Nexus Nevermore

by RogueFanKC

Set in Red Witch's Misfitverse! The Slayers and the Charmed Ones sense trouble brewing, but can the XMen, Misfits, and Joes manage to protect them from the wrath of the Heartless and the Hellfire Club or will the Nexus be lost in the hands of evil forever

11. Hellfire’s Checkmate

CHAPTER 11: Hellfire's Checkmate

"Back off, you whore!" Jean and Scarlet Witch screamed in unison as Jean pushed back at Galatea with a fierce and crippling surge of telekinetic force, the air rippling between her and the clone of Supergirl. Galatea tried to evade it, but Jean's attack was actually too large and powerful for her to swerve, and the blond-haired enemy cried out as the gravitational push rammed her with as much power as a meteorite falling from orbit. With a brilliant flash, the angel struck the magical barrier that Zankou had placed throughout the Halliwell manor, and the energy seared her back before she fell limply to the floor. Galatea's eyes narrowed in fury as she picked herself up, the black fire wings now glowing even more.

"Nice one, you red-headed tramp. Now let me return the favor," she snarled before her eyes completely glowed black with energy and twin streams of darkness from the essence of the Phoenix Force flew out, a black version of Supergirl's fire-vision. Jean growled as she invoked her strongest telekinetic shield all around her, but she found out the hard way that it could never be hardy enough to block Power Girl's strength. With a furious flash and whirlwind of black flames, Jean flew backwards, screaming before she landed on her back, her body and uniform singed, but thankfully, she was still alive. But not for long as Tea rushed over to Jean with her super-speed and picked up the unconscious Jean roughly by the neck with one hand while her other made a fist.

"Guess you'll be able to live up to your nickname, huh, Red?" she chortled at the private joke as she was about to break Jean's body in two, but then something struck her from behind, at the sensitive spot behind her back in the lumbar region of her spine. Normally, Supergirl was usually invincible, but in this case, it was excruciating and she screamed as she released her hold on Jean, and miraculously, a telltale silver blur dashed by and grabbed Jean before she hit the floor. Tea looked down to see a Turok-Han's polearm had literally gouged through her midsection, stabbing through her entire body quite gruesomely. Growling, Galatea pulled the spear out of her body, her wound now healing instantly because of the powers the Organization had bequeathed to her. Looking up, she saw the Misfit, Quicksilver, holding a recovering Jean Grey in his arms, carrying her out of danger.

"You little - !" Tea growled, but that was all she could utter before a large and powerful hex struck her behind her back, and instantly, thanks to the chaos-magic, the wings flickered and vanished. Galatea was distraught and livid, even furious. She was temporarily powerless! She turned around to see a valiant Scarlet Witch and Professor Xavier behind her; it was Wanda's hex that de-powered the Phoenix wings inside Tea's soul.

"I am sorry, but I cannot allow you to hurt my students or any of the Misfits," Xavier said gravely as he then placed his fingers on his temple, and before Tea could even react, she was besieged by a tremendous and intensely excruciating telepathic attack, her mind being torn to pieces as Xavier did his best to shut her down.

"Get out of my head, Baldy!" Tea shrieked, clutching her head, and the presence of Professor X in the astral plane suddenly felt overwhelmed by the aura and might of an angry, homicidal, brutal, uncontrollable Phoenix Force as he was flung out of the clone's inner sanctum of her head, the fires of Hell and darkness converging on him. With a startled cry, Xavier gasped and woke back up in his own body, but before he could try again, Galatea rushed over and brutally grabbed him by the front of his shirt and suit before flinging him hard against the ground and out of his wheelchair. Xavier cried out in pain as he could taste blood in his mouth, his skull throbbing as Galatea placed a foot over his chest and started the press down, cracking his ribcage bit by bit.

"You know how much I hate having people inside my head?" Tea hissed with cruel and deadly promise, his teeth clenched and her red lips bared into a snarl. Xavier screamed in agony as she drove her heel harder, feeling a bone immediately break under the pressure.

"Get away from him!" Scarlet Witch screamed as she let loose a very powerful hex and blasted Tea from her blind spot, and with a grunt, Galatea was sent flying, only to land nimbly on her feet. Wanda's hands were crackling with blue energy, ready to send another hex. Galatea then tried to blast her, but with a wave of the goth's flingers, the streams from her fire vision struck past her, missing the target completely. Galatea shouldn't have been so surprised; after all, Scarlet Witch had been able to suppress the powers of even Darkseid himself back on Apokolips.

Wanda then grinned as she said, "Hey Henny-Penny, looks like you should have listened to Chicken Little after all."

"Huh? What the hell are you blabbering abou - ?" but then Galatea then noticed that a looming shadow was converging on her, growing bigger and bigger by the second. And it was coming from above. The clone of Supergirl looked up and cursed.

"Oh crap…" she trailed off, deadpanned, as the armored truck Willow telekinetically lifted with her magic collided on top of Galatea's head and slammed her with full violent and sadistic impact to the ground she was standing on.

WHAM!

"The sky's falling, bitch," Willow growled, her hair now white and her hands utilizing the forces of Wicca and the planet to help her press down on the steel-plated pancake crushing Galatea. Wanda and Piper rushed over to tend to Professor Xavier who was badly hurt, but thankfully still alive and did not gain anything truly life-threatening. Meanwhile, Jean groggily regained consciousness to clear her vision to discover she was staring directly into the eyes of Quicksilver.

"Ugh…" were the first words out of the X-Man's mouth. Pietro gave Jean a deadpanned look of disgust.

"If you were hoping that I'd wake you up with a kiss, I'm gonna tell you to keep dreaming, Princess Perfect," the Misfit sneered.

"You saved me?" blurted out a shocked Jean. The albino's smile grew even wider, smug but concerned.

"Hey, I owed you. Now, we're even. And the last thing I want is to owe a debt to Miss Princess Perfect," Quicksilver shot back, teasing. Jean was incredulous; it was hard to comprehend that Pietro was actually able to do any sort of damage to a alien girl who was practically invincible and invulnerable.

"How?" she managed to ask. Pietro gave her a condescending look.

"Hello, you're a physics teacher, remember?" he drawled, "Force is mass times acceleration, right? Well, take one Pietro, one polearm I found on the ground, all the momentum I got from circling around the city twice, and you got a blow that even Superman's gonna feel! And I know I've got the speed for it, among the dashing good looks and heroic talents, I might add."

"Oh, get bent," Jean shot back good-naturedly as she stood back on her own two feet. Meanwhile, Willow was trying to keep Galatea down while Piper looked to Scarlet Witch worriedly.

"Do you think she's dead? Did you kill her?" the Halliwell asked.

Wanda was better than to rely on false hope as she mused worriedly, "Well, since Galatea is a clone of Supergirl, she's probably made with Supergirl's DNA, and if we follow that logic, then she probably has Supergirl's powers, including - "

"AAARRRRGGGGHHH!" Galatea screamed as she broke out of the twisted sheet of metal flattening her, opening her wings of fire with a flourish and causing such a backlash of invisible force that Willow was sent hurtling backwards, "Okay, now I'm really pissed off! And you three will be the first ones I'm gonna tear limb from limb!"

"…including her powers of super-strength and invulnerability," groaned Wanda with a grimace. Piper hurriedly stood up before she froze Galatea, stopping her in temporal stasis as time literally stopped on their enemy. This window of opportunity allowed Willow to attack right before Galatea unfroze and broke the time-freeze Piper had just cast.

"Lepton fumor!" the red-haired Wiccan chanted in Latin, and instantly, black and green clouds of poisonous and noxious smoke completely covered the alien soldier of the Heartless, but Galatea did not succumb to the gas of death as she erased it with a casual brush of her black wings.

"Let me try!" Piper shouted as she blasted Galatea's left wing with her molecular combustion, half-succeeding at causing some pain to the clone as the fire-appendage messily scattered before she chanted, "Evil witch in my sight! Vanquish thyself, vanquish thy might, in this and every future life!"

Galatea screamed as her entire body was plagued with short and painful bursts of white magic, sending the young woman to her knees, screaming and howling enough to wake the dead. Yet to Piper's growing horror, she realized that the spell wasn't enough to vanquish her. Galatea was still very much alive, and Leomon felt it was best to finish this as he rushed towards Galatea with his sword drawn.

"Uurrrraaaahhh!" yelled the Digimon as he brought the blade downwards on Tea's head, but with her fist, Galatea was able to block the lion's paw and grab it, the blade mere centimeters from her skull. With a grin, Galatea grabbed Leomon's paw and with a mighty judo throw, she hurled him high into the sky and sent him flying, only to crash into the second story of a nearby house.

"Leomon!" cried out Willow.

"Damn, she's strong!" Piper cursed as she looked at Power Girl before she, Scarlet Witch, and Jean struck at once with a combination of molecular combustion, hexbolts, and telekinesis. Leomon, off to the sidelines, managed to shakily extract himself from the splinted wood and ruined foundation of the house he just collided into, back-first. By the Great Beast, the one called Galatea was no mere Heartless. And he still had to fight the angel with the wings of darkness before she could kill anyone.

"Damn you, the things I suffer for your sake, your Majesty," Leomon cursed bitterly (though he truly did not mean anything spiteful and hateful by it) as he leapt out of the house and aimed a glowing fist at Galatea.

"GAIA FIST OF THE BEAST KING!"

Unfortunately, while Scarlet Witch, Willow, Professor Xavier, Jean, and Leomon were battling it all out with Galatea, the others were soon quickly discovering that the army of Heartless creatures that was sent by the Organization was very, very difficult (if not nigh impossible) to vanquish.

"Back off!" Bezerker snarled as he, Jubilee, and Boom-Boom combined their powers together, forming a powerful and devastating stream of electricity, explosive flashes of plasma, and powerful energy-bombs as large as bowling balls. United together, all three attacks formed a direct line and struck a Heartless giant right in the chest of its symbol, but it proved ineffective. Not only did the attack bounce off its tough hide, but it took all three of the New Mutants to barely stall one of the monsters of darkness as opposed to the other fifty-odd creatures charging with their claws ready.

"Oh geez, we can't even hurt 'em!" Ray cried out in horror as his head was buzzing from summoning the most powerful surge of electricity he could ever produce, "They're stronger than the Heartless we fought with H.I.V.E. and the Titans from before!"

"Before? You've fought these things in the past?" Jubilee exclaimed in shock as she then tried using an indirect tactic before she let loose a particularly intense blast of light into one Heartless' eyes, blinding it and causing it to falter and cease in its march.

"Yeah, at the battle with Trigon! But these guys are a lot tougher to kill! We gotta back off or else we'll be trampled!" Boom-Boom yelled as she pulled at Bezerker and Jubilee's arms, trying to have them strategically retreat before the army of the Organization and Ansem could trample them. Suddenly, before the Heartless could come any nearer, a telltale tremor rent through the ground below before a section of the land miraculously lifted up and distracted the Heartless enough to prevent them from killing Ray, Jubilee, and Tabitha. The three teenagers turned to see Avalanche and an entire army of Multiple doppelgangers behind them in the distance.

