Mistress Strange floated above the rest of her allies (even those that flew themselves) and kept her sight on the large black tower that covered the entire area of what use to be Toronto. Ororo could feel such darkness coming from that building. It came at her in waves and washed over her like a tree caught in a tsunami. If it weren't for her extensive training in dealing with such darkness she would have fallen out of the sky. The Sorceress Supreme had only seen that kind of darkness one place before…in herself.
Clarice looked up and saw that Mistress Strange was trapped deep in thought. All of them had been. Hardcase had been killed and Bluestreak gravely injured in the fight at The Nucleus. She had a great deal of respect for Hardcase and she looked to Bluestreak like a little sister. To see one dead and the other one wounded broke her heart. This world was far too much like the one she had hailed from. The stench of death hung around like the friend that had long worn out their welcome. What would Mr. Creed tell her to do right now? How would he guide her?
If only you were here with me. Maybe I might be able to bear this responsibility.
"We've only got a few more miles and we'll be at the Tower. Once there Majestic is going to catch the attention of Sinister alongside Meggan. Then we'll make our move," Xavier explained.
"Works for me. Let's just hurry," Blink replied wanting to just teleport that Tower into the ocean to never be seen again.
Seeing an object in the distance coming straight for Blink the bald telepath pushed Clarice to the ground as an orange disk smacked full force into his forehead. The disk stuck to his head like glue and began to emit an awful wailing sound. Xavier cried out in agony, as did Jean Grey and Mesmero. Only a few seconds later all three fell to the ground dead and bleeding from their eyes. The attack was a shocking one that caught everyone off guard. Blink quickly equipped herself with two javelins as she heard heavy boots collide with the ground.
Standing in front of her was a man with a two-colored face. Half of it was a dark orange and the other half was black. The armor the man wore carried enough weapons within and on it to take down entire armies. The menacing smirk couldn't be seen under his faceplate, but it was there. Deathstroke hadn't faced anyone that was an appropriate opponent in years. This collection of superpowers had been enough to take down the Brotherhood, Factor X, and destroy The Nucleus. They were to be respected, but they had never seen the likes of the Marauders.
"I call that lil device a telepath disrupter. It emits a signal and all the mind readers go boom," Deathstroke exclaimed as he held out his palm and a red energy sword appeared for him to grasp. He was going to tear these mongrels apart piece by piece.
A large quaking went through the ground and everyone struggled to keep his or her footing. The event had signaled the arrival of the Hulk and on his left shoulder was sitting the feral Wolverine. On his right shoulder was the Joker who was clapping wildly being thoroughly amused by the ride that Hulk had just taken him on. Wolverine let loose his claws and gave a toothy grin, "Open season bub."
Sliding in on an ice bridge was the last of the Marauders, Mr. Freeze. Mr. Majestic and Lady Death recognized him as the man who had helped in capturing their team back in Korea. If there was any reason to fear this group of men he was it. Victor looked upon the collection of heroes coldly, "Lets kill them and be done with it."
The Marauders immediately went to work. Hulk leaped into the mass of heroes and snatched Lady Death's scythe from her with his index finger and thumb. He grabbed the lithe figure with his other hand and ran her through with her own weapon. Lady Death let out an agonized cry before she was lost to a land she was all too familiar with. She-Hulk and Hippolyta charged forth from behind hoping to conduct a sneak attack. The green behemoth heard them coming a mile away. He flicked the weapon through the air like a young child would whip a thin stick through the air. The weapon sliced She-Hulk in half and decapitated Hippolyta. Needless to say Hulk had garnered himself very easy victories.
Storm was barreling lightning on his armor, Magma was trying to melt his glass helmet, and Lorna was trying to rip his armor to pieces, but none of this was having any effect on Mr. Freeze. Long ago he had Deathstroke install a device that created a shield around his entire body. The shield absorbed any form of energy and simply converted it into power for Freeze's various weapons. With an emotionless stare Freeze simply lifted up one of his more elementary freeze rays and turned the three women into lifeless ice cubes.
