Ramifications (3 of 3)
"So Exodus returns again?" Sinister laughed as he sat upon his makeshift throne composed of some green organic, fleshy material. Bennet and Star Prophet had been escorted by some of Babylon's light butterflies to his chambers.
"Yes, but not because I feel like having some tea over a nice, warm open fire with you."
"Ahh I'm not so bad Bennet. And I know this to be true because you keep on coming back to me when you are in need of help," Sinister grinned showing his pointy, perfectly white teeth.
"You don't help anyone Essex. All you do is make bargains that scar the mind and soul," Star Prophet exclaimed.
"Everything has a price my dear. Everything you do, say, write, and even think bear consequences. You have yet to pay your price to me yet Bennet , but know that one day I will come to collect it. The price will be quite the heavy one," Sinister replied.
"So be it, but that's not why I'm here. In a short amount of time Onset will lead an all out assault against you and your forces. Trust me when I say you will lose. You won't die and you'll come back strong as ever, but the coming war between Onset and you will destroy the Earth. Figuratively speaking that is," Exodus said.
"I knew Onset would want revenge eventually, but I never figured so soon. Why tell me this Exodus? Why let me in on the future when you don't trust me in the slightest?" Sinister asked.
"I want Earth to survive fiend. I don't want to have Luna or any other child grow up in the world this war will create."
"So love strikes again Bennet? Oh what a cliche motive. Nonetheless your help against Onset would be much appreciated regardless as to why you're doing it."
"Glad to see we could get through this without much fuss," Exodus said.
"How should I prepare myself? Any suggestions from the man of the future," Sinister said as he turned on many an instrument and light in his base by simply pressing a few buttons on his wrist and belt.
"Make clones. Lots of them and no I'm not joking Essex!"
"Never said you were. I'll be ready. Believe that Exodus. I have resources at hand," Sinister declared as he rose up from his makeshift throne.
"Well, then hop to it soldier. We should be on our way," Star Prophet said tugging at the arm of du Paris.
"Oh before you go! Tell Gaia hi for me," Sinister laughed wickedly.
Exodus growled under his breath, but quickly teleported away so as to not cause any trouble. The future depended on him remaining calm around Sinister. That man was a sad example of trying to achieve too much in a short time. It was finally beginning to strain on him. Or maybe the seeming insanity was just another game of Sinister's.
Paris
Gaunt laughed as the city burned around him. Using Legion's pyrokinesis had been so much fun the living weapon could barely contain himself. His time was soon coming and all of Earth would bow to him. Nothing could stand in his way. Or so he thought.
The fire he had rained down upon the city of love began to evaporate like steam and in its wake it left absolutely no damage at all. It was if the fire had never even touched a single building or car or anything for that matter. The sight awed onlookers and pissed Gaunt off to no end.
"This ends now Gaunt. You will hurt no else!" Proteus yelled as he appeared in front of Gaunt. Orange energy flowed out of Osman's eyes and body like a stream of falling water. He wasn't going to hold back against Gaunt. He couldn't afford to. The man was too powerful.
Gaunt cracked his metallic knuckles as he decided which mutant abilities he would take into his possession. He had to choose seven so he would choose carefully. Onset had put limits on his powers so that he couldn't call on the powers of any reality changers, or those with powers that could alter the fabric of existence. So using Franklin Richards was out of the question.
A combo suddenly came to mind that Gaunt had to hope would work. Legion, Exodus, Nightcrawler, Moonstar, Magneto, Frenzy, and Tower might just provide him the power he needed to defeat Proteus.
"So you've come to fight me Proteus? Onset has told me so much about you. Too bad I'm not impressed," Gaunt said as he teleported behind Proteus. The instant he materialized his body was coursing with electricity. Having a body that was literally a huge conductor made electricity a hated enemy of Gaunt.
"Every time you teleport 100 thousands volts of electricity will travel through your body. I know you can survive it, but you won't be happy after long," Proteus predicted as he turned around to look at a smoking Gaunt. Holding out one hand Gaunt's techno organic body began to rage out of control. His body twisted, retwisted, and contorted itself so much that Gaunt nearly had the urge to scream.
In his pain and rage Gaunt lashed out with a telepathic attack. It was enough to stop Proteus's attack and send him spiraling through the air. Using the pyrokinesis of Legion he set his opponent's uniform on fire. Osman began to scream as the intense heat began to burn him. His mind was in too much pain. He couldn't concentrate on his powers. Breathing was an agonizing experience. Gaunt had defeated him. Gaunt had won.