"Go! Hurry! Run away while we keep 'em busy! Go!" Avalanche yelled. The X-Men nodded as they hurriedly retreated to safety with the Heartless unable to chase after them. One lone Heartless then took the initiative as it managed to leap high into the air before aiming itself at Lance, reading to crush him to death. But Cannonball took up the slack.

"Leave him alone, ya' windy-city greenhorn!" Cannonball roared as he rocketed towards the Heartless and actually collided with it in midair before it could land on its descent, using every bit of his strength in his mutation to ram the abomination and send it flying back into the mob. Jamie then commanded his fellow clones as they all readied their glovatrixes.

"Fire everything!" yelled the original Multiple as the army of over a hundred Jamie clones took careful aim with their glovatrixes and let loose a fantastic and colossal bombardment of every single projectile they could think off, the air soon filled with flying miniature missiles and projectiles. The Semtex missiles, the acid pellets, the bola missiles, the flash missiles, the slicer missiles, the smoke-bombs, the electro-missiles…anything that was in the glovatrixes' cache, the Jamie-clones used. And unable to dodge them, the Heartless just roared as they took in the hits, their bodies littered with explosions and lethal metal shrapnel embedded in their skin. But the injuries were relatively minor as the Heartless did their best to carry on their objective to kill all the heroes and allies of the Charmed Ones. Several managed to surge forward despite the number of explosions that rained down on them, but the remaining faction of the Slayers along with the Joes, Spirit and Shipwreck, rushed forward to pick up the slack. Not that it did much good.

"Yeow! Our weapons can't hurt them! Even with the stuff Willow put on them!" Dana gasped as she firmly embedded her knife into a Heartless' thigh, only to discover that she barely nicked it, and the brown-haired Slayer had to duck and back-flip backwards like a gymnast to avoid being clawed to death by a ferocious swipe. Thankfully, because its claw was so close to the ground, Spirit was able to cover for Dana as he let loose a furious burst of flame with his butane-flamethrower. The experiment of darkness shrieked piercingly enough to shatter glass as the butane rendered its hand and appendage into a shriveled and throbbing mass of bubbling, melting flesh.

"Keep behind me, young one!" Spirit yelled as he let loose another burst of flame at the Heartless' feet, covering Dana as she escaped to safety.

"Geez, we need more powerful magic to take them out with these weapons! It doesn't even faze them! They're even stronger than the last Heartless we fought before!" Kennedy cried out in partial dismay as her twin short-swords, doused in magical fire, just caused a few deep cuts, but nothing promising.

"At least bullets hurt them more!" Shipwreck yelled as he fired several rounds directly into a Heartless' head, causing it to shudder and quake with rage as it madly clawed in pain at its face, the skin peppered with bleeding holes and bullet-wounds. Thanks to the bullets embedded into its face, the creature was now blind and unable to see. Two other Heartless saw this and charged directly at the Joe sailor, but Hector wasn't the least bit intimidated as he held ground and fired repeatedly, the muscles in his arms and fingers throbbing from overuse. His Eagle pistols had never failed him before in battle, and thanks to Willow and Kurt's assistance, they were incredibly effective. And Shipwreck was a crack-shot.

The mouths of his guns were literally smoking as Shipwreck neatly and fearlessly emptied the entire clips of the Eagle pistols into the heads and faces of the approaching Heartless, and though they were not dead, both of the monsters faltered and one even fell to its hands and knees, the black fluid dripping from its torn face. The other Heartless was still murderously determined to make Shipwreck pay as it surged forward, but Storm swooped down from her position in the skies and hurled a huge blitz of searing lightning, causing the monster to stumble back.

"Shipwreck, watch out!" Ororo yelled as she kept summoning shafts of lightning to rain down upon the Heartless while Jamie and Avalanche kept a good portion of them at bay. Shipwreck grinned as he hurriedly and effectively reloaded his guns.

"Aw, I always knew you cared about my, Stormy!"

"Shut up, sailor!" Ororo snapped back, giving Shipwreck hardly a glance of irritation as she them summoned winds that rivaled the strengths and intensities of a hurricane to toss the Heartless back. The air was simply howling as the Heartless army was threatened to be lifted off its feet, but many of them managed to firmly keep themselves rooted to the ground. Bezerker got an idea as Storm then made it hail painfully upon the army of the Thirteenth Order.

"Storm, make it rain on the Heartless! If they're all in water, maybe we can electrocute them in one go! Hurry, make it rain on them!" Bezerker called out. Storm caught on to the idea as she raised her hands, her eyes glowing white, and immediately, the skies overhead were blocked with cloudy grey and black before lighting flashed and thunder roared loudly. And instantly, there was a downpour.

Torrents and torrents of hard water and rainfall completely bathed the entire army, flooding the ground below them and leaving the Heartless to splash around in puddles. The Heartless didn't seem to comprehend that each and every area of their bodies were dripping and slick with water, trying their best to charge the mutants, Slayers, and Joes. Which was perfect for Storm and Bezerker to strike…

"Now!" Ororo yelled as she and Bezerker let loose furious blasts of lightning and electricity, and like magic, the hot shafts of energy snaked throughout the Heartless, causing them to howl and roar as they were all electrocuted with electricity that could only measure in the thousands for voltage. Unfortunately, to the two X-Men consternation and shocked alarm, the Heartless, though smoking and slightly burned, were still all pretty much fully capable to continue fighting. The lightning did not affect them greatly.

"Yikes, you just made them madder!" Cannonball yelled as he rammed into another Heartless in the chest, preventing it from advancing towards Colossus and Boom-Boom, both X-Men combining their strengths to lob giant time-bombs the size of wrecking balls at several Heartless.

"Nice going, Ray!" shot Sunpot snidely as he blasted another Heartless from the sky with his radiation energy-pulses, searing it directly in the back before it could stomp on Avalanche and Multiple.

"Oh shut up!" snapped Bezerker as he let loose a round of electricity at a Heartless' head, "I don't see you coming up with a plan! Let's see you try something better, big-mouth!"

"Wait, there can be something we can try! Wavedancer, think we might be able to do a team-up attack? You know, the special one we used on Pietro one time?" Lance called out. Althea's mind snapped to full attention as she automatically remembered which one her teammate was referring to, and she nodded with a wicked gleam in her eyes.

"Trying to kill me is hardly what I'd call 'special'!" Quicksilver snapped, griping, as he ran in circles, trying to incapacitate one Heartless into a giant cyclone whirlwind, the momentum from his running actually managing to send the leviathan flying backwards and crashing into three other Heartless, sending all of them into a heap.

"Oh like you weren't asking for it when you booby-trapped the toilet-seats with toothpaste! Nightcrawler, port me and Avalanche to the far side of the Heartless army on their right! Your position, ten o-clock!" Wavedancer commanded to the blue-furred mutant after she snapped at Pietro. Kurt, though confused, acted immediately as he teleported to Lance first before then teleporting to Althea before finally taking both Misfits to the street, far off to the sidelines. The Heartless horde, still trying to overwhelm the armies and destroy their targets, were generally more of less all clustered together in a nice, lined group in front of them with a few spare Turok-Han and warlocks mingled in.

"Naiads, give me enough water to flood the entire street and make it a river!" Wavedancer yelled as she invoked all her might and willpower she could, raising her hands high above her head while Avalanche's eyes turned white as he laid his hands and palms flat on the black concrete as the ground started to bounce and quake like rubber before it was torn asunder with a mighty cracking roar. The three naiads twirled in the air before they summoned another gigantic waterspout from thin air, enough to flood and destroy the entire street in a fury of rapids, but Althea managed to maintain her hold on it as she and Avalanche attacked together.

"EATHQUAKE TSUNAMI!" yelled Wavedancer and Avalanche in unison. (Author's Notes)

To everyone's amazements, the ground trembled before it cracked open, a seismic fault in the middle of the street, before it traveled directly towards the Heartless, the ground crumbling and threatening to bury all of them up to their waists in a deep crevice while an actual wave of earth and rock formed overhead, large enough to overwhelm and crush an army. And with Althea's precision, the water magnificently split into a multitude of directions before two separate walls of clear water formed alongside the single wave of earth, pulsating and roaring madly and ready to wash away anything in its path. And in conjunction to the two separate tidal waves, the traveling crevice started to produce a furious and powerful trail of geysers. Each was a powerful waterspout of unhindered and highly pressurized eruption of clear liquid caused from the seismic energy of Lance and kept in precise guidance by Althea's hydrokinesis.

The Heartless didn't even have a chance until it was too late.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

KA-FWWWOOOOOSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH!

"Mein Gott!" Nightcrawler gasped in surprise and hope as the combined fury of the attack sent the Heartless flying backwards and off to the left side, away from the Halliwell residence.

"Merde! And Quicksilver lived through that?" Gambit gasped, two playing cards limp in his hands as he just stopped and stared at the gathered heap of disoriented yet stable Heartless, now lying all tussled and grimy and wet, some with serious injuries. Althea and Lance's attack actually sent all fifty-odd Heartless flying and pushed them enough to give the allies to the Charmed Ones some breathing room.

"Unfortunately," Wanda muttered, overhearing this, as she hexed one of Galatea's fire-blasts before it could hit Willow. The Scooby then aimed another spell at Galatea before she could try to decapitate them with her fire wings.

"Gelo glacialis obruo!" Willow chanted again in Latin, trying to freeze her opponent as several snakes of ice appeared from her hands and flung themselves, hissing, at the blond-haired angel, encasing her within a block of artic, cold, death. Yet Galatea then broke free before snarling at Willow.

"You don't know when to quit, do you, you little cunt?" she snarled before she aimed her fire vision, not at Willow directly, but this time, at Kennedy and Leo, who was still holding Chris and Wyatt protectively.

"No!" Willow cried, and Jean used her telekinesis to shove Kennedy and Leo out of the way, but the blast still threw them back in a mess of flames and dark fire, sending them off their feet and to only crash into the ground. Kennedy was unhurt, but Leo had blood running down his face and dripping on his shirt.

"That was a low blow, you tramp!" yelled Jean as she and Xavier assaulted Tea in her mind again with a unified telepathic attack.

Amara then felt her heart drop as she pointed at the Heartless army Galatea brought with her.

"Uh…I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but we have a big problem! Look! The Heartless are still up and running! We didn't kill them! None of them got destroyed!" the Nova Roma teenager exclaimed with warning. And indeed, what the girl said was true; after several shaky moments of dizziness and getting their bearings, the Heartless charged again, running and roaring with their claws ready.

"It still wasn't enough!" Blob yelled with worry as he killed another stray Turok-Han, "Those Heartless creeps still aren't dead! Not good! They took your best attack, and they still didn't get killed!"

"No way! You gotta be kidding me! We didn't wipe out a single one!" Althea gasped, her jaw dropping.

"At least you bought us some time to regroup and improvise, femme!" Gambit yelled as he and Colossus immediately rushed to a fallen police squad-car that was overturned in the battle when the SFPD were trying to capture the Halliwells. Gambit laid both of his hands on the underside of the car before it began to glow in a telltale pink luster, the potential energy turning into unstable amounts of bio-kinetic energy, explosive enough down to the molecular level.

