Author's Note – I do not own any of the characters, Marvel and DC do.
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Chapter Sixteen
Bridge
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It had not been a good day for Sharon Rice-Weber. After dealing with several irritating distant relatives (who weren't distant enough in her opinion) and sorting out a bequest left to her, she had had a long day.
Having her car break down half-way across the Golden Gate Bridge was just the icing on the cake, but it did put her into position to see a group of people dressed in unusual clothing start debarking from a coach that had pulled in barely a hundred yards in front of her. One of the oddly-dressed men walked up and paused, one hand just above the bonnet of her car.
"What are you doing?" Sharon asked, leaning out of the window.
"Your crankshaft's broken." The man said, earning a look. "I'm a mutant, I can detect anything technological and the engine feels like it has a broken crankshaft."
"Blast!" Sharon swore. "I need to get back to my husband, I left him trying to write at the Waters Edge Hotel near Corinthian Island. He… thinks he can make a career of it."
The man pulled out a small device and tapped at it for a moment before nodding. "It looks like we can get you to Kell Bay, from there you can easily get a taxi or something."
"Really?" Sharon said with a smile. "That would be great. Thanks."
"Well, stay put for a bit and we'll see about giving you a lift." The man smiled. "Now, if you'll pardon me…"
Sharon nodded, then frowned slightly as he left. The bridge seemed far quieter than normal, not a single vehicle had passed during their conversation.
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"Well?"
"Just a woman whose car broke down, no threat." Tekmage stated. "I told her that if she sat tight for now, we'd get her to Kell bay."
Magneto chuckled briefly at the misleading truth, then strode to stand in the exact middle of the bridge, looking round at the milling mutants.
"Stay away from the edges." He warned, then he closed his eyes in concentration. "It's almost ironic, my old friend always said that we needed to build bridges."
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"…and there seems to be a massive tailback at both ends of the bridge." The reporter in the helicopter said as the cameraman carefully zoomed in on the workmen setting up the barriers. "Although we have no official word as to what is going on, there seems to be a large number of people spread across the roadways near the middle, looks like at least three or four hundred… Oh my god! My god! The towers are shifting! You can see the cables flexing and shaking! What is going on?"
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Sharon stared up at the support towers in front of her. The red-painted steel towers seemed to be almost flexing with slow sine waves making their ways down the supporting cables. Reaching for the door release, she slowly stepped out of her car, staring in shock at the impossible gyrations of the structure.
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Scott Summers stared at the image on the television screen. Although the angle was very high, the cloaked shape of Magneto was unmistakable. A moment later, the camera jerkily panned to one end of the bridge where the roadbed was cracking and splintering.
"What is he doing?" Scott whispered.
"I have no idea." Alex replied quietly, then a gasp caused everyone in the common room to stare at Xavier.
"He is moving the bridge!" Charles realised. "X-Men! Generation-X! Suit up and deploy to Angel Island NOW! Magneto is after the Cure!"
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Sharon fell to one knee as the entire bridge lurched upwards, metal shrieking and groaning under the stresses imposed upon it. The horizon seemed to fall away as the bridge rose, water cascading away from the torn pilings while debris pockmarked the waves below. Her gaze tracked across to where a man dressed in red and purple stood with his hands extended.
Somehow, she knew, he was responsible for what was happening.
Whoever he was.
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Magneto gritted his teeth as he manipulated the magnetic fields levitating the Golden Gate bridge. Although he had indeed lifted heavier items before, the need to actively maintain the structural integrity of the bridge during transit lent a whole new level of complexity to the process.
Shifting his stance slightly, Magneto carefully analysed the interaction of his powers and the structure of the bridge, adjusting the shape of his projected field to begin moving the bridge north-east.
Soon, the threat to mutant-kind would be in his grasp, along with those who had created it.
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"Holy shit!" The guard whispered as he stared at the image on the screen in the mess hall. "What kind of power can do that?"
"If someone's moving the bridge and with the influx of mutants visiting… they're after Jimmy!" Another guard realised. "Thank god for the new guys and their beautiful robots!"