Then abruptly breathing became easier and Osman didn't feel like he was falling anymore. Looking up he saw the face of a knight. He saw his savior. Proteus saw Exodus.
"Rest easy my friend. I will handle Gaunt," Exodus assured as he teleported his teammate into the infirmary where Star Prophet would take care of him.
"You won't fight him alone," a voice promised from behind Exodus. Bennet turned to look and saw the face of someone he hadn't quite expected.
"Fine Judas Traveller. Let us make short work of Gaunt together. You better be able to keep up old man," Exodus demanded as he flew off in the air towards a gloating Gaunt.
Brasilia
Ozymandias dodged the blast of Havok with the grace of an ancient warrior. Then he quickly moved in and delivered a hard blow to Alex's right. The Exile went flying back into the ground and skidded across it. Before he lost consciousness Havok let out a full power blast that engulfed Ozymandias's body and sent him flying through the air. He would probably travel a couple of more miles before hitting the ground. Alex smiled and then he fell out.
Yurike saw what became of her teammate, but ignored it. She had to remained focus on the battle at hand. Sunfire and Mutant Forger were both edging in on her. While Mutant Forger had no noticeable mutant abilities to speak of now he was still a skilled fighter. On the other hand there was Sunfire who had nearly put a Son of Set down solo. Yurike was in a deep pile of shit and she knew it.
"Give up. You don't stand a chance," Sunfire informed as he prepared to hurl a couple of heated plasma balls at the assassin.
"Normally I would have some snappy comeback to hit you up with, but you're right. I don't stand a chance. Catch you later," Yurike said throwing out four red darts that struck the ground and let out plumes of smoke.
When the smoke cleared Yurike was nowhere to be seen. Shaking his head Mutant Forger said, "Lets see if we can find Ozymandias and get him and Havok some medical care."
Shiro nodded in agreement.
Moscow
Blink flipped over the piece of flying metal debris and kicked Mikhail in the chest. The brother of Colossus went flying back and was about to hit a brick wall until it turned into rubber. Rasputin simply bounced off the wall and back onto his feet as if he had just been on a trampoline. Fighting in close quarters, in this case a small neighborhood, was usually Blink's area of expertise. Mikhail's powers was making the situation a little more difficult though.
Careful Blink. Mikhail's powers make him quite the formidable foe.
"If he's anything like Killian then you would be right," Blink replied to Ever's telepathic warning.
Who was Killian?
"A pirate," Blink answered as she leaped over another piece of flying metal.
The X-Men fighting pirates? Sounds like a weird fairy tale.
"Trust me. Fighting those bastards was anything, but a fairy tale," Blink said with great enthusiasm as managed to hit Mikhail in the shoulder with one of her charged javelins.
Rasputin let out a roar of pain. That's when Ever popped out one of the sewer drains and hit Mikhail with a psi-blast that manifested itself as a yellow bird. Mikhail grimaced as the blast hit him and he knelt down. Blink's and Ever's attacks had hurt him, but he wasn't out of the fight yet. Changing Blink's dart into a gummy bear, Mikhail pulled it out of his shoulder and ate it.
"Oh yea. He's definately fucked up," Clarice confirmed as she leaped into the air backwards. Twisting her body around in mid-air she sent off five javelins towards Mikhail's way. All of them turned to ash before they even got near Rasputin.
"You got lucky last time honey. You won't get a second chance," Mikhail guaranteed as he made the mucus in Blink's esophagus turn into keratin, which was the same thing as having a bunch of fingernails down your throat. Clarice began to hack and choke as she fell to the ground with thud. She was beginning to cough up large chunks of keratin. Blink wouldn't die, but her throat would be tore up pretty good.
Smiling Mikhail said, "See I told you. No second chance!"
Just then Ever tackled Mikhail from behind and sent him flying into a light post. Mikhail transformed the light post into jelly so the attack had no effect on him. Ever stepped back and prepared to lash out until he thought he saw the real Mikhail shine through for a moment.
"Give it up Ever! Onset is too powerful and so am I," Mikhail yelled hoping that they were paying close attention.
"I won't leave you Mikhail. Onset won't have you forever! I promise," Ever said. He had known Mikhail since The Hill and despite his often psychotic behavior they still respected the man a great deal. Ever felt he was about to fight a true mentor.
"I serve only Onset. None can stand--URKK!" Mikhail cried out as he fell to the ground unconscious. Standing above him was the form of a woman of Limbo. The Soulsword was her weapon and recently she hadn't used it. At least till now. How sad the first person she had to use it on was her family?