"Colossus, it's all yours, mon ami!" Gambit yelled. Colossus grinned as he grabbed hold on the rear bumper of the car in his metal form, and using his strength, he swung the car around and around him, gaining momentum, before he released his bounty directly at the Heartless.

"Take this!" he yelled as the glowing and charged sedan struck the front of the stampede.

KA-WHHHOOOOOOOMMMM!

"Scratch one!" yelled Piotr as the leading Heartless who took the full brunt of the explosion fell and collapsed, lifeless and headless, its neck nothing more than a bloody stump of flesh and blood.

"Yeah, and leave about fifty more!" gulped Nightcrawler as the horde continued to make their headway through the streets.

"And these guys are immune to psychic lightning! They're resistant to all kinds of telepathy! We can't hurt them this way either!" cried out Daria, unusually distraught, as she, Quinn, and Brittany kept blitzing the Heartless with their trademark Delta Psychic Wave attacks, only to see that the abominations of darkness just shrugged them off, not even having a conscious mind to even sense the energy in their minds.

"I'd doubt they'd be immune to lava! And we need to prevent them from getting any closer! Avalanche, think you can tap a source of molten rock underground? I could really use it!" Magma yelled as she covered her body in flames instantly, going into her powered mode.

"I can try, but I need some time! And those Heartless guys are going to come right at us before I can even find anything!" Lance said as he began to feel though the land with his psychometry, his eyes white and his palms resting face-down on the black street, probing and sensing for any cache of molten rock.

"Oh no, they won't! Beast, I need a boost!" yelled Blind Master as he rushed forward to the Heartless army, his katana ready. Beast cupped his hands together and held his gargantuan paws low as a foothold for the ninja master to use in order to fly up in the air towards the head of one Heartless Goliath. There was a quick swipe with his sword…

Fwwwsssshhh!

The Heartless shuddered for a minute until Blind Master landed adroitly on his feet, away from the horde and waiting patiently until he could sense the severed head of the experiment he had just attacked detach from the rest of the creature's body. Beheaded by Blind Master's katana, the Heartless fell backwards and died. Caridad looked at Blind Master with awe and confusion.

"Hey, how come our weapons didn't work? Willow enchanted them too!" the Slayer protested.

"This is Japanese steel, young one," Blind Master answered gravely, "It is not like most metals…"

Meanwhile, Kitty was able to interfere before another Heartless could charge right into Beast…

"Oh no, you don't!" yelled Shadowcat as she phased the foot deep into the ground, leaving the Heartless stuck and stalling it immensely, "You are like not totally hurting my friends this time, you creep!"

"Beast, take this!" Forge yelled as he tossed Hank another antimatter bomb, "This thing will totally put these Heartless guys off their groove! Just attach it in between their shoulder blades on their back so that they can't reach for it and press the button to activate it! You'll have ten seconds to scram before the bomb goes far out and totally wastes it! And when I say scram, you better really scram!"

Beast nodded before he complied and followed Forge's directions, his agility and ape-like muscles allowing Hank to expertly and gracefully evade, leap, dodge, and roll before he madly scrambled onto the back of one Heartless and attached the bomb to its hide before he detonated it.

"Stars and garters, get clear!" Hank yelled as he galloped on all fours and made a mad dash for safety as the Heartless vainly did its best to remove the bomb. There was a bright flash before the upper body of the Heartless disappeared, leaving nothing more than a bloody stump above its waist and legs, perishing instantly as the antimatter sample Forge created inside the bomb consumed the flesh, blood, and air all around the Heartless.

"Lance, can you find it yet?" Magma asked insistently.

"It's still not enough though! Give me more time! Keep distracting them!"

"Don't worry, I brought back-up!" Razor crowed, and he revealed his hidden trump-card as he touched a control panel attached to the belt of his uniform. To everyone's surprise, a familiar red and black tank-submarine came roaring through, battering and tripping Heartless left and right before coming to a complete stop in front of the kat of the X-Men.

"All right!" yelled Multiple as he cheered, "We got the Aquain on our side! Heartless, prepare to eat lead and missiles!"

Razor yelled as he opened the hatch, "Xander, Beast, I need you both to help me utilize the turrets and guns on the Aquain while I navigate it around the battle! Think you kats are up for it?"

"Are you kidding? The chance to use a weapon of mass destruction without any supervision and a chance to go completely whoop-ass on an army of giant experiments? Ash from the 'Army of Darkness' movies got nothing on this glorified brick layer! Let's kick some Heartless rear!" Xander cheered.

"Awkwardly and uncouthly put, but agreeable nonetheless," Hank admitted ruefully with a smile as he picked up Xander under the crook of one burly arm and leapt and clambered skillfully and adroitly up to the hatch of the X-Men's tank-submarine.

The Watcher-in-training, Andrew, was less than happy as he whined loudly to Jake, "Hey, no fair! I'm the SWAT Kats fan! Why can't I go in the Aquain?"

"Because I daresay that it would be incredibly unwise on our parts to entrust the safety of our allies and the firepower of a massive weapon of an armored vehicle to your hands, Mr. Wells, so stop arguing and continue with your post while we do our job!" Beast called back as politely as he could as he closed the hatch behind himself after Jake and Xander entered safely inside.

"In other words: shut up and fight, you geek!" Dana snapped at Andrew as she plunged her knife into a Turok-Han's belly before expertly and swiftly drawing it back out in a circular-overhead motion before driving the blade deep into the back of the vampire's bowed head. And with that, Razor drove the Aquain through each and all heavy parts of the fight, taking care to not run over any allies or innocent bystanders while Xander utilized the tank turret and Beast stationed the secondary guns of the vehicle. And from the numerous times the tank kept firing destructive payloads and the whoops and hollers of fun and glee from inside the tank as it passed by, it was safe to assume that Xander was having the time of his life in the Aquain.

"What are you waiting for?" Magma demanded impatiently at Lance as she continued hurling fireballs at one Heartless.

"I gotta be careful!" Lance said heatedly as he continued terra-forming, "If I strike too fast, I might cause a gas pipeline to fracture and explode and it'll take out half-the block if I do that! I gotta form it just right…!"

With a gasp, Lance sensed it. A deep well full of molten rock, about half a mile deep, and his managed to finally tunnel a way to it from the Earth's crust.

"Magma, do it now! I found it! Let the Heartless have it!" and with that, the X-Girl obliged as she summoned a geyser of lava to erupt from deep below within the Earth, and with a snarl of rage, she manipulated the lava to snake and douse a good number of the army of darkness with molten rock, searing them instantly and covering them with inescapable and unbearable liquid, sticking to their hides painfully. And it was through this that the Heartless backed off, afraid to get closer to the lava and held at bay for a while at least.

Meanwhile, Gambit and the Slayer, Shannon, were fighting another part of the Heartless army side by side…

"Here, cherie!" Gambit said as he charged the head of the crossbow shaft with one finger, and instantly, the pointed metal end of the arrow glowed with a pink luster, building up to an explosive level. Shannon took aim and fired directly into the eye of the Heartless.

Ka-whoom!

The giant experiment shrieked in a voice that could never belong to any human as the kinetic arrow lodged into its eye-socket and exploded upon contact, messily leaving a gaping hole. Gambit then took up the slack as he charged another arrow on the Slayer's crossbow before he took out an entire pack of playing cards. With a united front, both the Slayer and the X-Man let loose. The Heartless now had multiple burns on its chest, and a arrow embedded into its left eye socket, now a charred and messy hole. Yet it continued to blitz the mutants and the Slayers until Althea managed to trap two of them in a gigantic water spout.

"Iceman, freeze them now!" Althea yelled, and the X-Man hurriedly complied as he shot out a stream of blue, artic energy at the base of the waterspout. Jubilee then acted as she shot out a burst of plasma, powerful enough to blast through reinforced steel, and with a mighty crack, the ice pillar crumbled, and with it, the bodies of the two Heartless, now rendered into frozen pieces.

"Gambit, I've got an idea!" Paige yelled, "But I need you to charge each and every one of those ice chunks, as many as you can all at once! Hurry!"

Gambit obliged as he brushed his hands against the pile of shattered ice, and within an instant, each and every piece began to glow.

"Ice chunks!" Paige yelled, using her telekinetic orbing before she pointed at a group of three Heartless, ordering strongly, "Rainfall!"

The Heartless howled as the kinetically-charged ice began to fall upon them, peppering them with numerous explosions.

Meanwhile, back with the Turok-Han and the warlocks, the fight was still just as intense. Dragonfly screamed as a Turok-Han managed to catch her unaware behind her and grabbed her roughly before sinking its fangs into her neck. She would be dead in several seconds…

"Lina!" screamed Blob and Whitelighter as they rushed towards her, but at their distance, they would never make it to her in time. But thankfully, someone else did…

"Damn you!" screamed a familiar voice in Cantonese.

The Turok-Han released its hold on Lina's neck and screamed before its head was cleanly decapitated off by an axe, and it crumbled and disintegrated into dust. Lina gasped with a mixture of pain and shock, crying softly and holding the deep bite wound to her neck, but still alive and conscious. Whitelighter laid a hand on her injury, healing her. Blob took Dragonfly by the shoulders.

"Are you all right?" he asked, knowing he could never forgive himself if anything happened to Dragonfly. Lina nodded, whimpering, as Justin finished healing her, but the insect-girl turned around to see that her savior was none other than Chao-Ahn, still holding her flaming axe. It was the Chinese girl who struck the vampire and saved the Misfit's life. Fred gratefully turned to the Slayer with much thankfulness and appreciation; he was in her debt.

"Thank you…I…I couldn't…" Blob began in Cantonese, but Chao-Ahn shook her head as she helped Lina up.

"I know how important she is to you, Fred," Chao-Ahn answered back softly in Chinese.

"You…Chao-Ahn, you saved me," Lina whispered shakily, starting to cry. Chao-Ahn just smiled, wiping a few strands of loose hair from her forehead.

"You Fred's friend," the Slayer answered back, not in her mother tongue, but in broken and heavily accented English. Apparently, her lessons with Shannon, Caridad, and Wood were effective. Lina felt so ashamed of how jealously she gave the Chinese Slayer the cold shoulder while she was training at the Pit.

"Thank you," Lina whispered. Chao-Ahn smiled back, not understanding it, but she could guess it correctly enough.

"I'm not sure what you just said, but you're welcome, I think," the Slayer replied back in Cantonese.

Meanwhile, Jubilee and Iceman continued to fight back-to-back against the Turok-Han and warlocks, united again as fellow X-Men.

"Back off, you creeps!" Iceman snapped as he formed jagged and sharp icicles in thin air before he used his mutant powers to send them flying, and despite the warlocks' best efforts, they couldn't blink out of the way thanks to Phoebe's spell. Many perished instantly, screaming, as the pointed ice-shafts struck and plowed into their chests, heads, and torsos.

"But there's still too many!" Jubilee gasped as she let loose a furious blob of explosive, multicolored plasma at another Turok-Han, "And we can't fight these guys and the Heartless at the same time!"