"Beautiful…?" The first guard echoed, half-turning to stare at his colleague. "You said they were creepy when they arrived yesterday."
"That was yesterday." The second guard shot back. "Come on, we need to armour up."
"We have an ID of the mutant lifting the bridge!" The captain of the guards shouted from the doorway. "It's Magneto, so everyone arm up with the non-magnetic kit!"
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The Blackbird erupted through the holographic projection covering the hangar bay, followed seconds later by the Javelin. Both craft turned in unison even as they arced upwards and settled on their new course, the Javelin moving ahead due to its unique propulsion system.
"Blackbird to Javelin." Logan growled. "Slim, you got the course laid in?"
"Course calculated and laid in, accelerating to Mach 4." Cyclops replied from the Javelin's cockpit. "Suggest control link-up now."
"Initiating link-up." Logan replied as he tapped a small code into the number-pad. A moment later, the display screens flickered into a new configuration as the Blackbird took position behind and slightly to the right of the Javelin, remaining perfectly in position as if connected by an invisible Adamantium beam. A brief shudder ran through the plane as it penetrated the sound barrier and Logan glanced behind him.
"Check your stuff, we're heading there fast!" He called.
"How fast?" Ray called back and Logan glanced at the airspeed indicator.
"We're already going at 2,000 kph and will soon he hitting twice that." He stated. "Damn, flyboy upgraded this plane good. It'll take under an hour to get there, hope we make it in time!"
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Stryker watched the television image.
"Impressive."
"Magneto is classified as a high-alpha bordering on low-omega class mutant." Trask supplied. "It is known that he levitated his asteroid base himself until the lift generators had been installed. Moving a bridge would require less effort, but a higher degree of precision."
"What are those specks?" Sryker asked as a half-dozen dots moved towards the flying structure. As if in response to his question, the camera zoomed in on one, revealing it to be a flying human who was shedding a flourescant jacket.
"I think we now know who ordered the workmen to close the bridge." Trask said with a wry smile, then his gaze blanked for a moment. "The Research Outpost's security forces have begun arming themselves. Ready to relay your orders."
"This is General Stryker, relaying through the Sentinels." Stryker said without hesitation. "Equip non-metallic kit only, mutant code-named Magneto is leading the attack. Deploy to primary line. There is a high chance of powered backup, so select targets carefully. Stryker out."
"Link closed." Trask said and Stryker frowned.
"The Sentinels… can they stand against Magneto?"
"His powerset has been analysed and counter-measures developed." Trask reassured him. "All Sentinels are equipped with a null-mag-field generator which will prevent him from using his abilities against them, although installing it has reduced the weapons loadout slightly."
"Excellent." Stryker purred as several screens around the control dais suddenly lit up, showing the relayed images from the Decanii leading the Sentinel forces. "Excellent."
"Master Mold calculates that it'll take him approximately fifteen more minutes to move the bridge and place it to cover the gap between Kell Bay and Angel Island, pus however long he needs to position the bridge securely." Trask relayed. "It will take them at least another five minutes to get their forces deployed enough to begin fighting and Master Mold's link to the air traffic systems indicates that in less than forty minutes, mutant reinforcements will arrive to protect the outpost."
Stryker glanced at him and Trask held out one hand, letting wireframe holograms of two planes form above his palm.
"The first plane is the Javelin, the second is tentatively identified as the craft used by the X-Men."
"So, as long as the troops can hold out for twenty minutes or so, we should still be able to continue producing the Cure." Stryker mused. "Alright. Are the Sentinels ready?"
"They have finished deploying." Trask confirmed, rising from his seat and offering a small radio. "I have been given a task to achieve, this radio will let you contact me."
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The entire city of San Francisco appeared to have abandoned their homes and flocked to see the flying bridge with its escorting aerial mutants. Thousands of camera flashes turned the crowds into a flickering see of light as the bridge passed almost overhead, seawater dripping from its pylons.