"What's up guys? My brother being a naught boy," Magik said as she put her foot on Mikhail's back.
"To some extent. How'd you find out he was back?" Blink asked.
"I know people," Illyana responded.
Figures. So what's next?
"Wait a sec! How were you able to hurt Mikhail? I know a thing or two about the Soulsword and it only hurts mystical beings," Blink stated.
"Since Onset used magic to bring my brother back he is now in fact partly mystical. Hence why my sword was able to hurt him," Magik said putting her sword back in its hilt.
And now that the explanations are out of the way what do we do with Mikhail?
"Bring him back to base. We'll hold him there," Blink said creating two portals. One portal was under Mikhail that sucked him in and another one only a few feet away from herself. Both portals lead back to the former Hulkbuster base and the Exiles' current home.
Rome
Proudstar hit the young Solidity square in the chest. The hit didn't even seem to effect the young man. He was definitely his father's son. Grabbing James' fist, Solidity slammed the former X-Forcer into the ground with great force. Proudstar proceeded to kick Solidity's feet out from under him. Petey Jr. hit the ground with a thud and a crack. The cement under him gave way as he crashed.
"Big mistake little man," Solidity sneered as he kicked Proudstar in the face. The blow was enough to send James skittering across the Italian road into a light post. His crumpled body lay unconscious.
Solidity rose off the ground and dusted himself off. Proudstar had put up a good fight, but he wasn't quite good enough. Looking for his next challenge, the young boy saw a black haired girl poised to attack him.
"Oh please you can't do crap to me," Solidity laughed.
"Crap this shit for brains," Chemistra replied angrily as she raised her hands up in the air and turned Solidity's organic diamond form into rubber. Colossus's son fell to the ground unable to move.
"No one hurts my son," Nereel whispered as she launched two of her sulfuric acid balls at Chemistra from behind. Legolas saw the incoming attack and ran to cover Chemistra.
"MEGAN! WATCH OUT!" Legolas yelled as he jumped in the way with both balls hitting him square in the chest. The acid splashed all over his body causing incredible pain. Derrick was immortal so he knew that despite the pain he was feeling he would live on. He would never have forgiven himself if Megan had gotten hurt.
Chemistra turned around saw what had happened to Legolas. She quickly turned the sulfuric acid covering his body into water and then gave Nereel a scowl of fury.
"Everyone just wants to piss me off today," Chemistra growled as she turned Nereel's uniform into gold. The woman was unable to move as Megan ran up and kicked the Savage Lander in the face. Nereel would have fallen to the ground unconscious, but her golden uniform held her tight.
"Man look at Megan go! She's whupping some bootie," Vyper exclaimed as he slashed at Longshot, who skillfully dodged the attack.
"Tell me about it!" Red Lotus added as he swung at Longshot's head. Dazzler's husband ducked his head and rolled away from the two mutants with a backward flip.
"It's time to make this dude's luck run out!" Vyper said unsheathing his claws.
"I couldn't agree more," Red Lotus replied cracking his knuckles.
"I don't have time for child's play," Longshot laughed as he teleported away in a flash of red light.
"Figures. Whenever I'm bout to get some real action in the bad guy hauls ass. That sux ass man," Vyper complained.
"Get it together Cory! We need to get Proudstar and Legolas back to base," Chemistra ordered.
"Yessir lady ma'am!" Vyper said giving a false salute. Megan rolled her eyes annoyed at her teammate.
Paris
Judas Traveller absorbed the sunlight and turned his body jet black much like Roberto DaCosta would. Exodus surrounded himself in the most powerful telekinetic shield he could muster. Both mutants were headed towards Gaunt moving at the fastest speed they were capable of.
"Oh la la! Two flying mutants headed my way. What am I to do?" Gaunt laughed.
Before Exodus and Judas Traveller could make impact with Gaunt they hit something that felt like a brick wall. Bennet went spiraling out of the sky headed toward a building. Traveller was moving right towards the Eiffel Tower. Both men's descents were abruptly stopped as a mysterious force reach out and held them in mid air.
All of a sudden, Onset appeared in a flash of red lightning.
Go home Traveller and Exodus! I'll have my fun with you soon enough. I couldn't have you take Gaunt away from me just yet so you made me step in. Was this the confirmation you were looking for Exodus or did you already know I was in charge?
With that Gaunt and Onset disappeared. Exodus and Traveller found themselves able to move again and no worse for the wear.
"This has only begun," Judas mused.
"You're right about that Traveller. We're in for quite the fight," Exodus replied.