"At least on the upside, the Heartless made the cops and the Friends of Humanity rioters take off!" Forge exclaimed, hearing this.

Cyclops' strategic and organized mind then realized that they couldn't survive if they had to split yet again to handle another faction of the enemy, and considering that the Heartless were the bigger and more vicious if not difficult threats, the Turok-Han and the army of Zankou had to be dealt with immediately. And Cyclops then decided to take the biggest risk he ever so rarely depended on.

In fact, the only time he did it was when they had to face Juggernaut at the dam so many years ago…

"Everyone, get clear! This should be enough to wipe out all the Turok-Han at once! Get everyone out of there!" Cyclops heatedly yelled in his communicator. Taking the teenager's word for it, every ally rushed past him as fast as they could, instantly changing tactics as they charged towards the Heartless.

"I just checked the battlefield twice! I just got everyone else out of there! Everything in front of you is a bad guy! Do your stuff, Summers!" Quicksilver then appeared instantly next to the X-Men field-leader with Xi and Andrew in tow while Nightcrawler teleported with Toad out of danger and beside the Misfit speedster. Cyclops nodded before he ripped off his visor symbolically as Kurt gasped.

"Mein Gott! Scott, be careful of everyone around us!" The German X-Man exclaimed with foresight. Andrew was confused.

"Huh? What's going on?" the blond teenager asked, puzzled.

Xi gulped as he answered, "Cyclops is going to let loose! Stay back!"

And with those words of warning, all five boys could only gape as Scott opened his eyes as wide as he could and internally summoned all of the power he could feel in his body, his eyes now throbbing as the ruby-colored solar energy pulsed through uncontrollably through his head.

Instantly, a wide beam of solar energy escaped from Cyclops' eyes and spread out like a tidal wave towards the vampires and black wizards, not giving them a chance to fight back as they were instantly mowed down and obliterated before everyone's eyes.

Several houses took some structural, exterior damage, but years and years of training in the Danger Room had given Cyclops ample experience to ensure that his optic blasts would only be focused on the spellcasters and the Neanderthal vampires plaguing the street. And upon seeing to his satisfaction that the current area his powers were aimed at was now devoid, Cyclops slowly turned his gaze and let the beams of destructive energy travel and spread to the other convoluted and crowded masses of the enemy, wiping them out at once as well.

And within minutes…there was nothing left of the warlocks and the Turok-Han except piles and piles of ashes and the charred, blackened remains of a street and some damaged (yet thankfully unoccupied) houses. Cyclops screamed in pain as he closed his eyes and felt the whiplash of excruciating agony and protest as he tried to suppress the coursing energy struggling to escape. He fell to his knees as Andrew, Kurt, Pietro, Todd, and Xi rushed to his side, worried, but after several and tense moments of severe aching, the pressure stopped and Cyclops panted before he placed the visor back over his eyes again. His head was still buzzing, but at least he managed to keep his power under control.

Toad patted Cyclops' back as he and Xi helped him shakily rise and said, "Yo, you did good, Cyclops! They're all gone! You wasted all of the warlocks and Turok-Han, yo! That was so cool!"

Cyclops shook his head, partially to clear the cobwebs but also to disagree as he wheezed out hoarsely, "But I shouldn't have done that. The Professor warned me against a risk. I could have easily lost control and not have been able to stop it, Toad."

Xi gave him a dry look as he said with compassion, "Cyclops, you're forgetting who you're talking to. What matters is that you did what you wanted to do in order to save everyone. We deal with issues of self-control every day. You're not the only one."

Cyclops understood the intention behind that statement, and he grinned wryly at the lizard Misfit, "But unlike you maniacs, I don't ignore and abandon those issues."

"Meh, self-control's over-rated, Summers," sneered Pietro as he and the others, including Cyclops, charged towards the Heartless.

"Crap, I'm running out of ammo! My glovatrix is empty!" gasped Multiple in the background as the Aquain drove by him, firing a plasma-torpedo directly into the body of a nearby giant.

"And I'm on my last arrow!" Shannon wailed additionally, but Phoebe then voiced another spell, coming through.

"Arrows, bullets, missiles, ammunition for heroic tries! With this spell, I prevent this hell, refill their empty supply!" and to everyone's amazements, their guns, their glovatrixes, and Shannon's quiver were magically refilled with a loaded and fresh supply of ammo and shafts.

"All right, thanks Phoebe!" cheered Jamie as he let loose again, forming new clones.

Meanwhile, Roberto was flying above the battlefield, hoping to find something he could use to help out his friends when he spotted Inspector Sheridan and her other fellow officers, hiding behind a line of several armored trucks as they fired upon the Heartless with their guns.

"Hey, you're that Inspector Sheridan chick! The same one that mentioned you in the news report!" Sunspot exclaimed as he flew down.

The blond haired woman was anything but friendly as she said with aloof and cold suspicion, "And what exactly do you want, X-Man?"

"We can protect you guys from the Heartless! But I need to use one of those armored cars that the S.W.A.T. team brought!" Roberto said with some irritation as he pointed at one of the fallen vehicles that Shadowcat had phased through earlier.

"We don't need your help, you mutie-freak!" snapped one officer, but Sheridan held up a hand and stopped the policeman's tirade before she nodded.

"As much as I am against vigilante assistance, take what you need and leave us respectable officers alone!"

Roberto bit his tongue and complied as he lifted up one of the armored trucks high above his head and took off with it, flying high into the air towards Blob who was currently engaged in battle with a Heartless as the monster clawed at his stomach.

"Yeow!" Blob yelped as he winced, "Invulnerable skin or not, that still hurt, you jerk!"

With a yell, Blob grabbed hold of the clawed hand and jerked hard with all of the superhuman strength he could possibly muster, and with a sickening ripping noise, the left arm of the Heartless popped right out of the shoulder joint. The creature howled in pain as it looked down at the messy stub, strands of nerve fibers and muscle hanging grotesquely from the gaping, bleeding hole. Which was exactly how Blob was able to catch it by surprise as he then used the arm as a makeshift club and tripped it hard, striking right behind the Heartless' knees, a weak point in any opponent's leg. And with the Heartless lying on its back, it allowed Sunspot to move in, in his radiation mode and diving downwards while carrying the armored car in his hands with his strength.

"Special delivery for the Heartless! You just won the grand prize of a armored truck to the head!" the Brazilian X-Man shouted with exuberant glee as he brought down the car as hard as he could.

WHAM!

The Heartless now had its head pinned firmly to the ground thanks to the metal vehicle embedded securely into the pavement on top of it. And as it struggled and writhed, Batgirl took out an explosive Batarang from her utility belt as Sunspot and Blob got out of her path.

"Get clear!" she yelled as she hurled the Batarang at the car's gas-tank, and there was a furious explosion before the Heartless' head was gruesomely and sadistically destroyed. Then Batgirl took out her Bat-grappler before she fired a line at another nearby Heartless, and to the monster's surprise, it felt the snare and hook loop around its neck before tightening like a noose, preventing it from moving forward.

"Rogue, Sunspot, catch!" Batgirl yelled as she tossed the Bat-Grappler to the two flying mutants above her head. Both Rogue and Sunpot pulled hard at the unbreakable line, and the Heartless gurgled faintly as it was jerked off the ground, unable to gain any leverage, which was exactly how Forge was able to take it out using his last antimatter bomb.

"And scratch another Heartless!" Rogue cheered as the Heartless perished.

At the interim, Willow finally had enough as Galatea tried to incinerate Scarlet Witch and Leomon again…

"Uh…uh…oh screw it!" Willow cursed before she tossed caution to the winds and chanted rather improperly and unsuitably, "Ancient Spirits of the Guardians, Pan and Elohim, my Latin sucks but I need a magic spell strong enough to waste this bitch! Channel anything to send her packing!"

There was a faint rumbling before meteors began to rain down from the sky, and to everyone's amazement, they all fell directly towards Galatea, but the alien clone was not allowing herself to leave herself wide open for that tactic as she flew up, her wings outstretched, and blasted each and every one of the rocks from the sky before they could strike her, burning them into nothing but ash and dust. Then Galatea swooped down directly towards Willow, screaming, "Die!"

Willow gasped, unable to run as the fire wings approached her body, but there was a blur as a furry figure dashed by and grabbed Willow before the clone's wings could sear and slice her in half. The Scooby looked up to find herself in the arms of a protective Leomon.

"Leomon!" Willow cried as she held on tightly to the lion holding her, still numb with horror and fear that she was literally inches away from death. Leomon rumbled softly as he set the Scooby on the ground along with his sword which he laid down flat.

"I said that you would not fight alone, Willow."

The red-haired witch of the Slayers was strangely touched the strange and wary soldier had remembered and kept his promise that he said back in the alley so long ago.

At the same time, in another part of the battlefield…

"Naiads, I need more water!" Althea said urgently.

Suddenly, there was a flash of searing energy as a bolt of black lightning tore through the air and struck all three of the naiads in the back, and screaming in pain, the water-nymphs evaporated into steam, dying instantly to Wavedancer's horror.

"No!" Althea looked on in helpless fury as she whirled around to see Kahn, the warlock who was second-in-command and Zankou's most trusted war-chieftain, smiling with unfeeling satisfaction. The dark-skinned male witch apparently had to remorse for killing the naiads. Then Kahn snarled before he let loose another round of paranormal energy, but ninja-reflexes springing instantly, the hydrokinetic madly flipped to the side, the magic rushing by her by less than an inch and striking two warlocks by accident, killing them instantly. Growling, Althea took out three steel shuriken from her belt and flung them with a subtle flick of her wrist at the necromancer. But Kahn just raised a hand before the ninja stars could hit him, and with a flash, they stopped in mid-air and fell lifelessly to the concrete before it could even hurt him.

"Hmph, you're good for a mortal woman, mutant-spawn," Kahn growled as he kept trying to incinerate the Misfit, but Althea kept managing to strafe, sidestep, and spring out of each and every shot aimed at her specifically, her reflexes making her a difficult target to hit. Thankfully for Wavedancer, several of her allies blitzed Kahn from all sides instantly…

"And you'll find that we're better, bub!" snarled Wolverine as he, Faith, Phoebe, Giles, Cover Girl and Low Light rushed at the warlock chieftain. Cover Girl yelled at Wavedancer before she charged.

"Wavedancer, go! Don't worry about us! Just help the others stop the Heartless horde!" she commanded before she took careful aim with her rifle and fired at every clear shot she could. The Misfit leader nodded before she took off. Kahn was unafraid as he raised a hand and sent the bullets flying back with his magic, and by sheer bad luck, one struck Cover Girl painfully, lodging in the join between her shoulder bone and her arm, causing the female Joe to fall to her side, wounded.

"You missed," Kahn retorted smugly as Cover Girl kept whimpering, holding her bleeding and injured shoulder. Giles and Phoebe snarled as they swiped at Kahn with their swords, but the warlock chief easily evaded them, as nimble as a cat. Then Faith and Wolverine continued to barrage the dark necromancer with a furious assault of punches and kicks, but with another wave of his hand, Kahn sent all four of them flying, screaming as the black magic coursed through their bodies and set each and every one of their nerves aflame with excruciating agony. Low Light then transformed into pure diamond before he grabbed Kahn from behind.

