Author's Note – I do not own any of the characters, Marvel and DC do.
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Chapter Twenty
War
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Quill roared as he led the new charge against the defenders, almost every inch of his body covered with short spikes, then he found himself falling to the ground after impacting with something solid. Shaking his head in an attempt to recover, he looked up and his eyes widened as he saw the metallic figure he'd run into pick up and throw another struggling mutant with casual ease. A moment later, he became aware of a cloaked figure standing just behind him.
"Colossus." Magneto said almost politely.
"Magneto." The metal behemoth replied, resting one hand on his belt.
"How is Illyana doing? I have stockpiled more medicine for her."
"She cured and happy." Colossus replied, earning a surprised look. "Superman cure her, now she live at Institute. Many friends, good food, good learning."
"Ah, I had wondered." Magneto nodded. "That would explain it. However, I cannot have you blocking my path and since it seems that you are unlikely to rejoin me… goodbye, Colossus."
Magneto thrust out his hand, then frowned as nothing happened. After trying again, he looked at his hand as if it had betrayed him.
"…how?"
Colossus grinned and then lunged forwards, grabbing Magneto. "Your last plan almost kill Illyana. Not take chance. Goodbye, Magneto."
Magneto yelped as Colossus spun, building up momentum, then he threw Magneto towards the bridge before turning his gaze to Quill.
"Oh hell." Quill whimpered, scrambling backwards as the metallic behemoth grinned.
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Angel smirked as his fifth target plummeted, crashing onto a group of mutants trying to sneak round to hit his friends from behind. Looking round, his gaze settled on a flying blond clad in a long-sleeved white swimsuit and a red cape. Ascending rapidly, he folded his wings and swooped down, his taser-gauntleted fists out-thrust.
His target heard him coming and spun round, grabbing his arms. Angel's eyes widened as the energy discharged itself, leaving nothing more than minor scorch marks across her upper torso, burns that didn't mar her skin in the slightest .
"What the…?"
The woman smirked, then in a blur of motion she shifted her grip. Angel screamed in agony as he felt the bones in his wings shatter, then he blacked out from the pain as she spun and released him to arc over the bridge.
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Apocalypse watched the image on the screen then nodded.
"Come with me, My Seneschal. Let us collect the first of My Horsemen."
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Storm spun just in time to see Angel's limp form vanish into the distance. Clenching her fists, she summoned as much of her power as she could even as a red blast splashed harmlessly off the woman who had taken down her winged friend. Above her, the already-dark clouds seemed to turn almost pitch black, lit by near-constant flashes from within, then everything turned white as she shouted two words.
"Lightning barrage!"
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Magneto stabilised himself above the bridge just as a column of lightning wider than he was tall slashed down, carving a new cliff in the process and sending a barrage of stones and debris arcing into his army. Blinking furiously to clear his vision, he sighed as he saw a familiar figure crash into the ground, her outfit and hair almost entirely burnt away by the unnatural force of nature.
A second lightning bolt, this one more normal, slashed towards him and Magneto quickly used his powers to redirect it, sending it to hit the ocean.
"How did Colossus resist my power?" He mused angrily, even as he plucked the empty coaches from the ground beneath him, ripping them into shards and blades of metal that orbited him. "I could sense him, then suddenly I… couldn't. Damn! More of that cursed Kryptonian technology, no doubt. Well, I may have lost my most powerful weapon, but I can still win the-graack!"
Magneto dropped to the ground, the metal shards plummeting around him as a stabbing pain in the back of his leg disrupted his concentration, then he felt his powers fading rapidly. Weighed down by his metal-infused costume, he lay helpless, only able to roll his head to see a woman approaching, a familiar-looking rifle cradled in her arms as she picked her way across the debris scattered across the roadway.
"You… you…"
"Yes." Sharon Rice-Weber nodded as she stood above him. "Me."
"You… shot… me… took… my… powers…"
"Is that what this gun does?" Sharon asked, looking at the rifle in her hands. "Huh. Fancy that. Thought it was just a fancy tranq rifle."
Magneto tried to rise, but between his previous exertions and the shock of losing his powers, he could barely remain conscious.
"You know," Sharon noted as she checked the magazine with an efficiency only seen on those with proper training and experience with firearms, "You really shouldn't have forgotten that just because someone doesn't have powers, it doesn't make them powerless."
Magneto closed his eyes and let himself fall into blackness.
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Sinister leaned over the side of the boat. Grabbing a handful of the uniform, he leaned back and pulled Warren aboard, wincing slightly as he looked at the blood leaking from between the feathers.
"Well, you'll take a while to fix." He mused, then he looked round as Apocalypse landed on the deck behind him, a burned body in his arms.
"Excellent. We have my first two Horsemen. Let us return, my Seneschal."
Sinister nodded and quickly moved to the controls as Apocalypse placed his burden down next to Angel.
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Quill ran for his life, the metallic behemoth who was completely immune to his power close behind, but hampered by the crowd. Where Quill darted through a small gap, Colossus instead bulled his way through, sacrificing speed as he hurled away the people who had suffered the misfortune of being in his path.
Diving between the legs of an eight-foot tall musclebound mutant, Quill rolled just in time to see Colossus come to a halt, staring at his new adversary.
"Hey, shiny." The taller mutant growled and Colossus frowned.
"Shiny? No, am Colossus."
"Ha!" The giant laughed. "I'm Smackdown, and that's what I'm gonna do to you!"
Quill scrambled away from the duo as they squared off against each other.
Things weren't going well, he needed to find Magneto. He'd know what to do.
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"Come on!" The lead mutant shouted as he led his four allied into the building through a side door that the outnumbered defenders hadn't managed to block. "Let's find this damn so-called Cure and…"
"And what?"