Fabian Cortez was trying his best to land a decent shot on Wolverine. All he needed was one shot and he could obliterate the Marauder's powers. Logan was just too fast though and he was dodging every shot that Cortez threw his way. Everyone else was too busy trying to take down the other Marauders so he had taken it upon himself to handle Wolverine. After all the man had slain many of his friends during this awful war and it would only be right if he could destroy the man. All he needed was one shot.
"You're a bad shot bub," Wolverine said as he stabbed Cortez through the abdomen and kicked his body to the floor.
Logan looked around and saw that his Marauders were doing what Sinister had sent them here to do. He never doubted that they could get the job done. Not once. Sinister made them the best and they acted accordingly. Nothing was going to keep from gutting these punks and making them trophies on Sinister's wall.
"Weapon X!" Blink yelled as she leaped forward and kicked Wolverine in the face.
"Such pretty ladies, but nothing to say of fashion sense!" Joker cackled as he dodged the bullets of Silver Sable. With unnatural ease he slinked his way up to Silver Sable and snatched the gun out of her hands. An acidic substance lined his white gloves and burned the gun like it was paper under candlelight.
Meggan hit Joker with a punch to the temple and sent the frail body man flying into the air. Landing on the ground with a thud the Joker quickly dusted himself off and smiled, "Your mom should have cut back on whatever she was feeding you toots!"
Joker threw out two darts that struck the necks of Silver Sable and Meggan. He had flung the weapons out with such speed and ease that the women never saw it coming until it was too late. They both began to laugh uncontrollably and fell to the ground convulsing. Joker walked across the battlefield, stood over them and laughed, "That's the spirit ladies. Don't worry. Be happy! Happy happy happy!"
Hearing a loud crash Joker's attention was turned to the body of Mr. Majestic slamming into Hulk. The Marauder began to laugh even harder, "Ol Green beans always gets the hard knocks."
Hulk wasn't able to hear the comment as he was sent flying backwards into a burnt out car. The body of the behemoth ripped through the aged object like it was wrapping paper. Hulk finally rolled to a stop from Majestic's blow. Quickly rising to his feet the anger was evident all over his monstrous face. Someone had gotten the drop on him and quite frankly it pissed Hulk the hell off!
"Bring it you sorry piece of shit," Mr. Majestic bellowed. The Hulk had killed the last of his teammates. Lady Death had been his only familiar face on this entire wretched world and that green fool had made the mistake of ending her life. Now he was going to make the inhuman monster never wished he had laid eyes on Lady Death let alone kill her.
Hulk charged forward from the wreckage and came towards the floating Mr. Majestic like a locomotive. Anger motivated sweat dripped down his brow. He would break the fool who had attacked him in half. The last person to hit him that hard was Superman and it was during a training exercise that Sinister forced him to hold back in. Here his power would be unbridled and unleashed to its fullest.
Then he felt his entire body begin to move slower and with less speed. Something was actually holding him back. That's when Hulk finally took time enough to look at himself and see that he was glowing a faint blue. Looking behind him he saw the metal face of Xorn hard at work. Having lost his momentum and his advantage Hulk began to be pummeled by punch after punch from Majestic. Eventually the strength and number of the blows began to draw blood from the Hulk.
Growing tired of the assault on his person Hulk grabbed Majestic's wrist and squeezed. The former leader of the Titans team let out a scream and crumpled to the ground. Hulk was about to step on him when his body suddenly flew into the air like it was air. Xorn had changed his gravity so that he was like as a feather.
"This ends now Marauder," Xorn said as he floated up into the air and a black hole began to form in the middle of his chest. Hulk could feel the force beginning to tug at him and there was nothing he could do about it. The hole kept growing bigger until it was plenty able to suck in the body of the Marauder. Hulk could only let out one last unearthly yell as he was sucked into the void.
