Avenging Justice 2:

Caught Between an Ultron and a Doomsday

Part XXXIX

Earth, New York, West Chester, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters

Charles Xavier watched in a state of shock. It wasn't that what he saw was incomprehensible, what it represented was. Of the two main heavy hitters, the Avengers and Justice League, one was having the floor wiped with most of its members. The snarling creature was tearing into them with a ferocity and savagery that was reserved for the darkest of nightmares.

Behind him, his team, the X-Men watched in stunned silence as well. Logan was popping his claws out without thinking, a growl stuck in his throat. Scott was rubbing his temple, while Jean Grey held a hand up to stem any exclamation that might escape. Meanwhile their newest member, Rogue, stood off from the team. She was nervously moving back and forth.

Xavier could read her mind, and could feel the two echoes bouncing around in there. They were in agreement with Rogue, though her mind was more set to redemption. She wanted to help, do something to stop the travesty being broadcast to the world. This was something that he could approve of, and showed promise for her future.

"Scott, take the team and see what we can do to help the Justice League," Professor X said. "Assist them, but do not take any chances. If you can, clear the civilians out first. Be careful out there."

Scott nodded, "Will do, Professor. Come on team, let's get to the Blackbird."

"That big ugly thing is mine, just keep out of the way," Logan let out his pent up growl.

Professor X followed his team down elevator, to the subterranean complex that was their base of operations. He quickly went to Cerebro's room, with the others suited and Beast prepared the Blackbird. Above the basketball court slid open, allowing the jet vertical takeoff access to the sky above. Within moments the black jet streaked through the sky, heading towards destiny.

"Listen kid, you'll do fine," Wolverine said to Rogue. "You're nearly invulnerable, strong, and fast. Just keep your head, follow our lead and you'll do just fine."

She gave him a sweet smile, "It's monster that needs to worry." Her southern belle accent gave her an endearing quality, he had a good feeling about her.

Connected to Cerebro, Xavier traveled past his body, past his students flying towards danger. He searched for the being causing such destruction, and found it simply enough. Pure rage and hatred resonating like a constant air raid siren, echoing as the creature obliterated any living thing in its path. Like a tempest on the ocean, the waves of negativity pounded his psyche, and Xavier felt small in this mindscape.

Centering himself, Xavier pushed back against the waves battering him, and formed a calm barrier. The rage and hatred pounded against it, but his shield held. In this mindscape, he floated through the layers, looking for the id of this creature. From animals, to people, to aliens and more, there was always a sense of being. Not exactly a function of self-awareness always, but each creature had a sense of what it was.

He found nothing like this at all. What he did find was a primordial world, still in the process of becoming supportive of life. A blazing sun baked the ground to dust, while hurricane force winds battered him. Rain came down, but it sizzled on his shield, while early formed bacteria and small, sludge like creatures slithered about. Breaking through all of this was the inhuman wail of what only could be a child, but not a Human child.

Professor X went towards the sound, concerned and intrigued. The wail continued, faltered and started again, weaker this time. He sped up his pace, even as the winds pushed against him, and some of the burning rain made its way through his shield. The cry, though weaker than it was originally was, buffeted him as he got closer. Then it stopped.

Xavier felt his stomach drop, and a shape materialized. It was pod like, but obviously part of a larger complex. A door leading to the inside opened and a grey skinned humanoid retrieved a small form, and then disappeared. The door opened again, and this time, the form was placed again, and the wailing commenced again. This time Professor X could see tiny arms and legs flailing. Again, it fell silent, before coughing and screaming again.

Despite knowing this was a memory, Professor X went towards the being. His humanity not allowing him to see something like whatever was being tortured, in pain. Just as quickly he found himself thrown back, as the Doomsday creature leapt at him. Throwing out a hand, he smacked the creature away, off far into the distance. It was too late, as the small figure fell silent again.

Once more the door opened and the grey skinned figure retrieved it, with no emotion on its face. Just as quickly, the figure was returned and it started to scream once more, but there was something different. He floated over to see, and once again the Doomsday creature slammed into him. Frothing spittle and deafening roars battered Xavier, but as one of the most power telepaths, if not the most powerful, he pushed the creature away. Becoming bigger, he slammed his foot down on the thing. It wasn't an attack to destroy the creature, but to immobilize it. He needed to learn more, and had to figure out how the screaming little being was connected. It wasn't like the Doomsday creature was protecting the small form, just attacking him as he got close to it.