"That's enough, butthead!" the Joe sniper growled, but viciously, Kahn broke free from the hold on his body before his hands glowed with a dark, shadowy luster before the warlock turned and plunged his hands into Low Light's abdomen, causing the man to scream in pain as the wizard's hands magically tore it his flesh and organs from within. Low Light tried to sunfish and extract himself out of Kahn's reach, but he was so overcome with the anguish and torture of the magic ravaging inside his body that he fell and toppled to his back, weakened, his lungs burning as if they were on fire. Kahn sneered as his hands traveled up to Low Light's heart and took a firm hold, ready to crush it with one, quick, brutal squeeze.

Bang!

Kahn's body jerked, his eyes wide before they became lifeless and glassy, and Low Light, despite the pain, was now able to see that the warlock's forehead had a messy and gruesome exit-wound where the bullet flew out. A magically-enhanced silver bullet doused with holy water had entered into the back of Kahn's skull and managed to gouge through his head before it went completely through. Low Light saw Kahn's body topple to the side lifelessly to reveal an injured yet determined Cover Girl, holding her rifle with her uninjured arm and pointing the mouth of her weapon where the warlock used to be positioned.

It was she who had saved the sniper's life.

"Didn't miss that time, did I, you ass?" Cover Girl boasted with scornful contempt at Kahn's corpse before the warlock chieftain and Zankou's second-in-command finally perished in a mess of flames and ashes, snuffed completely from this mortal coil.

"I got him," Whitelighter whimpered as he ran over and laid a glowing hand on Low Light's chest, healing the wounds he received from Kahn. Cover Girl exhaled with relief before she shot the sniper a dirty yet good-intentioned look.

"Cooper, if you ever do that to me, again…I'm going to kill you," she threatened, smiling wickedly, as she gave Low Light a playful punch on his shoulder. The blond-haired man winced as he felt his pain lessen under the soothing light of Justin's healing.

"I think I'd rather take my chances with the warlocks, Courtney," he joked before grimacing from the ache.

Meanwhile, Roadblock was being pinned down by a Heartless, one claw holding the Joe soldier down to the ground similar to the manner where a cat pins down a mouse underneath its paw, ready to eat its prey. And Wood was desperate to stop this as he witnessed this from the distance.

"Damn it!" Wood yelled as he looked around wildly, his mind trying to formulate a plan out of anything, praying he could find something that would work before it was too late. Suddenly, he felt himself be gently held up by none other than Piotr as he transformed into his metal mode.

"Another Fastball Special, comrade?" the Russian X-Man asked, grinning, and Wood nodded before he suddenly felt himself being hurled accurately towards the very back of the Heartless' neck, the same abomination that was ready to kill Roadblock. Wood struck his sword out and as he collided into the Heartless' skull, the Watcher drove the sword entirely into the soft nape of the monster's neck. The Heartless' roars died in its throat before it went lax and shuddered. Then ,unsteadily, it toppled and pitched forward, falling on top of Roadblock, but miraculously, the Joe was unharmed and safe from being crushed by the heavy body thanks to a certain mutant girl…

"Are you, like, okay, Roadblock?" Shadowcat asked worriedly as she phased the Joe soldier out from underneath the corpse of the Heartless. The machine-gunner nodded before he turned to Wood with a grateful smile.

"Thanks, Wood," Roadblock said as he reloaded his gun with a new sash of magically-enhanced bullets, and the African-American Watcher returned a beam in kind.

"I'm surprised that you nearly got yourself killed, cause I thought you Joes in battle had more of an iron will," Wood rhymed easily. Marvin gave his childhood friend a deadpanned grimace of exasperation as he aimed the mouth of his gun at the head of an approaching Heartless.

"You've been hanging around me far too long, Robin," Roadblock grumbled good-naturedly as he let loose a continuous stream of metal shrapnel.

Meanwhile, inside the Halliwell Manor, Zankou had finally located the spell for him to release the Nexus, and to his immense glee and euphoric anticipation, the warlock's chanting finally awakened the holy and pure essence of the living force of Nature itself. The basement floor cracked and ripped asunder as a stream of living aura, shadowy and ethereal, but the warlock could sense it. Unlimited power! The wisdom and knowledge and might of eons and eons of the force of the planet itself! He could very well be a god with these powers!

And it was all his, and his alone.

The embodiment of the Nexus began to build and swirl all around the goateed wizard of dark magic and evil as he finished the last rites of the spell, and he knew the Nexus would have no choice but to listen and merge with him. He carried the Book of Shadows, and his word must be obeyed by the rules of the sacred tome he held in his hands. It wouldn't be long now…

"…natum adai necral daya intay layok!" Zankou chanted with a triumphant flourish, the spell ending as the Nexus roared, and Zankou's eyes went wide with successful exhilaration, joyous at the rapture.

"Yes!" he cried, dropping the Book of Shadows as the Nexus swirled all around his body, "The Nexus! The power! It is now - !"

Then Zankou's speech was drastically cut short as he jerked, his eyes widening as he looked down to see Blackheart's claw protruding out of his stomach where the demon stabbed him, dealing with a fatal wound from behind. Zankou felt the blood pool out of his mouth and dripping down his chin as he gasped, his lungs managing a final question in the throes of his death.

"Why? I…I thought you said….the Nexus would be m…ine…." He rasped hoarsely before he perished in flames. Blackheart's eyes gleamed as the Nexus then bonded with him instead.

"I lied," Blackheart said coolly.

Meanwhile, outside, the battle with the Heartless was slowly becoming dire as Galatea managed to blast back most of her opponents away from her as the Heartless still managed to fully surround the Slayers, the Scoobies, the Joes, the X-Men, the Misfits, and the Charmed Ones, all of the humans weakened and fatigued, unable to continue much further. Leomon then knew that he had no choice…

"Your Majesty…please…give me strength!" the Digimon bellowed as he let loose his ultimate attack, his hidden trump card for emergencies and battles that were far too out of hand, one that not even Blackheart had known about.

"GAIA!" yelled Leomon, praying with all of his vigor and vitality, "HUNDRED KING FIST!"

"Holy crap!" Inspector Sheridan gasped as she saw the humanoid lion raise his fist in the air, and instead of one gigantic ball of ki energy forming into the shape of a roaring lion's head, this time, a hundred streams of lesser yet powerful versions of the Fist of the Beast King attacks flew out and homed in on every Heartless and villain on the streets. So now, instead of one attack, Leomon had summoned multiple attacks that spread out like wildfire. And not a single creature sent by the Organization escaped its fury.

"AAAAAAA!" screamed Galatea as she shielded herself with her fire wings as over forty roaring energy lions struck her, but thankfully for her sake, she was able to fend them off barely the Heartless were not as fortunate as they screamed before each and every ki blast struck and wiped them out entirely.

"Whoa! What happened?" Tabitha gasped at the scene.

"It's Leomon! He wiped out the entire Heartless army with one hit! He saved us!" Xi gasped, his jaw dropping. When the attack subsided, Leomon, groaning, collapsed, landing on all fours, but he managed to gently release his hold on Willow, and the red-haired witch stood by him, worried and vexed.

"You saved us," Willow murmured, as if finally understanding despite her apprehension, "You saved all of us…we wouldn't have even survived."

"Leomon, are you all right?" gasped Piper. Leomon shook his head as he panted.

"No…I shouldn't have done that…I…used all my strength and energy in that last attack," the swordsman gasped, seriously innervated. Suddenly, to everyone's shock, the ground underneath their feet began to tremble and quake madly before the Halliwell manor exploded with a furious discharge of wood and stone and glass, completely demolished.

"Our house!" Phoebe cried out, but the Victorian home of the Charmed Ones was instantly forgotten as Blackheart slowly and methodically rose from the ground, levitating from the powers of the Nexus and darkness now flowing through him freely in each and every fiber of his body.

"What the heck?" Wood bellowed upon seeing the unfamiliar black demon.

"This is not good!" Xander gasped as he, Razor, and Beast looked on from their position in the Aquain.

A heavily-injured Leo actually began to weep in loss, holding Wyatt and a limp Chris in his arms, sobbing, "The Nexus…"

Galatea managed to sneer at the heroes, smug and conceited, "You're too late, chumps! The Nexus is ours now!"

The Halliwells immediately acted as they joined hands and voiced the spell again to banish the Suxen as Blackheart rose higher and higher in the air, the skies immediately darkening with the power of the Shadow as the sun eclipsed within minutes, bathing the entire city in darkness. The winds began to howl and flare, streams of darkness and black aura radiating all around the heroes and the spectators could only cry and watch helplessly at the servant of the Organization in the sky as he summoned more and more of the darkness within him and the Nexus to cover and blanket the entire city.

"Goddess, I can feel it!" Storm gasped, "Whatever that thing is, it actually has enough power to destroy the entire city! Not even I can produce hurricanes and storms this powerful!"

The Charmed Ones then chanted, "From ancient time, this power came for all to have and none to remain. Take it now, show no mercy, for this power can no longer be!"

There was only a general silence as Blackheart raised his arms, outstretched and invoking the intensities of the Nexus to ravage and desolate the entire metropolis of San Francisco.

Blackheart crowed, "Yes! The power, the fates and forces and whims of Nature and the planet…all of it ours! Behold, Superior and Ansem! The Heartless shall be glorified by the power of the Nexus! This planet and these worlds hereafter shall be yours!"

"I don't think the spell worked, yo!" Toad gasped at the witches.

"Try again with another one!" Piper yelled as she joined hands with Phoebe and Paige, and all three of them began to chant another past enchantment.

"Prudence, Patricia, Penelope, Melinda…" Piper chanted.

"Astrid, Helena, Laura and Grace…" Phoebe chanted.

"Halliwell witches, stand strong beside us…" Paige finished.

Altogether, the sister chanted as their hands clenched hard against each other's palms as they intoned, "Banish this evil from time and space!"

The winds only howled louder and louder as several buildings all around them began to crumble and were ripped apart, bit by bit as trees were uprooted and the waters of the Bay turned brown and muddy with filth and death.

"Try another one!" Professor Xavier yelled over the din.

"I think I know of one that might work, but I need a piece of string or some sort of thread!" Phoebe yelled as the winds now ripped at their bodies, making it difficult to see and move as the air turned frigid, rivaling that of the artic temperatures in the artic regions while the streets and roads everywhere along the city began to crack and collapse under the force Blackheart was summoning.

"Here, use this! Hurry before we're all screwed!" Brittany exclaimed as she ripped a loose purple thread from her battle uniform and handed it to Phoebe who clasped it gratefully. With she, Piper, and Paige holding the fragile thread between their respective thumbs and forefingers, they invoked another spell from memory of the past.

"I take your hands in mine, and with this string, we will entwine! Your powers we'll forever bind, from now until the end of time!"

"It's still not working! That bastard's too powerful!" yelled Low Light.