Xorn knew that he wasn't capable of closing the hole he had created without destroying himself, but that was the sacrifice he had made. Too many of his friends had already died and he would not see the Marauders kill anymore of them. Besides he would go down in history as being the guy who killed the Hulk. So with a somber smile he began the process of closing the black hole and destroying himself.
"I will deliver death to the three of you quickly," Mr. Freeze stated as he ducked the flying body of Cannonball. His three opponents had proven themselves in combat thus far and maybe if they had faced Victor during a time when he was not as technologically equipped they would have beaten him. Today was a different day though and that just simply was not going to happen.
Cannonball hated the fact that he wasn't able to nail Freeze. He had come so close, but the lackey of Sinister moved too fast. His armor looked clunky as hell, but he was able to move with such speed. It shouldn't have been possible but he was able to do it and do it easily. All this fighting reminded him of a very destructive event that happened on his world when he first joined the Avengers. An alien named Noh-Varr had managed to kill Dr. Strange and pilfer his items. Then he stole a Cosmic Cube from AIM and created a super-powered army. Not to mention that he used the Cube to unleash Onslaught on the world again. It had been literal war across the planet and Speedball, Wiz Kid, Captain America, Dr. Midnight, and Iceman had all been among the many deaths.
Marcus Pezzini could feel the power of the Witchblade begging to be unleashed. It wanted nothing more than to scream forth at Freeze and do away with him. Marcus held the power back though if only to allow it the chance to build up. Once unleashed he would destroy this fool and move on to help the others. Running up on Mr. Freeze he tackled the man to the ground and turned his arm into what looked like a crust-covered knife. He was about to strike when his body suddenly turned into ice. Victor kicked the body off of him and shook his head in disappointment. The fool should have known that his armor was made to freeze any who touched it long enough.
Cannonball was coming around for another pass at Freeze and the Marauder knew it. This time though he simply wouldn't dodge the attack. In one of his hands a blue spear began to form out of thin air. It looked like ice crystals were gathering together to form the weapon. Victor leaned back and flung the weapon. Sam expanded his blast field, but Freeze's weapon passed through the barrier. His head jerked back and he went spinning through the air as the spear struck him. Mr. Freeze turned back and saw Darkness slinking towards him.
"Why do you even try?" Mr. Freeze asked as he held out his palm and blue particles ripped forth from the metallic hand. The particles polluted the air of Darkness and he knew that his end was coming soon. Each particle ripped into the flesh of Darkness and began to turn his body colder than ever. He gave Freeze one last cold look of hate and a black mass flew forth from his neck.
The black goop collided with Freeze's helmet and Victor wiped away the mess that was on his armor. Suddenly, he gripped his stomach and fell to the ground in pain. It had been years since Victor had felt pain like the kind Darkness had inflicted on him. It was as if the ice in his veins was on fire. Freeze would not shame himself by screaming so he kept the pain within himself and rolled over on the ground dead.
Reed Von Doom ripped his cloak off and threw it to the ground as the acid from Joker's shirt flower devoured his garment. The son of Doctor Doom was infuriated at the attack on his person and even angrier at the ineffectiveness of his battle partners. Senyaka hadn't been able to land a single one of his life draining tentacles on Joker and Voght's powers were proving more defensive than anything else. Reed was the only one proving his worth against the insanely dressed Marauder.
"Take your medicine Johnny!" Joker yelled as he launched another squirt of acid towards Doom. Reed flew back and blasted the ground in front of Joker. Dirt hit the Marauder in the eye and sent him sprawling.
Senyaka ran to the Joker and pulled out his sword. He was about to cut into Joker's shoulder when the Marauder stabbed the X-Man in the stomach with a knife. He cut through Senyaka's flesh in such a way that the wound was in the outline of a smile. The X-Man's intestines spilled to the floor and fell to the ground dead.
