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Horns were blaring at each other on the packed highway of the upper east side of 54th Street Manhattan that night. Drivers leaned out their windows, craning their necks to see ahead where two cars have collided. A cop stood between two drivers who looked ready to tear each other's throats out.
"Just calm down," the cop ordered. "We'll get all this reported, then we'll-"
"This dumb bastard should have been watching where he was going!" The first driver yelled.
"You shouldn't have been riding my ass!" The second driver screamed back.
A groaning then takes the air. The cop stares down the street as the drivers stop honking. They eyed on another, confused. Suddenly, several cars are levitated high into the air before crashing back down onto other parked cars. At the end of the street, Magneto led Mystique, Pyro, Toad, Sabretooth, Callisto, Arclight, Caliban, and Spyke with his hands outstretched. He magnetically parts the build up of cars, sending them crashing to either side of the road, slamming them into buildings. They kept walking until they reached a skyscraper that was thirty stories tall with twenty-six full floors.
The words 'Worthington Industries' was printed on the front of it. Magneto eyed the building for a moment before turning to Caliban.
"You're sure the boy is still inside?"
"Positive. He's in the southeast corner of the tenth floor."
"This is where it ends. Pyro?"
Pyro looked to him.
"Find the boy," Magneto ordered. "And kill him."
Pyro swallowed nervously before nodding and heading towards the building.
Magneto then looked to Mystique.
"Mystique, find and kill Dr. Rao."
"My pleasure."
She too began heading inside to find her target. Magneto then looked to the others.
"The rest of you, stay out here. I have a feeling we'll have company soon."
Several police cars then began speeding towards the Brotherhood and the Morlocks. Magneto scoffed as he raised his hand and sent them all flying backwards. Other police officers on foot began firing at them but Spyke took them out with sharp bone projectiles.
Worthington watched from the window down at the carnage below as Kavita came into the room and walked over to his side.
"They're coming after us."
Kavita looked to the sky and saw the X-Jet.
"What is that?"
The X-Jet then landed on the roof of a building opposite of Worthington Industries.
After a few moments, lightning suddenly lights up the sky as Storm flies down from the roof. Beast follows her, roaring and landing like a true animal. Iceman forms an ice slide under his feet and hangs onto Rogue's waist as together they go down it. Nightcrawler teleports himself down, Colossus in his metal form jumps off the roof. And finally, Wolverine descends a chute, using his claws to slow his descent.
Magneto glared at them as they lined up beside each other. He then whispered to himself;
"Traitors to their own cause."
By this time, Wolverine and Sabretooth had locked eyes on each other while Toad stared at Storm with pure hatred and revenge in mind. Beast looked from side to side at his teammates.
"I'll go find the boy," Beast spoke. "I just need a clear path to get in the building."
Wolverine nodded but before they could remotely plan, Magneto lifted up two cars and sent them straight at the X-Men.
Storm flu up in the air and blasted one away with lightning while Iceman froze the other mid-air. Arclight narrowed her eyes and came forward before clapping her hands together, knocking all the X-Men off their feet with a massive shockwave. Storm who was still mid-air was the only one who wasn't hit. She flu over The Brotherhood and unleashed a tidal-wave onto them all. The massive amount of water came down and engulfed them all, temporarily taking them out as the water carried them all away from the front of the building. Callisto's head struck the ground upon impact and while the others managed to stop themselves, the tidal wave dragged her away as the water rushed furiously down the street.
Beast quickly took this opportunity to charge forward, leaping and running on all fours before crashing through the front glass doors. Spinning around while looking widely, Beast spotted the large staircase that he began sprinting up in search of the boy.
A now drenched Magneto grinded his teeth while getting back up as he looked at the large metal mutant and held out his hand, freezing him in place. Colossus could do nothing as he levitated off the ground and then was sent flying backwards at a great speed.
BOOM!
He finally crashed miles away into an abandoned tanker truck that exploded on impact.
Wolverine's eyes filled with pure hatred as his claws came out from his knuckles. He ran toward Magneto while screaming with rage but Magneto simply outstretched a hand and Wolverine stopped and levitated from the ground.
"You really never learn, do you?"
Wolverine snarled.
"Against me, you're nothing!"
With a flick of the wrist, Magneto sent Wolverine flying yards away until he crashed landed in a construction site.
Meanwhile, a still mid-air Storm starting firing lightning bolts down upon Magneto. Toad looked up and glared at Storm before running and jumping up, leaping from rooftop to rooftop until tackling her to the ground. Toad kicked Storm in the face before punching her twice.
"Remember me?"