"The Power of Three will set us free, The Power of Three will set us free, The Power of Three will set us free…" tried the sisters again, but even they knew it was hopeless. If nothing from the past worked, then there was no chance anything they could think up of now on a whim could save them and pull though.

"It's too powerful! We can't erase and banish the Nexus! Whatever the demon is, he's not like all the other demons we've fought before! The Nexus won't listen to the laws of Wicca now! It can't be destroyed!" Piper cried over the howling winds. Then Andrew perked up, remembering what he, Toad, and Xi did while spending time at the Institute so long ago.

"Wait, what about suppressing the Nexus? It won't banish it or destroy it, but at least it will save the city!" the blond Watcher-in-training suggested.

"Huh? How would that be any different?" Vi asked, flabbergasted.

"I remember reading it from one of Willow's magic books! It's one of the laws of magic: never use extremes! If you don't have enough power for one objective for a spell, always try using a lesser objective that can be within your power limits but can practically achieve the same thing! So if we can't destroy the Nexus, maybe we can at least contain it for the time being!"

The Golden Gate Bridge in the distance began to quake and creak madly, threatening to buckle and break, and with it, all the cars and innocents trapped on it.

"Take this world, my Lords!" bellowed Blackheart from above.

"You've been reading my magic books?" growled Willow, "My magic books and not just the books Giles and Wood have been instructing you with?"

"Er…" Andrew gulped, realizing that he put his foot in his mouth.

"But we don't have a spell in the Book of Shadows to suppress the Nexus!" Phoebe tried to explain.

"That's not a problem! We came up with one! When Toad, Andrew, and I were at the Institute, we figured you could use one for back-up in case anything went wrong!" Xi yelled over the destruction happening everywhere. Rogue regarded the lizard mutant strangely.

"I was wonderin' what you three yahoos were doing in the study, scribbling on paper…" Rogue muttered, recalling that one incident.

"What was the spell? And for that matter, how did you come up with one?"

Andrew, Toad, and Xi looked at each other before they clasped hands and chanted from their memory, the hours and labor they spent on creating their pride and joy of a makeshift incantation.

"Darkness and Light, dusk and dawn. Heroes battle and carry on. Mutant and mortal, Wiccan and Slayer, evil lessens with this prayer. Hand in hand, heart and soul. Blessed be, set us free, power of good, we extol!"

Nothing happened, and Dana looked at Andrew disdainfully.

"Well that was certainly helpful!" she snapped sarcastically. But Willow then gasped as she thought about it.

"No, Andrew's on to something! The spell can work! It just needs a powerful boost from all of us! Yes, us witches could try to cast it, but the spell they created needs the presence of Slayers and mutants and humans along with witches to invoke the magic through the words. It can work, but it needs just more than witches to do it!"

Leomon then reached out and rested his paw on Andrew's shoulder, saying strongly, "Lead them well, then. Teach all of us the spell, or millions here shall perish! Do it now, kid!"

"Professor!" Xi yelled to the leader and founder of the X-Men, "Use your telepathy to send the words of the spell we created to everyone! We all need to do this! We have to say the spell together!"

"You've got to be kidding me!" grimaced Low Light, "Fighting demons and stuff I can handle, but saying poetry in hoping in does something magical? That's a little too far-fetched if you ask me!"

"We don't have any choice! Either we do this or we all get blown away to Kingdom Come!" Cover Girl yelled.

"Then let us try…together!" Xavier encouraged as he telepathically sent the words to everyone he could. As one, each and every one of them held hands with anyone they could, regardless of their ally being human, mutant, witch, or Slayer as they recited and chanted the makeshift spell together, a symbol of their unity, their voices growing in volume and harmony despite the howling storm of the shadow of the Nexus.

"Darkness and Light, dusk and dawn…"

The winds continued to howl.

"Heroes battle and carry on…"

Blackheart frowned as he felt a slight disturbance…

"Mutant and mortal, Wiccan and Slayer…"

"Hey, what's happening?" yelled Galatea in outrage as she flew alongside Blackheart, realizing that the winds were slowly decreasing in ferocity and destructive savageness…

"Evil lessens with this prayer…"

"No!" yelled Blackheart as the power began to flicker, like a candle threatening to be extinguished in the wind…

"Hand in hand, heart and soul…"

The sun began to penetrate the darkened skies of death, and the eclipse, to everyone's shock and rising hope, disappeared as the skies began to turn back to their crystal blue along with the waters of the bay becoming clean again…

"Blessed be…"

"AAAAAAA!" howled Blackheart in pain as the luminosity surrounding the Heartless insignia on his chest began to wane as the Nexus aura and magic began to seep backwards and withdraw back into Blackheart's body, the pressure of the buildup of so much Gaia magic threatening to rip the demon apart…

"Set us free…"

"Damn you!" Blackheart roared to the heavens above as the Nexus almost fully vanished as the sun began to bathe the city in a peaceful warmth of serenity once again…

"…power of good, we extol!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Blackheart howled as the Nexus was fully contained in his own body, and in the throes of agony, Blackheart lost his control as he plummeted from the sky and crashed into the ground below, managing to survive but in such agony and excruciating torture from having the magic that bonded with him being fully forced back into his soul. And everyone looked up, surprised and grateful to see that it had worked.

"I don't believe it!" Shipwreck gasped, "It worked! The spell Toad, Xi, and Andrew created actually worked!"

Kurt made a face as he admitted, "It is a scary thought when you think about it."

"Just be grateful, mon ami," Gambit said, his heart still beating madly, "Remy just thankful that it didn't end up going the other way."

"Misfits, X-Men!" yelled a familiar voice, and they all turned to see General Hawk appearing next to them along with the Justice League and the Teen Titans, arriving to help at last.

"What kept you?" Spirit drawled.

Hawk explained, "There was a barrier cast all around the city, and none of us could get in. We were just about ready to try to reach you by digging underneath the barricade when we saw that big black thing in the sky nearly destroy the city, but then it just seemed to vanish all of a sudden! And I had to go to D.C. to get the higher powers' authorization to stop the Department of Homeland Security from ruining things! The Joes I brought along should keep the crowds at bay for now."

"Good, that'll be one less thing to worry about for now," Spirit sighed with relief.

"What the hell happened here?" gaped Flash, surveying the wrecked street, "It's looks like the floodgates of Hell had opened here or something!"

"Trust me, you'd never believe us if we told you," groaned Batgirl. But before any more commentary could be made, Leo's frantic voice rang out with heavy grief.

"Piper, get help, please! Chris is dying! He's not breathing!" Leo hollered, and the heroes turned to see that the husband of Piper was telling to truth, much to their horror and dismay. Leo was cradling a prone and burned body of his second son in his arms, broken and at a loss. The one-year old was limp and had extensive burns and injuries all over his face and hands, a result from Galatea's rampage on the fight. Piper looked completely loss before she gently took Chris in her arms and called out urgently, nearly screaming.

"Sandra! Sandra, please! Help us, please!" the woman screamed, and thankfully, with a flash of lights, the female Elder appeared.

"Sandra, heal Chris, please! He's dying! I can't feel his heartbeat! Oh Sandra, please, for the love of God, heal my son!" Piper wailed. Surely she could heal a babe. Surely she would listen and help.

Yet to Piper's horror, Sandra's eyes were misty with tears and remorse as she shook her head.

"Elder Gideon won't allow it. He made it final…oh, Piper, I would if I could, but I cannot break the vow of the Elder of Elders," she confessed.

"No…" Phoebe gasped as Piper shook, trembling with a mixture of sorrow and helpless rage.

"Then break it, please! He's my son, my baby! Please, damn you, save him!" Piper wailed, screaming hysterically.

Sandra now had tears running down her cheeks as she said, "Forgive me, but I can't. I can't break Gideon's authority over me…oh, Piper."

But the eldest Halliwell sister was inconsolable as she just sank to her knees and cradled her slowly dying Chris to her face, now bawling uncontrollably as she held her son's body to her face, burying her tears into his cracked and brunt cadaver. The body was already beginning to grow cold and stiff with rigor mortis.

"Why can't you heal him? You're a Whitelighter Elder! You're supposed to bloody help witches!" demanded Giles angrily, furious at the suffering of the child and its mother.

Hawk then answered gravely, "Because all Whitelighters have to obey and listen to the will of the Elders. And Gideon is the Elder of Elders. A Whitelighter's healing powers can only be invoked if the Elders allow it, otherwise, if the Council or a representative of the Council chooses to not bless a person to be healed, then they can't be healed, no matter how much other Whitelighters try. Even if the Whitelighter tries to heal Chris, they wouldn't be able to because their healing abilities would be nullified for that one victim. And all Whitelighter's magic stems from the Elders' Council. No Whitelighter can heal if the Elders do not allow it."

"You mean…if Gideon doesn't want any of the Elders to heal…they have to listen to him?" Wanda whispered in horror, her eyes wide and her face pale.

"Mein Gott! That's barbaric! You're letting a child suffer for no reason!" Kurt growled, aghast and horrified.

Colossus turned to Lina, asking, "Dragonfly, what about you? You are a trained medic! Can't you do something? Anything? This is a child's life!"

But the female insect-Misfit shook her head helplessly, her face displaying pure loss as she cried softly, "It won't do any good. I can't use my silk to heal burns that badly, and I've never trained to perform injuries on a toddler! A Joe soldier is one thing, but a child is something Lifeline never showed me how to deal with! I can't help Chris! I don't even know how to! And Lifeline is one a mission with Sergeant Slaughter in Russia, so we can't take Chris to the Pit to be healed!"

"And no one in the Justice League can heal as well as a Whitelighter, Piper. I am truly sorry," Batman said, his face grim.

"Oh, oh, oh!" sobbed Piper as she just buried her head into Chris' body, and she was so busy crying, she didn't notice a telltale warmth of light nor the gasps of shock and bewilderment being made all around her as she kept crying. But then…

Chris, her second son, her baby in her arms, took a loud gasp of breath and wailed.

Piper, though her tears looked up to see Chris still wailing, but now being brought out of danger from his mortal injuries, with a glowing hand resting on his forehead. She looked up to see she was staring at the hand of the Misfit named Whitelighter. The one she loathed because he was the son of Elder Gideon.

Justin was healing Chris.

"I think he'll be all right now," Justin said softly, compassionately as he finished. Chris let out another soft wail as his skin became whole and anew, each and every trace of his injuries erased.

"No way!" gasped X23, "You can bring back people from the dead?"

"No, Chris wasn't dead…he was just on the brink of death. No one can bring back the dead," Justin answered hesitantly.

"Oh…Chris!" choked Piper, bawling again, as she held her youngest son close to her body and Leo and Wyatt held them both close, the four of them incredibly relieved and harrowed after the brush of losing one of their own. Paige was sobbing uncontrollably with relief, and Phoebe wiped her eyes. Blind Master, though a bit rueful, smiled as he rubbed his son's back with one hand.

"I'm proud of you," he said. Sandra the Elder was absolutely flabbergasted as she stared at the Misfit.