"You guys play rough! I love it!" Joker yelled with glee as he jumped back flung a dart into the mist form of Voght moving towards him. The dart energized the gas form and dissipated the woman into the air.
"Good you got rid of the ruffians! Now we can focus on each other," Reed growled as he flew towards the Marauder.
Joker leaped into the air and slammed his feet into Reed's head. The son of Doom crashed into the ground and rolled over groaning in pain. A sinister smile hung over Reed's face. Pulling out a long gun that stretched for a few feet Joker pointed it in Reed's anger filled face. The son of Doom could not believe that such a fool had put him in a position of disadvantage.
"This is the killing joke baby," Joker smiled as his finger itched to pull the trigger.
SWIKK!
A head rolled to the dirt and it was not that of Reed. Joker tipped over and fell on top of the son of Doom. Pushing the body off of him Reed von Doom saw a smiling Stepstone with a bloody sword. Illyana held out a hand to help Reed to his feet. The Exile pushed away the hand of his fellow dimension hopper and said, "I need no help! I could have won on my own!"
"Sure. Lets just help everyone else," Stepstone, replied. She didn't have time to be annoyed with Reed.
Mr. Majestic and Dr. Light backed Wolverine into a corner and the feral man crouched low prepared to make his last stand. Dr. Light smiled at the easy prey and elbowed Majestic slightly, "Man I got this!"
"Wait!" Majestic yelled as Dr. Light took off towards Wolverine. He wasn't waiting for anybody else. He was going to take down Wolverine and be done with it. The man had slaughtered too many good soldiers and he was going to pay for it. With his ability to harden light the good doctor flung dozens of light knives the way of Wolverine.
The Marauder charged forward letting the daggers rip through his flesh. The pain was nothing. He would take down as many of these fools as possible. Hulk, Freeze, and Joker were all dead. He had never seen this coming. The Marauders were the best, but if they had met their match he would be damned if he didn't go out with style.
Doctor Light wasn't expecting Wolverine to plow through his daggers and was unable to protect himself as the Marauder leaped through the air and stabbed him through the head with his claws. Majestic balled his fists as Light's body hit the ground and made his way to Wolverine. Grabbing the Marauder by the neck he lifted him up into the air, "I hope you enjoy being a satellite!"
With one strong throw Majestic threw the diminutive man into the atmosphere of the Earth. Long before he reached his destination Wolverine was simply a skeleton. Mr. Majestic knew that the forsaken man was dead and turned a weary eye to the last of the Marauders. Soon all of this would be over.
Deathstroke simply smiled in the face of all his enemies. His Marauders had managed to slay many of them, but in the end they had all failed. It was pathetic to watch, but Slade was a man of many plans. He was second only to Sinister in the empire and he would prove why in just a few seconds.
Suddenly, the sky ripped open above the infidels fighting his master. Hundreds of robotic copies of himself rained down from the sky and surrounded the fools. They began to fight ruthlessly against the robots all in the hope they might end up fighting the real Slade. Deathstroke was far too smooth for that though. Looking for his most powerful opponent, Slade prepared his sword for attack. He found it flying in the air destroying mass amounts of his robot copies. Leaping into the air he stabbed his opponent through the chest.
Mistress Strange let out an unearthly cry of pain and mumbled something in a language no one could understand. A light covered Deathstroke and his weapon and he was gone. Falling out of the sky the Soceress Supreme landed in the arms of Stepstone.
Over gurgling blood she managed to say, "I sent him to a hellish world."
"You did good then. You did right," Stepstone replied trying to stay strong in Mistress Strange's final moments.
"I did it by accident of course. Do one thing for me?"
"Anything."
Smiling weakly Ororo said, "Tell Bluestreak I appreciate her being there for me."
Then with that final comment Ororo Munroe passed on into the realm of the dead where Stepstone hoped she would find the peace she never had in life. Looking to Sinister Tower, Illyana wiped away a single tear. She was going to kill Sinister and she would hear him scream before she did it.