"Fool, such power," a menacing tone came from beside him. "I will make it mine, and then this world will know a true Onslaught."

Xavier felt himself shrunk down to the size of a mouse, while another form took over his previous stature. It was dressed in angular armor, looking almost like an amalgam of Magneto and Juggernaut. The massive being's armor was colored red and purpled, just like Magneto, while the domed head and massive size spoke of Juggernaut. There were curved, sharp edges on the pauldrons and wrist armor, as well as the shin and knee armor pieces. The eyes though, glowed a horrid, sickly yellow.

"I've been biding my time, watching you flail against the world, with your dream of peaceful coexistence," The massive being called out. "All that pain and suffering in the world, the hatred and disease, and you refuse to make them bow to you. With your power, you could have. At least your old friend took action, but he didn't nearly have enough vision. The world needs a reset, and with this being, I finally find someone worthy of my power."

Professor Xavier turned back to his regular size, and pushed back, "Who are you?"

In the realm of the mind, Xavier was used to being the master. Which is why when he was effortlessly swatted away, his shock was evident. Even worse, was the wracking pain that pulsed through his very core. It was only for a few moments before he pulled up a stronger shield, but they were a long few moments.

"Pitiful," the huge being turned and smashed its massive foot again on the Doomsday creature. "Bow beneath me or be destroyed!"

As if to answer this, the creature grabbed his foot, and incredibly tossed the huge being as if it were a ragdoll. Xavier watched in horror as Doomsday launched itself at the bigger being, and started to rip at the things armor. A deep howl erupted from the being, and it snatched Doomsday and slammed the creature into the sun baked ground. To add insult to injury, the bigger being smashed a boot straight onto Doomsday.

While they fought, Xavier made his way over to the screaming small being. Whatever they were, it was highly probable that answers could be found there. Time sped up as he moved closer, and what he saw sent his stomach to his knees. More than one icy pit nestled itself in his innards, as he saw the same small being, dying and being put back out, over and over again. Then it started to live longer, still dying, and being gathered up and sent back out again and again.

Finally, as he got within three feet of the smaller being, he noticed it was about the size of a Human teenager. That is where the comparison ended though. White bony protrusions jutted out of its skin, and it was heavily muscled. Gone were pleading eyes, and in their place were eyes filled with the same fury he'd seen in Doomsday. As the being turned to face him, it launched and tore at his shield. Xavier fought back, but still found himself being pounded into the sunbaked ground.

The creature coughed, and fell over and the door opened again. Xavier returned to his feet, and watched again as the grey being retrieved the other. This time when it was placed back outside, the form was unmistakably Doomsday, but the bony protrusions were not as pronounced. The grey being was closing the door, when its creation lunged and made its way past the door.

The next few moments were a cacophony of screams, growls and bone shivering sounds of bone and skin being rent from each other. Then more screams joined, as more being inside the lab were brought face to face with their creation. The moments stretched on for what felt like hours. Eventually the creature was locked in one of the pods, and it was launched off into space.

Xavier's blood didn't run cold, it literally froze in place. He turned towards where Doomsday and the other being were fighting. Now that his attention wasn't split, he recognized the other being. He'd been holding it at bay for a while now, beyond the consciousness of his mind. He recognized the darker thoughts, the ones he pushed down, replacing them with more noble thoughts. This thing was born of him, but he wasn't alone in its birth. Unmistakably he picked up on Erik's thoughts, his pain, latched onto by whatever this thing was. This Onslaught wasn't of him or Erik, but both. Almost as if a psychic parasite had taken portions from both of them.

"You are a mindless killing machine," the huge hulking form of Onslaught said. "You can not withstand my power. With a snap of my fingers, I can end you, so die already."

Onslaught snapped and the world warped, broke and ripped to shreds. The pieces of the mindscape swirled around in a tornado of chaos and violence. Pieces of the mindscape quickly surrounded Doomsday and started to overwhelm the creature. Onslaught let out a satisfied grunt, and Xavier could almost see the smirk beneath the oversized helmet. However, he knew something was wrong.