"But…but how?" Sandra asked, beside herself in disbelief, "It's impossible! No Whitelighter of the coven can ever disobey the Elders' laws and will! And Gideon is the Elder of Elders! How can this be possible? No Whitelighter can heal a being if the Elders will not allow it!"

Justin still looked a little perplexed, but then he realized why as he then averted his gaze slightly with some pain from the Whitelighter Elder, saying softly, "That's because I'm not a real Whitelighter, ma'am."

Sandra then looked a bit sorry when she caught on as well, wishing she didn't just thoughtlessly blurt it out.

"Uh…did anyone else get what just happened?" Bezerker asked, obviously lost. But Razor shushed the X-teen gently so that he wouldn't interrupt.

"It's obviously private, Bezerker, so don't ask them about it until they're ready," the kat explained, understanding.

"Thank you," choked Leo as he looked up from hugging Piper, Wyatt, and Chris, his voice hoarse and his eyes wet but grateful. Justin smiled and nodded once. Piper couldn't even bear looking up at Justin.

She was so ashamed.

Meanwhile, the other heroes were looking on at Tea and Blackheart in shock.

"Kara?" exclaimed Superman in shock upon seeing the look-alike with black wings, but Multiple and Iceman shook their heads in warning.

"No, it's not her! It's her clone! Supergirl has a clone! Her name is Galatea, and she works for the bad guys! She's a Heartless!" Jamie cried.

"The Organization created her so that she could steal a piece of the Phoenix Force that was inside Supergirl," Bobby explained in a rush, and despite the fast-paced wording, the seven members of the Justice League understood at once and grew grim. Superman was speechless.

"So she is this dreaded experiment the Charmed Ones told you about?" Martian Manhunter asked Batman, "Is she the foreseen Experiment 666?"

Batgirl then spoke in a voice quite unlike her own normal timbre, but haunted, ghostlike, and eerily foreboding and empty, like a cold breeze blowing though an abandoned graveyard.

"No, she is not Experiment 666. The Beast of Perfection will come at the Gathering. The Experiment to come is something far more sinister and deadly…"

Everyone turned to the red-haired, masked vigilante, shocked at her sudden words, and Jean and Xavier and J'onn were quick to note that her mind had suddenly become impenetrable, almost empty.

"Huh? Batgirl, what did you say?" Caridad gasped, her jaw dropping. Batgirl blinked before her blue eyes lost their sudden, cloudy look.

"What did I what say?" Batgirl asked, suddenly noticing that everyone, including Batman, was staring at her.

"You just said something about Galatea and how she wasn't this Experiment 666!" Paige said, a bit heated and impatient at the sudden veering off an important clue, "How did you know that?"

Batgirl looked incredibly confused and bewildered at the sudden attention drawn upon her as she weakly protested, "You guys! I didn't say anything! I swear!"

"Uh, hello? We just heard you! You just said something about Experiment 666 being more deadly several seconds ago and how it was supposed to come at a gathering!" Xander protested.

"I don't remember saying it!" Batgirl gasped, shocked at what people were telling her. Batman's eyes narrowed as he regarded the crowd questioning his protégé.

"Leave it," he said with honed steel, and noticing the defensive and protective look from the Dark Knight of Gotham himself, everyone dropped the inquisition gracefully. While the other Teen Titans were ready to attack the black demon that nearly destroyed San Francisco, Raven recognized the spiky mane and the telltale Heartless symbol on his chest anywhere.

"You!" snarled Raven, very nearly giving in to her anger and loss of self-control upon the sight of the familiar enemy who was recovering from having the Nexus cease and become forcefully suppressed in his body.

"You know this guy, Rae?" Cyborg blinked, holding out his sonic cannon at the lone target.

"That's because that's Blackheart. He's the one who helped Brother Blood commit the wedding ceremony in Azarath that nearly killed me. He's the demon who works for the Thirteenth Order," Raven fumed, trying her best to calm down.

The Titans, the X-Men, and the Misfits whirled angrily at the hulking, shadow-skinned giant, remembering the pain, suffering and stress they had to endure because of their meddling and bringing of Trigon into their dimension. The Slayers and Scoobies remained quiet, but they knew enough to know that Blackheart was, in all aspects of the word, a scheming, manipulative rat from Hell.

"Blackheart?" yelled Rogue, snarling as she made a fist, "That big, black yahoo is Blackheart?"

"And he's a Heartless!" Vi pointed out as she looked at the familiar insignia on the demon's chest, but Rogue hardly cared as she rolled up her sleeves.

"Like it makes much of a difference! I've been itchin' to punch this jerk's lights out from here to Kingdom Come for what he did to Raven in Azarath!" the Southern belle growled murderously. But Leomon stopped her by holding out a paw.

"Don't attack him," Leomon commanded, and there was a touch of dire warning and urgency in his tone, "If you value your life, Rogue, for the sake of the Great Beast, do not attack him. If you could not stand up to me, then you'll certainly get killed if you try going against him. And as annoying as you are, I don't want you dead, kid."

Rogue glared at the lion; she wasn't so sure if she should have been insulted or moved by that last sentence.

"He is powerful," remarked Xavier as he frowned, incredibly bothered that he could not even sense Blackheart at all with his telepathy, "I cannot even probe his mind. It is far more shielded than the ones on Magneto and Juggernaut put together."

The servant of the Organization then managed to pop his head up as he stared long and hard at the troupe of heroes in front of him.

"Very clever, you fools…" hissed Blackheart, his eyes glowing murderously, "Combining the souls of all different races in the spell to suppress me."

Superman was still undeterred as he stepped up boldly, saying with final, dark resolution, "It's over, Blackheart. You lost, so leave before we'll be forced to do something you will regret."

Blackheart's voice then got even smugger and magnanimous as he reminded them, "Lost? Hardly, Superman. Have you forgotten? You may have stopped me from destroying the city, but I still have gained the Nexus. It powers, it omnipotence, its living force is now a part of me and henceforth, under the completely control of the Organization. It is you who have lost."

"No…" whispered Sandra, her face going pale as Paige and Phoebe looked incredibly guilty and defeated. The other teenagers and Scoobies alongside with the warriors of G.I. Joe were now afraid, realizing the consequences of the turn of events.

"Holy smokes, with that much power, he'd be unstoppable," murmured Shipwreck, his eyes glazed with disbelief.

Storm turned to the three Halliwell sisters, asking, "Charmed Ones, surely you can take away the Nexus from Blackheart, can't you? You have been guarding it amongst your ancestral home and family for generations, so you must have some sort of spell that can overpower the claim he has on the magic!"

Piper shook her head in horrified fear and dismay as she said, her breath quaking and her voice threatening to break, "We tried everything we had already, Storm. Blackheart wasn't lying. The Organization has the Nexus, and we can't take it back. The Power of Three can't stop them now. Oh God, this is even worse than destroying it before any of us could use it."

Blackheart's eyes glowed as he raised a clawed hand with began to crackle, runes of black magic and power forming all around the ground around the Heartless demon as he intoned, "So no matter what you pitiful fools do, the Nexus now belongs to my Superior and his Organization along with the Hellfire Club. And you cannot kill me…but I can kill all of you!"

"Just you try it, bub!" Wolverine snarled, fearless, and following suit, many of the other heroes prepared to fire upon Blackheart, but before any more blood could have been shed, a voice rang out all around them, echoing a serious and ominous baritone.

"Enough, Blackheart! We already have what we need!" and to everyone's amazement and shock, a man wearing a black hood and cloak appeared in front of Blackheart, acting as a shield between the heroes and the Heartless representative. He was tall, his cloak consisting of waterproof, black cloth of the darkest night, and the only thing not black were the silver cords and zippers on the costume. With one hand, the man pushed back the hood of his cloak to reveal a young-faced man with a long, shaggy mane of chestnut-brown hair and narrowed cold eyes along with a smug smile. Leomon recognized him at once, though it had been so long since he had laid eyes on that face.

"Marluxia?" the swordsman bellowed in shock.

"You know him?" Paige asked as she gawked at the lion warrior.

"Big surprise," scoffed Cyclops and Wolverine simultaneously, sardonic and resentful. And Marluxia was not alone. Eleven more figures appeared in sudden plumes of dark aura out of thin air, and they too stood side by side with Galatea, Blackheart, and the first cloaked man.

"Who the hell are these people?" Low Light croaked as he readied his sniper rifle, sighting Marluxia within his scope instantly and fluidly, but Lemon raised a paw to stop them from doing anything foolish.

"DON'T!" yelled Leomon, now truly showing alarm and danger as he held up a paw in warning to the heroes who were ready to charge, "For the sake of the Great Beast, do not physically confront them! They're the Thirteenth Order!"

"The Order?" exclaimed Forge in shock as his jaw dropped, "They're the Thirteenth Order?"

"Oh bloody hell," Giles murmured to himself, his hands tightening on the handle of his sword.

"What's going on?" Chao-Ahn asked softly, and Blob patiently translated for the Chinese Slayer, whispering as fast as he could process the words while keeping his ear on the conversation.

"Okay, black cloaks and hooded faces? Check. Side by side with a Heartless demon and a psycho-chick? Check. Can appear out of thin air and have magic that's the color of black? Check. Yeah, I think it's safe to say they're evil," Xander joked, but inside, he was trembling within his gut.

"I hafta say that they're nothing from what we've been expecting," Sam confessed. But despite the joking, none of them could doubt that they did not feel a very cold and gripping sense of malicious and foreboding despair coming from the twelve hooded and robed figures.

Yet Beast was counting the group when he realized something odd, and the X-Man remarked, "Wait a minute. If they're called the Thirteenth Order…why are there only twelve of them?"

"Their Superior," answered Leomon as he beadily kept his gaze on the Organization, "Those twelve answer to their leader, the Superior of the Organization, and he is the first of the thirteen to form the order. It is he who sends the other members to do the work of the Heartless."

"A…superior? Who is he then?" Spirit asked warily.

"I do not know," Leomon said gruffly, "I have never seen the Superior at all or if I have, I do not remember. I cannot tell you."

"You can't tell us or you won't?" X23 demanded a bit harshly, glaring at the lion with accusation.

"Shush, kid. We need to hear this," Wolverine reprimanded his clone gently as the crowd and band of heroes grew silent.

"Leomon…it has been a long time," Marluxia spoke. The lion growled, the deep noise causing his chin to slightly quiver from the vibrations, obviously showing his dislike for the soldier named Marluxia. The others who were witnessing this gave Leomon some wary looks, knowing that if they remained silent, they could possibly learn more about this strange group. But it wasn't lost on some that Leomon himself was apparently very familiar with these strangers, but Leomon made no move and just stood there, frozen, with his sword drawn out in front of him.

"Like, why aren't you doing anything?" Shadowcat whispered.

"Yeah, Leomon, can't you just totally wipe them out or something?" Forge asked, but the lion shook his head gravely.

"I doubt that I could even vanquish one of them, Forge," the lion confessed, "They're more powerful than me."

"Yeesh, that's not a good sign," gulped Andrew, now very, very scared.

Leomon then turned his attention to Marluxia, snarling defensively, "Leave them alone, Marluxia."