The five mutants stopped as an armoured figure appeared in front of them, a small vial vanishing into a storage container on its belt. For a long moment, the five simply stared at the person in the green-clad armour, then the leader spoke.
"Who the fuck are you? What are you doing here?"
The helmet of the armoured figure seemed to fragment and then retract as he answered. "My name is Bolivar Trask, but you can call me Sentinel Alpha. As for what I'm doing here…"
The armour plates on Trask's arms suddenly seemed to warp and stretch, turning into dual guns with their barrels stretching over the backs of his hands. At the same time, his pauldrons rose slightly upwards, revealing micro-missile launchers.
"I'm here to put an end to you, mutie scum." Trask smirked, then his cannons seemed to erupt with lethal energy.
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Scott stumbled as the building seemed to shudder under him and the side wall almost exploded outwards. A moment later, a green-armoured figure strode out through the wreckage and took a guarding pose.
"Who the hell is that?" He mused quietly, then he shrugged and turned back to the fight, launching a blast at the a distant group of mutants.
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"Whooh!" Lance yelled in joy. "The other seismic-type is down, now let's have some fun!"
Standing, Lance extended his hands, spreading his fingers, then he took a step forwards, slamming his foot down and sending a dozen lines of temors into the mass before him, directing them to curl around the defenders. The first attack toppled over half the attackers and Lance took another step, targeting those opponants still on their feet.
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Quill scrambled onto the bridge and started to run down it before pulling up sharply. Some distance away, a dozen soldiers were tying up Magneto while a rifle-holding civilian female watched. What was of more importance, though, was the slowly-advancing line of tanks, APC's and army trucks fully loaded with infantry, all armed with the anti-power guns.
And behind them were a dozen or more Sentinels, silhouetted against the growing lights of the city.
"…fuck." He said quietly, raising his hands in surrender as a squad of soldiers ran towards him.
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Sharon watched from a distance as Magneto was bundled into the back of a military ambulance, then frowned as the soldiers saluted a man in a cloak who climbed into the drivers seat. As the ambulance drove off, she jogged over to the soldiers.
"Who was that cloaked man?"
"Cloaked man?" One of the soldiers asked and Sharon indicated the ambulance that was vanishing towards the end of the bridge.
"The cloaked man who drove off with Magneto."
The soldiers looked at each other, then one of them swore. "Fuck! What skin colour did he have?"
"White." "Black." "White." "White." "Black."
Sharon stared after the now-vanished ambulance. "Could it have been another mutant?"
"Dammit! We are so fired." The NCO in charge of the soldiers sighed.
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Mesmero smirked as he pulled the ambulance into a parking space under a tree, next to a small van. Climbing out, he bowed to the looming man waiting for him.
"My Lord, your next Horseman is in the back."
"Then let us return to the mansion with him before he is missed."
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"All right everyone, stand down." Logan ordered as the former attackers began raising their hands in surrender to the swarm of armed soldiers. The few that tried to resist quickly discovered that the soldiers were also armed with the guns that removed the capabilities of mutants.
"Sir? Are you Wolverine of the X-Men?"
"I am." Logan growled as he finished wiping his claws and retracted them. "We also deployed with Generation-X and the Brotherhood, there are probably a couple of them in that mess. Keep an eye out for anyone dressed in a dark bodysuit with… Avalanche, Iceman, get over here!"
The two teens scurried over and Logan pointed to Bobby's shoulder. "Anyone with that logo is part of Generation-X, think training cadre for the X-Men. The Brotherhood have their own logo now, the three overlapping shields and a motto. There should be three more in that mess. Toad, Blob and Scarlet Witch. Oh, and if anyone sees Sabertooth, the coward's mine!"
The soldier nodded, then stepped back and started talking into the boom microphone attached to his helmet.
"I have to ask." Bobby half-whispered to Lance. "Just what does that motto mean anyway?"
"Never start a fight," Lance smirked, "But always finish it."
"Cool. Wish we had a motto like that."
Lance turned as a set of repulsors roared into life and watched a green-armoured figure flying off.
"Huh, wonder who that was. So, you interested in this cure?"
"Oh, hell no." Bobby replied at once. "Give up my cool powers? No way."
"Would have been a lot easier if Clark had been here." Lance admitted. "You know that he tried to recruit me for the X-Men? Same time as he recruited Kitty."
"Whoah, I didn't know that." Bobby gasped and Lance smiled.
"It was back when I'd just activated my powers…"
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"My Seneschal… what is that rock?"
Sinister held the glowing green jewel up, examining it closely, before he smirked.
"This, my Lord, is Kryptonite, the jewel that hurts Kryptonians merely by its presence. It would seem that Eric was even more prepared than I thought, carrying this around with him. My Lord, do you feel any… ill-effects from this?"
Apocalypse closed his eyes for a moment, then he reached out and plucked the Kryptonite from Sinister's hands.
"I feel… a slight itching sensation, but nothing more than that."
"The you have another weapon against the Kryptonians, my Lord." Sinister stated as Apocalypse placed the glowing mineral into a small pouch on his belt. "You have all their powers and now, you have the ability to force them to submit to your will."
Apocalypse smirked, then walked over to where Galatea, Angel and Magneto were secured to stretchers with anaesthetic masks on their faces.
"It is time to depart."
"It will take a great deal of effort to repair his wings, my Lord." Sinister noted and Apocalypse shook his head.
"Remove them. My Horseman shall have wings of Mithril. I shall empower him personally that he shall become worthy."
"Vibranium and Adamantium fused…" Sinister whispered. "The protection that they will bestow… He shall be the greatest of your Heralds…"
"The one known as Angel shall die, and in his place will rise… the Archangel!"
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Authors Afternote: Dun dun duuuun!
And once again, my thanks to Sharon for allowing me to give her a cameo.