A gray fist with bony protrusions burst through, and tore the swirling fragments of the mindscape apart. Leaping up with a howl on its lips, Doomsday latched onto Onslaught and began ripping the armor away. The bigger being howled, and tried to rip the smaller monster off of him, but only succeeded on helping the creature out. A large chunk of armor came off with Doomsday, and the creature broke out of the grip easily.

It jumped again, and found the helmet of Onslaught and ripped it off, then began tearing into the larger being with much savagery. The oversized helm fell off, and Doomsday ripped something that had been underneath it. There was a howl, just as Doomsday began ripping at anything it could get its hands on. Piece by piece, Onslaught was thrown to the sunbaked ground, an unearthly and horrid death rattle signaled his end.

That left Xavier and Doomsday. Professor X was afraid to touch the pieces of the being that had been hiding in his subconscious. He didn't think there was anything left of this parasite, but he didn't want it back in his mind. However, now that he only had one target, the whole rage of Doomsday washed over Professor X. Just as quickly the creature lunged at him and he wisely retreated. He cut the connection and returned to his body.

Back in the Cerebro room, Professor X collapsed in his wheelchair. Sweat covered his whole body, and shaking came as the cool air caused him to break out in heavy shivering. He had to calm himself, it wouldn't due to contact his team in this state. He had to relay what he had learned, but wasn't sure how that was going to help them, or the other heroes. He just had to get his heart rate down, and his mind in the right state.

A few minutes later, he was ready, "My X-Men, the creature you are intercepting, it is a being of rage and hatred. It can't be reasoned with, it only knows destruction and destroying any living thing. It will not stop till nothing living remains on the world."

"Does it have any weaknesses, Professor?" Scott asked in his mind.

Xavier had to admit the truth, "I didn't see any. There doesn't seem to anything in its mind beyond destruction. This thing was created, and it destroyed its creator and several others."

"We'll be careful, Professor," Scott said back.

Breaking contact, Professor X sat in silence for several minutes. The images of the creature's creation burned into his mind. The world was a mystery, the world where it was created. It didn't seem like Earth, but with it in such a primordial state, it would be hard to say if it was or wasn't.

They gray skinned being that created Doomsday, that didn't look familiar either. He was sure it wasn't the Chitauri, but with one alien race out there, how many more were there? Thor was supposed to be an alien, but technically so was Superman. The hero known as Green Lantern, said there were many other races of aliens that made up the corps. Maybe they'd have a better idea.

Putting the Cerebro helmet back on, he found one of the Green Lanterns. He was in pain, a broken arm. He was fleeing the creature, Doomsday, a green sling holding his busted arm in place. Another Green Lantern was taking on the creature, but he saw that one being thrown through three buildings. He had to do this quickly.

"Green Lanter, I am Professor X," Xavier connected to the mind of the Green Lantern.

The response came back loud and clear, "You say that, like it should explain why I have a voice in my head. That thing must have hit me harder than I thought."

"No, I am a Mutant, and I think this threat is not of this world," Xavier said. "I connected to its mind and saw images of its birth."

A buzzing came through the connection, "Now I know I'm hallucinating. I've never come across an alien as powerful as this one." Then after a pause, "Well maybe Darkseid or Thanos, but I think they'd have trouble with this thing."

"Lantern, please keep your ring from trying to cut the connection," Xavier said, even as his head began to throb in deep pain. "I'm going to send you an image, can you check to see what alien species this is?"

The buzzing stopped and Xavier felt his head stop throbbing, "Alright, we'll try this, because the direct approach isn't working."

Moments ticked by, as the Green Lantern received the image and used his connection to the ring and the Guardian's database. There wasn't much, nothing on any current races that looked like that. That put both of them back at square one, but the image of the planet did bring up two potential hits. One was Delphi VIII, another was Tarantia III, and the last was Krypton.

Each planet went through a similar phase during their creation, but all of these were ancient, with the exception of Tarantia III. That one was still in that phase, but the other two had long evolved past that stage. Krypton though, was gone, destroyed when its own star exploded. None of these were going to give them what they wanted, but Green Lantern had the Lantern of Delphi VIII take a quick scan, just in case.

Hal Jordan watched as John Stewart continued to battle the creature, "Well, Voice in Head, sorry I couldn't be of more help."

"That is quite okay, my team will be arriving," Xavier instructed. "Together we can end this threat."

Hal looked worriedly as John Stewart was face planted into the street, "I sure hope so. We need a miracle."