"My, my, my, Leomon…" Marluxia drawled, smug, "Still trying to fight against us? After everything that has happened before in the past? I must say I have to wonder how ashamed the King would feel if he was here to witness this. You failed him, not once, but twice. You failed in preventing us from gaining the Nexus. Now their deaths shall be on your hands…or paws, to be more appropriate."

The lion twitched, knowing how much that particular barb had stung.

"Shut up," Leomon growled, the urge to lose himself to his livid anger growing stronger.

"King?" Tabitha echoed in disbelief as she looked at the Digimon.

"Leomon works for a king?" Sunspot blurted out, shocked.

"And why is it I get the feeling that Leomon's still hiding something from us?" Cyclops growled as he shot the behemoth a death-glare (who paid Cyclops no attention), "Let me guess, this King is evil like you, isn't he?"

"Shut it, Cyclops!" snapped Avalanche, Shannon, Raven and, surprisingly enough, Piper. Willow just glared at the X-Man leader before she turned back to the members of the Organization. Avalanche stepped forward daringly.

"Leave him alone," the mutant bravely snarled, and Marluxia looked incredibly amused at the Misfit's support but disdainful nonetheless.

"I see you have gathered a little fan club. How touching considering they will all perish soon enough."

"Leave them out of this, Marluxia. They have nothing to do with my Highness or me. Your fight is not with them," Leomon growled warningly.

"We don't need you to defend us, homme!" snapped Gambit as he readied several energy cards, "Remy say we should blast these guys back to whatever dark hole they crawled out of! These Organization connardes need to learn that we're not letting them attack our home, not without giving up a few limbs and vital body parts! And Remy says they've screwed around with us long enough!"

"Yeah, get off our planet before we make ya'!" growled Beast Boy, trying his best to be intimidating.

"Not likely! Everyone, put your hands in the air! You're all under arrest by order of the federal government for conspiracy and acts of terrorism against the United States!" Agent Keyes yelled over his megaphone, and the X-Men, Misfits, Joes, and their allies suddenly realized, breaking out of their reverie, that the remaining faction of the federal agents were surrounding all of them. Both the Organization and the heroes, not taking a care to discriminate the infamous defenders from the twelve hooded figures alongside Blackheart. Apparently, even after witnessing the witches, the Slayers, the mutants, and the soldiers of G.I. Joe fighting against Blackheart and saving the entire city of San Francisco, Keyes was being incredibly stubborn and pompously short-sighted.

"He can't be serious! How dumb is this agent?" Hawk exclaimed in anger before yelling, "Stand down, Agent Keyes! As a general of G.I. Joe, I outrank you!"

"I said, hands up, including you and your Joes, General Hawk! And the Department of Homeland Security does not take orders from mutie and terrorist sympathizers!" Keyes returned evenly. Apparently, he wasn't giving in.

"Are you nuts?" the Slayer Kennedy yelled loudly and furiously at Agent Keyes, "We're the good guys! And you're trying to arrest the Justice League and the Teen Titans, of all people? Are you clueless or just completely stupid?"

"I said, hands up, you freaks! All of you!" Agent Keyes yelled as the two groups of government agents, armed with sniper rifles and high-caliber pistols with laser-beam sightings, aimed their weapons at everyone gathered. Rona gulped as she whispered to Piper.

"Uh…your spell to protect all of us from the bullets is still working, right, Piper? As strong as we are, Slayers aren't bulletproof."

"I think so, but it won't protect the Organization, if anything," the brunette replied uneasily. However, it was apparent that the Thirteenth Order was not the least bit worried about bullets as Marluxia nodded significantly to the clone of Supergirl.

"Galatea, you may proceed," Marluxia said stoically.

"NO!" yelled Superman as he, the Flash, and Quicksilver dashed forward, hoping they could stop Power Girl from acting out, but with a flash of light, the three heroes were sent flying back, screaming and landing in a crumpled heap. Marluxia just smiled as his flower scythe rested serenely in his hands; it was he who blasted the three heroes back from interfering.

"Superman!" gasped Vi as she, Rona, Andrew, Blob, and Colossus helped them up.

"You clorbag cellkarnip!" Starfire yelled, flying up in the air with her hands glowing in emerald fire. But it was too late for them to do anything. Galatea's eyes glowed black before she sent two stream of black flames with her vision, and within seconds, both groups of federal agents were immersed in cosmic heat.

"No!" screamed Sheridan and Agent Keyes together as they watched the brave men and women perish instantly. Scarlet Witch and Green Lantern tried to use their powers to suppress the fire vision, but to their dismay and horror, the fires simply passed by, unaffected by the shields John placed to block the black energy or the hexes Wanda cast to have them miss their targets. Willow then tried to use her magic, yet it too was useless and futile. Nothing could stop Tea's power.

"By Hera!" gasped Wonder Woman, her eyes horrified at the sight of the singed and charred corpses, the air heavy with the sickening smell of pork.

"Goddess…" Storm whispered to herself, feeling incredibly nauseous and not sure if she could ever forget the piercing screams she had just heard cut off so violently short.

"Mein Gott! Heaven help them!" murmured Nightcrawler in sorrow, making the cross over his head and shoulders.

"What happened? Why couldn't you stop it? You guys did before!" Faith yelled hoarsely.

"We couldn't! Not this time! We tried, but none of us could block Tea's flame vision!" Wanda gasped, helpless and cold.

"Of course you can't," Marluxia scoffed, as if shocked that the heroes did not even comprehend the fact, "She harnesses the power of the Phoenix Force, a might and strength that far surpasses what any of you deluded fools could ever harness. And thanks to the powers of the Nexus flowing through her due to Blackheart's contribution, she is far more powerful than before when you had just previously fought her in battle."

Jean turned to Leomon before she screamed at him, "What didn't you stop him? You could have fought him! You just stood there and let them die!"

Leomon then looked truly regretful as he said hoarsely, "Jean…I could not help them. I cannot fight everyone."

"How could you?" Daria screamed in outrage at Marluxia and Tea. The Slayers and the Scoobies just remained silent and grim; they were no strangers to death, and they knew immediately that this would not be the last of the bloodbath to come from this new threat. Within seconds, the black fire disappeared, and all that was left of Keyes' men and women were charred cadavers, the flesh pungent and glistening with oil and ashes, stiff already with rigor mortis. It was too late.

Keyes was red in the face as he swore murderously, "I'll see to it that you and all freaks present pay for that, you son of a bitch!"

Marluxia regarded Keyes coolly as he said, "I daresay you have larger things to worry about, Agent. Everyone…let us leave. There is no longer any need for us to be here among these riffraff…"

As much as more than a select few of the united freedom fighters wanted to attack the Organization right now, they thought better of it. If Leomon himself was wary of them…

Galatea smiled as she folded the wings of darkness around her before she teleported away, and Blackheart did the same, summoning a rune underneath his kneeling position before the energy consumed him, and his disappeared. With that, ten of the twelve members left, teleporting and vanishing in this air via portals of wispy darkness, but one lone robed figure lingered alongside Marluxia, and this did not escape anyone's attention. The remaining member of the Thirteenth Order just stared at the assemblage of heroes, but Batman, Wavedancer, Leomon, Professor Xavier, Giles, and Blind Master were all able to sense some sort of…remorse?

Marluxia seemed a bit angry at his own comrade for not following his orders immediately.

"Do you wish to anger the Superior?" Marluxia growled, and the lone figure just silently turned to Marluxia with a pleading and defeated demeanor before he or she lowered his or her head in submission and vanished. Marluxia turned around, his back to the glaring and resentfully helpless crowd, about to disappear along with his fellow allies.

Suddenly, the spokesperson for the Organization stopped, as if remembering something at the last minute.

"Oh, and heroes…" Marluxia said, turning to the Justice League, the Titans, the Joes, the Slayers, the Scoobies, the Charmed Ones, the Misfits, the X-Men, and Leomon, pausing for dramatic effect before he said his final chilling words.

"A message from our Superior: it is coming."

And with that, Marluxia disappeared in an orb of dark aura.

Phoebe Halliwell let out a short gasp as she covered her mouth with her hands numbly, and General Hawk and Batman's eyes widened. Willow's face turned pale, almost forgetting to breathe for a minute. All four of them remembered the premonitions about Experiment 666.

"No…" whispered Leomon, absolutely horrified, as he sank to all fours, his hands now on the ground at a loss. The swordsman was trembling and truly broken. Raven, Lance, and several of the others nearby were taken aback at the lion's sudden grief.

"Leomon, what…what did he mean?" Shannon asked worriedly. The Digimon looked up at the place where the Thirteenth Order had just vanished, his eyes glassy, but General Hawk spoke next for the furry soldier, guessing the truth immediately.

"He was referring to the Gathering of Twilight. We failed. We can't stop it now. The Gathering of Twilight is going to come to Earth," Hawk said in an emotionless voice. He knew this was to be true.

"And they have the Nexus as well, so now life on Earth is going to be a future hell," Roadblock said, dismayed and his face dark with worry and regret.

Xander looked at the G.I. Joe general quizzically.

"Uh…okay, is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Xander asked.

"What the bloody hell do you think, Xander?" snapped Giles bitingly, already annoyed and irritated.

"But maybe we can still fight this gathering to come, General of Hawk? Perhaps there is still much cause for hope that we can win and have much-appreciated victory," Starfire said with optimism as she looked at the Joes' leader.

"I don't think that's going to be definite, Starfire, especially now this entire fracas and the Organization has been witnessed and is probably being shown throughout the entire world as we speak," Wood grimaced as he nodded his head to the massive mob of spectators, witnesses and reporters on both ends of the barricaded ends of the street, being halted by the presence of the Joes General Hawk sent. Leomon's face turned grim as he sheathed his sword, stood up, and turned to Piper, Phoebe, Paige, Sandra, and Leo (still holding Wyatt and Chris).

"No magic in the world can fix this. I am sorry…" he said solemnly.

And with a mighty leap, to the awe and shocked anger of the crowd, the Digimon ascended high into the air and disappeared into a dimensional rift in space and time that he summoned out of nowhere before he vanished.

"Hey, he just left!" Cover Girl shouted, realizing that their temporary ally just took off.

"Frickin' frackin'…!" Wolverine growled before he let loose a stream of unintelligible curses under his breath and then exploded, "That yellow-furred coward just turned tail and run! He's not going to stay and help us deal with this!"

"It is not his job, Logan," Ororo said wearily.

"But either way, Leomon's right," Paige said with numb fear as the reporters and photographers started taking photographs and filming through their news-cameras, "We lost this battle, and in more ways than one…"

Author's Notes: The attack "Earthquake Tsunami" was actually created by Red Witch and used in the story "Evolution XMJ", so thank you for allowing me to write about it, RW! And next Friday, we learn of the consequences and aftermath of the battle as the Charmed Ones and Slayers finally deal with the repercussions of the exposure of the supernatural while Piper and Hawk finally duke it out with Agent Keyes and Inspector Sheridan. And this time, Piper will make some long-awaited apologies…until next Friday, see you soon! And excuse any spelling mistakes I might have missed!