With majestic slowness, the bridge glided through the air, the only sounds from it being the occasional shriek of stressed metal, the sounds of concrete breaking and the twanging of the supporting cables as the load they supported shifted in ways that the designers had never foreseen.
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"Fuck! It's going to cost a fortune to replace it!"
The President sent a speaking glance at the advisor whose outburst had shattered the shocked silence of the Oval Office.
"That's not the main problem."
The advisor glanced away, unwilling to meet the President's eyes.
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Magneto grunted with concentration as he skewed the bridge round, settling it ready to descend, then a plasma blast struck one of the towers.
"Shit! Dad, there're Sentinels down there!" Pietro shouted as he zoomed back from the leading edge of the airborne bridge.
"Artillery to the railings!" Arclight yelled even as the first Sentinel rose up to the level of the bridge on its rocket-pack, guns ready to fire. Arclight smashed her hands together and a cone of energy slashed outwards, shredding the chest of the Sentinel and erupting out of its back. Bereft of propulsion, the sparking wreckage fell, only to be replaced by two more Sentinels.
Magneto ignored the sudden bombardment and lowered the bridge, reshaping the bases of the towers into sharp spikes to penetrate the seabed and hold it secure.
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The first Sentinel squadron is engaging." Trask announced and Styker nodded.
"They seem to have a very high proportion of ranged-attack types."
"And some pure power types." Trask noted as a dark-skinned woman punched through the leg of the Sentinel that had landed on the bridge. "Makes sense if this is their advance force. Ranged attacks to provide cover and power-types to smash through the outer defences as the reinforcements come up."
Stryker nodded in agreement even as the status screen noted the loss of a fourth Sentinel.
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"Can this thing go any faster?" Sunspot fretted and Logan snarled at him.
"We're almost at Mach 6 as it is, so unless you think you can fly that fast…"
"No, no, it's okay." Roberto hastily backtracked. "What's the plan when we get there?"
"We'll be flyin' over Angel Island and looping round to shed speed." Logan shrugged. "All flying types will deploy as we do so and cover the rest of us." We don't know what the Sentinels will do, so try to keep away from them if you can. Hate to say this, but if only Squirrel Girl was there…"
Roberto froze. "Logan, why don't we have a Door in the plane?"
Logan blinked, then facepalmed. "Argh! If we'd put one in the Javelin, it could have rushed to the island and we could have simply stepped through from the Hall of Doors!"
"I caught that and agree." Cyclops said through the comm. "We'll install one as soon as we get a couple of new Doors."
"Better just do it for the Blackbird, slim." Logan sighed. "There's a range limit and the Javelin goes FTL, remember? We'll just have the Door Pod stored near it. Good thought though."
"Yeah." Roberto sighed. "If only I'd had it sooner."
"You did have it." Cyclops said. "That's what's important."
"Hey, is Peter over there?"
"No." Cyclops sighed. "I thought you had heard, he went with Clark on that mission of theirs."
"Oh." Roberto sighed. "Damn, would be good to have had him along."
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"My Seneschal, I would have the one who can lift that bridge as one of my Horsemen."
"Magneto, my Lord?" Sinister asked and Apocalypse nodded even as his gaze remained fixed on the descending bridge. "I will begin planning ways to… secure him."
"Good." Apocalypse said, then he frowned slightly. "Those steel golems could be a problem if they exist in large enough numbers."
"I have a source in Operation: Zero Tolerance." Sinister commented. "I have had him slightly change the programming of the Sentinels, giving you an over-ride in order to command their obedience."
Apocalypse's lips moved in a smirk as he watched the bridge finish settling.
"Excellent, my Seneschal. Excellent."
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Authors Afternote: My profound thanks to Sharon Weber, the wonderful wife of the famed Sci-Fi author David Weber, who has graciously allowed me to place her in this story as a cameo character.
And if you haven't read any of David Weber's books yet, try downloading his first two Honorverse novels On Basilisk Station and The Honor Of The Queen from Amazon. Go on, it's not like you need little things like sleep… (grin)