Toad then pulled out a chain from his jacket and wrapped it around Storm's throat and began strangling her with it. Storm began choking as she could no longer get air into her lungs-
BAMF!
Nightcrawler grabbed Toad and teleported him away from Storm. Twisting in mid-air after being dropped, Toad's tongue grabbed a light pole and as Nightcrawler came back at him he launched himself at the blue mutant, tackling him through the plate glass window of a strip bar. Toad kicked Nightcrawler through a table before leaping up and coming back down, dropping a knee onto his back.
"Looks like I've got some competition," Toad smirked.
Nightcrawler teleported then wrapped his legs around Toad's head. Throwing himself backwards, he launched Toad head-over-heels right against a striper's cage that stood on an elevated platform in the center of the bar. He landed hard but got right back up and threw a roundhouse kick to Nightcrawler's head which knocked him back down.
Toad tried to follow up but was hit with a punch before Nightcrawler teleported and nailed him with another punch to the other side of his face.
"Stay still!" Toad yelled in aggravation.
Nightcrawler teleported and punched him again.
"You first," Nightcrawler smirked.
Flinging out his tongue again, it wrapped around Nightcrawler's ankle and lifted him straight up. His chest collided with the ceiling before being thrown down again to the ground. Toad launched himself up in the air and was about to bring his knee down upon Nightcrawler again but he moved out of the way and came back to drop-kick Toad in the back.
BAMF!
He teleported himself again with Toad in his grasp, right into the cage, leaving him stuck inside. Upon realizing his predicament, Toad grabbed the bars and began violently shaking them.
"Hey! Get me the hell out of here!"
Nightcrawler looked at Toad while wiping some blood from his forehead.
"I'm sorry, but I wish to fight with you no more."
BAMF!
Up on the eighteenth floor, Worthington and Kavita walked briskly through the hall, looking for a way out. As they turned a corner, Wolverine appeared. Worthington and Kavita promptly turned the other way, but Wolverine yelled out;
"Wait, I'm here to help you!"
Worthington and Kavita stopped in their tracks before looking back at him
"Magneto came for you, but I can get you to safety."
Kavita approached the other man while Worthington followed, cautiously.
"Thank you," Kavita said, taking a breath of relief.
"You're the one who invented the cure, right?" Wolverine questioned.
"I am. What bearing that has on what's going on now is lost on me."
"Sure."
SNIKT!
Wolverine suddenly stabbed Kavita in the chest.
"No!" Worthington screamed.
Wolverine looked to Worthington and smirked as Mystique reverted back to herself and let Kavita's lifeless body hit the ground. Worthington turned to run but Mystique grabbed him and kicked the back of his right knee causing him to yell out in agony. Mystique grabbed the back of his suit and began dragging him along with her to the stairway.
Back at the construction site, the real Wolverine slowly pulled himself back up, staggering a bit when a roar echoed throughout the area and he was suddenly grabbed and tossed into heavy machinery. Spinning around, he saw Sabretooth standing before him, a sick smile on his face. Wolverine narrowed his eyes.
"You want me so bad, bub? Here I am."
Wolverine charged at Sabretooth, stabbing him once in the mid-section before Sabretooth nailed him with a opened hand that left four nasty scratch marks on his face. He rolled backwards and snarled while the marks began to heal.
"You don't remember me, do ya runt?" Sabretooth snarled.
"I course I remember you. Liberty Island, a year and a half ago. You still sore about that?"
"I mean from before."
Wolverine looked confused so Sabretooth went on.
"Well let me refresh your memory. We were partners, you and I. We worked together for Stryker, bringing in the worst kind of people we could find. But then you left, went AWOL. Silverfox and Deadpool wouldn't even hunt you down. Left it to Omega Red and I."
"Who the hell are you talking about?"
Wolverine then tried to hit him again but Sabretooth stabbed him in the upper right shoulder. Picking him up, Sabretooth began walking forward with him as Wolverine grimaced and struggled in his grip.
"We hunted you for years. Meanwhile you did as you pleased. Getting as much money as you could for every job you did. Finally you kidnapped a former Prime Minister's daughter. That's when we finally captured you, but not before you killed Omega Red. And then you accidently killed the daughter."
Sabretooth then tossed Wolverine forward and he landed hard on the ground. Slowly lifting his head up, Wolverine glared up at the larger mutant.
"You're lying, I would have never-"
"Keep telling yourself that," Sabretooth smirked. "Kidnapping a Prime Minister's daughter was actually one of the better things you did. You did things that would make most men's stomach turn. Murders, maiming, kidnapping, robberies, arson. You did it all, Wolverine. You were the worst of the worst."
