and extending his armor to protect the other boy. He might not be at the mansion anymore, but he'd never stop protecting his teammates. He grunted as the ice stuck him. He felt bones within him shatter from the force of the hail, but he wouldn't move. This was his family, and he would not leave them. He extended his armor further and dug several spikes into the ground to anchor him in place. When he saw the beating the ice shield was taking, he knew what else he had to do. He started shooting spikes, creating a wall of spikes in front of the ice and watched as the hail got stuck in the barrier, making it even stronger.
Just when Evan believed it wasn't working, he felt the hail start to slacken. Finally, it entirely stopped, and the clouds looked as if they were considering clearing off. Storm began to fall, but they were too late. Behind her, the pyramid flew up into the air. They were too late. Whatever was going down was happening in spite of them.
Evan saw the pyramid and realized what it meant, but at that moment he didn't care. A quick glance behind him showed that though Ray had been knocked off his feet, he was still alive and breathing. Evan turned back to where the pyramid had stood and started running toward where Ororo had fallen. The broken bones within his legs were improperly splinted with his spikes, but he didn't care. He had to go see his Auntie O. She had to be ok. She was all that was left of his innocence. If she was dead, he had nothing.
*******************************************************
In Mexico, the flyers had finally figured out that what they were doing wasn't helping and taken a new track. They flew down to those on the ground and together they outlined a new plan. Carefully at first, Havok shot his power at Sunspot. His powers were from the Sun and Sunspot was powered by sunlight, so they tried using Havok to charge him up further. Once they figured out that the charge-up plan would work and not fry Sunspot, Havok poured all the power he had into the Brazilian. He couldn't fly up to Magneto and Warren would be needed elsewhere. Once Havok was done, Sunspot flew up after Magneto. He'd been powered up to the point where he could serve as a good distraction even if he couldn't actually take Magneto out, and that was all he needed to be.
After a few quick instructions, Wanda allowed Angel to carry her up to do war with her father. Sunspot's powers allowed Angel to get in close enough to throw her at Magneto and get out. Wanda latched onto him and released her chaos powers on him, hoping that this would shock Apocalypse's control loose. Somehow, Apocalypse's control of him and her genetic link to him let her get a look at him. An ancient, angry power looked back at her through the link that was between her and her father. She still unleashed all her chaos power and was terrified to find that the link had increased her powers. The trees started dancing, Fred started floating, and part of the top of the pyramid transformed itself into bubbles before its programming immunized it from her attack. Magneto wasn't so lucky. He managed to throw her off eventually, but she could sense that the battle had taken too much out of him for him to be able to do anything but run.
As she fell, Angel caught her. Before they'd even touched down on the ground, Pietro was there berating Angel at superspeed for putting her in such danger. It was probably a good thing that he was talking so fast that none could understand a single word. As he continued yelling, a lingering presence of what she'd seen of Apocalypse removed Mastermind's influence and let her know what her real life had been like. As she stared at the furious face of her worried brother, she realized that he really hadn't been able to stop their father and it really wasn't his fault. She also realized that he'd lied to her about her past all those months, and didn't know what to do with him.
In a few minutes she saw something else. The pyramid started floating up, and they'd done nothing to stop it. Her chaos powers had wounded Angel so badly that it was a miracle he'd manage to catch her and Sunspot lay in a puddle on the ground after catching a particularly nasty blow from Magneto. They were grounded. They were useless for whatever came next.
She drew closer to her team, even more scared than she had been a few minutes ago. She suspected they'd be living through something worse than death soon, but that wasn't what scared her. She suspected that when this was all over, whoever was in charge of this whole mess would force them apart. She could face losing her home, her friends, and her life, but she couldn't bear the thought of losing her family.
**********************************************************
Within the Sphinx, Logan finally managed to get through Mystique, continuing on inside to stop the madman responsible for the whole mess. Just as they reached the inner doors, something shifted and it began to lift off the ground, up into the sky. Logan leaped for the doors, trying to catch them with his claws, but he couldn't get a grip. He'd done it all. He'd gotten in, taken out Mystique, found what he was looking for, but he was still too late. He could do nothing now. The man who had been called a devil, the unstoppable, and worse had only one recourse; as his legs ceased to support him, he silently cried. He had finally found those who would take him as a friend and make him part of their family, and he had failed them. The mighty Wolverine hadn't been able to even slow this whole mess down.
*********************************************************
In Egypt, the long line of Jamies was interrupted as a SHIELD helicopter landed and asked for the original. One of the Jamies broke out of the line and went with him as the others continued loading up on boom-balls. Several of the Jamies interrupted their line to stare at the Jamie who had left a the helicopter floated off, but all of them got back to business after one of the watching Jamies tripped over his own feet while walking and set off a boom-ball in his own face. Tabby looked at what remained and hoped that it wasn't an omen of things to come.
Up in the sky, something was happening to Jean. Her psychic image was twisting into something different. It seemed to be catching on fire, and the Cerebro unit was glowing. As those below watched, Jean seemed to catch on fire as well, then swell up to fill her image. They could feel a part of her within themselves as well, but it seemed more like she had spread herself so far that they couldn't not sense her than that she was actually trying to contact them. It was a great bird, a great fiery bird, (1) and it was finally starting to do more than hold Xavier back. It was starting to win.
Cheers erupted from below, but little by little, they died off. After nearly fifteen minutes of watching the battle, those below realized that the first thrust had only been temporary. They were evenly matched, and the only thing that had changed was that those below finally had a chance to attack the pyramid. They did everything they could, but they couldn't make the slightest dent. It was all for nothing.
The pyramid itself lifted off, yet neither Xavier nor Jean seemed to notice. It looked like the world they knew would end with two of the greatest heroes they'd known, two people who had been like father and daughter, locked in mortal combat.
___________________________________________________________
Commercial break two. The final, stunning conclusion to the episode will be up soon.
(1) You know everything you know about the comic Phoenix? Forget it. This isn't it.
