And He Shall Smite The Wicked

"Why the hell didn't we just shoot these freaks back at the base?" One Purist asked. "Save us a lot of trouble." Four Purists were moving the armored chairs in which Ororo and Scott were trapped in.

"Reverend wants to make 'em an example for tonight," Another said. "When their leader blasts 'em all to hell where they belong."

"No boy, that is where you belong…" A voice hissed. The next thing the Purists knew they were knocked down flat.

"What…?" Ororo looked groggily out of her prison.

The team of mutants before them was a welcome sight. Kitty, Logan, Hank, Kurt, Rogue, Bobby and Jean were of the X-Men. The Misfits had Althea, Lance, Pietro, Xi and Wanda. Also with them were Emma Frost and a man with an eyepatch a strange looking arm and a sword they never saw before. "Get 'em out of there," Logan hacked his claws and cut Scott free while Kitty phased Ororo free.

"Kitty…Thank Goddess you're all right…" Ororo panted. "Nanites…"

"We know," Kitty said. "Bill you got the stuff?"

"Yeah," Bill attached the anti-nanite devices to their arms. "This will sting a little. Try not to use your powers if you can."

"Who..?" Scott was confused.

"That's Bill," Althea cocked her head. "An old friend of ours. I'll tell you more about him later, right now we need to find the Professor. Where is he?"

"Don't know," Scott winced in pain. "Frost? What's she doing here?"

"Danielle?" Ororo asked.

"Mirage is fine," Jean told her. "She's helping the Hellions recover from Stryker's attack."

"Which explains why I'm here," Emma said as she removed the helmets from the Purists so she could scan their minds. "As much as I'd love to leave you human loving fools to your own ironic fate, Stryker is a threat which we need to take down. And we'll need all the help we can do to so."

"Stryker attacked the Hellions?" Scott asked.

"Yeah," Lance told him. "Did a lot of damage. Burned their school to the ground. The Joes and some of the X-Men are helping them recover while the rest of both X-Men and Misfits are providing backup."

"Stryker…" Scott gasped. "Did something to the Professor. Drugged him and attached him to some kind of device that would help him track mutants."

"Also used it to torture us…" Ororo frowned.

"You mean some kind of anti-Cerebro?" Lance asked. "How could he know how to build something like that?"

"I'm afraid I have an inkling," Emma frowned as she scanned the minds of the Purists. "Oh god they did get the Bio Pulse!"

"The what?" Scott asked.

"Was this the little 'secret weapon' you mentioned earlier?" Logan glared at Emma. "The one that was blown to bits next to you when we found you?"

"I'm afraid so," Emma sighed. "Specifically designed to incapacitate any non mutant lifeforms. But I saw it destroyed just before I was knocked unconscious! Somehow they must have got the plans for it."

"Where would they get that?" Jean asked.

"The Hellfire Club has many…resources," Emma was careful. "Recently we've had some trouble with some of our junior members who believe that the Club should be a bit more restrictive when soliciting members."

"In other words you got a few mutant haters running around causing you trouble," Logan folded his arms. "Let me take a wild guess, you guys not only built this bio pulse weapon, you somehow had access to how Cerebro was built? Am I right?"

"At one time we did consider Magneto to be a junior member," Emma admitted.

"And Magneto helped build the Cerebro Prototype," Ororo remembered.

"In an effort of good faith he gave us the plans to make our own type of Cerebro," Emma didn't deny it. "Our scientists figured out that it could be used in connection with the Bio Pulse if rewired properly."

"Or reprogrammed to wipe out mutants instead of humans…" Pietro realized.

"So Stryker has the technology to not only find mutants but to kill them as well as the nanites?" Lance threw up his hands. "Oh well this just made my day!"

"How far is its range?" Bill asked. "A block? A few blocks?"

"It was estimated that maybe with enough power and the right telepath we could have eliminated an entire city of humans," Emma said.

"A city?" Logan roared.

"It was intended to be a weapon of last resort," Emma told him. "Only to be used in extreme emergencies."

"Oh that just makes it all right then," Bill said sarcastically.

"When you say the right telepath…" Jean's eyes narrowed. "Oh my god…"

"They're gonna use Charles to direct that thing!" Ororo shouted. "They were torturing us to break him!"