"Shut the hell up!" Wolverine screamed.
Tackling the larger mutant to the ground, Wolverine began rapidly stabbing him in the chest. Right hand, left hand, one stab after the other as Sabretooth roared in pain. Finally he got a hand up and gouged Wolverine's eyes, causing him to fall off him. Sabretooth then got up and grabbed Wolverine by the throat, picked him up and choke-slammed him through a pile of wooden pallets.
Sabretooth looked down at Wolverine and spat as the other mutant struggled to recover.
"And Stryker did exactly what you wanted him to do. He wiped your memory clean and gave you a fresh start. He kept his part of the deal, you on the other hand, you know what you did."
Elsewhere in large building, Pyro walked through the halls of the tenth floor trying to find the room of the boy when several security members began running towards him. He scoffed and quickly launched a line of fire at them, taking them all out.
Leech was sitting on the bed when suddenly the locked doorknob started to rattle. He gasped and hides under the bed just as the door is blown off its hinges. Pyro looked around the room until he saw the boy hiding behind the bed.
"Get up," he demanded.
When he didn't listen he formed a fireball in his hands and walked closer but it extinguished. He looked at his hand in surprise for a moment before reaching down and pulling the boy up.
"Pyro?"
Pyro looked at the young boy, stunned to see him as he remembered him from his days at the school.
"Leech?"
"Are you an X-Man now?" Leech smiled. "Can you get me out of here?"
"A lot has changed since you've been away."
Pyro roughly took Leech's arm and dragged him out of the room and into the hallway. Again, the pyromaniac tried to form a fireball but still found that he couldn't.
"What the hell is happening?"
"Your powers won't work around me, remember?" Leech reminded him.
Before he could respond, someone spoke;
"John."
Pyro spun around to see Beast coming down the hall, slowly with his hands up. Leeches' eyes widened.
"Hey! I've seen you on T.V!"
"What do you want?" Pyro snapped.
"I can't let you run away with the boy, John," he responded, still being cautious. "Let's talk."
"I'm not going to run away. I'm going to walk. As long as I have this brat, you're not going to do anything."
"Do you really think this is the answer, son? To threaten the life of a innocent child, a mutant like yourself because you are angry and afraid?"
"And the Professor's plan is so perfect? Make nice with humans when they want to kill us all? You know what humans do when they find out their kid is a mutant. If mutants aren't safe from their own parents, then who the hell are they safe from?"
"Obviously not fellow mutants, as Jimmy can now attest to," Beast almost scoffed. "John, we're all flawed. The humans that you speak of are no more evil for doing what they do to mutants than Magneto is for trying to do the same thing to humans."
"The humans are the bad guys, not us."
"So you'll kill any one of them? And any mutant who potentially stands in your way? Man, woman, child...doesn't matter?" Beast questioned.
"I'm not going to...damn it, you're putting words in my mouth!" Pyro yelled in clear aggravation.
He inadvertently tightened his grip on the younger mutant's arm and a cry was then was heard as Leech tried to pull away from his captor. Beast looked down at Leech for a moment before meeting Pyro's eyes again.
"John, please just let Jimmy go. You know you don't want to hurt him."
Pyro looked down at Leech. Brown eyes met tear-filled yellow ones.
"Let me go?" He begged. "Please?"
The two continued to stare at each other with unblinking eyes. Then the older boy's façade finally cracked. He let go of Leech's arm who then ran to Beast's side. Pyro stared at his feet for a moment, looking a little unsure if he just made the right decision. He then met the stare of his former teacher.
"What are you doing, John?" Beast asked, wondering if maybe John was thinking about possibly coming back with them.
"Consider this my last favor for the X-Men."
Beast nodded. He would have liked for John to come with them too, but decided not to push his luck.
"I'm grateful."
He then took Leech by the hand and led him down the hall while Pyro watched them until they turned the corner and were out of sight. They ran to the elevator and Beast pressed the button to take them back down to the lobby. When the silver doors closed, Beast gasped when he saw himself staring at his normal face, his normal appearance. Beast looked down at his hand that was still grasped with Leeches' and saw that his hand was normal looking as well.
"Sorry," Leech apologized. "Most of the time I can't-"
"No, no it's alright," Beast assured.
With his other hand, which was still covered in blue fur, he touched his cheek as he smiled to himself. It had been so long since he had seen his normal face. But after a few more moments, he finally snapped out of his trance.
"Just stay by my side. I won't let anything happen to you."
"Will you take me back to Xavier's?" Leech asked.
Beast smiled.
"I will. I promise."