"He's gonna set it off in New York…" Kurt gasped. "He'll kill every mutant in this city!"

"And then he'll go on to every other city…" Althea growled.

"We have to stop Stryker once and for all," Emma said. "Show the world what he really is."

"That's why he brought you guys here to Madison Square Garden instead of finishing you off when he had the chance." Kitty's eyes widened.

"A televised sermon shown all around the world," Ororo frowned. "He said he was going to be the Hand of God and show the world the power over the mutants."

"Using us as his example," Scott growled. "You know the Reverend wanted us to be there, let's not disappoint him."

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"I don't know why you agreed to this Congressman Shore," His aide grunted as they made their way to box seats.

"I made a promise to the Party," Republican Congressman Kenneth Shore shrugged. "They want to hear his ideas before considering him as a potential ally."

"It really is a wise investment," One of three other men in the box seat well-dressed suits spoke.

"Personally he's a bit extreme for my tastes but I suppose it's worth hearing out," Shore sighed.

"I assure you Congressman tonight will be a history making event," Another said. "You do not want to miss this."

The music swirled and the lights went on the stage. The crowd got to its feet as Reverend Stryker took the stage. After a stirring hymnal he began his sermon. "My friends, in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth, he created man in his own image, male and female he created them. He created man out of the dust of the earth and breathed the Breath of Life into him and thus man became a living soul. Thus was our race born and has remained for thousands of years, until now."

"We are beings of divine creation, yet there are those of us whose existence is a very affront to that blessed divinity. God created the human race, there is no mention of mutants in the Bible, only demons. Some so-called scientists say that they are the natural process of evolution. That we began as apes and are turning into monsters. They claim that this is the natural law, but how can that be? How can these demons be anything but unnatural?"

Loud choruses of cheers greeted this. Several police officers were handling crowd control. "You really believe this quack?" One officer whispered. "I mean I'm not exactly crazy about mutants as much as the next guy but geeze…"

"Why the hell couldn't this be a ball game or something?" Another grunted. "There's something about that preacher guy that scares me."

"Yeah you don't need powers to sense that he's missing a few Bibles from his pulpit," The other cop agreed. "He's up to something…"

"We are as God made us!" Stryker was whipping the crowd into a frenzy. "Any deviation from his plan, any mutation comes not from heaven, but from hell!"

Anne was watching from the security booth. "Soon muties…" She grinned waiting for the moment when Stryker would make his move. "Soon…WHAT?"

The cameras picked up the back stage movement of the X-Men and Misfits making their way towards the stage. "You guys ready?" Scott asked.

"Yeah, are you?" Kitty asked him. "I mean you guys are still recovering..."

"We can't...We won't abandon the Professor when he needs us the most," Ororo told her.

"I think Frost was smart chickening out on this…" Rogue grunted. "Where the hell did she go anyway?"

"How the hell did they get past security?" Anne hissed. "If you want something done right you gotta do it yourself!" She ran to the stage.

"The soul that sinneth it shall die!" Stryker shouted quoting the Bible. "We shall overcome! We shall…" The crowd gasped and he turned and saw the mutants walk towards him.

"What the hell are they doing?" One cop asked.

"Dunno," Another gulped. "But I'll say this for them. They've got guts."

"Hello Reverend," Ororo said sternly. "We came to speak to you."

"Ah, speak of the devils," Stryker didn't appear to be concerned.

"Where's the Professor?" Kitty shouted. "What have you done with him?"

"I know you…" Stryker glared at Kitty. "You're…"

"Alive?" Kitty glared at him. "Yeah, no thanks to you."

"You've said some pretty nasty things about us," Scott said. "I think it's only fair that we had our say."

"You will say your prayers mutants," Stryker pressed a button on the podium. A device lowered from the ceiling. Inside the complicated machinery, which looked like a high tech cross, was Xavier strapped to it; several wires attached to his head.

"Professor!" Kitty shouted.

"I am the salvation and the light," Stryker activated the machine. "Let all who oppose me perish!"

Within an instant the device sent out psyonic beams directed by the Professor. Intense pain hit the mutants on stage as well as throughout the city. "My head…" Logan grunted. "Feels like its on fire…" Blood started to come from his ears.

"The fire of the lord is upon you…" Stryker grinned as the mutants fell to their knees. "Burn!"

Next: The final confrontation with Stryker!