Author's Note – I do not own any of the characters, Marvel and DC do.

.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Outbreak Of War

.

"Mein Herr, satellite imagery indicates that we are soon to come under attack." The Red Skull said as he stepped up to beside Apocalypse. "I have already ordered the defensive systems to be readied."

"Attack? By whom?" Apocalypse mused, his gaze remaining fixed on the view beyond the bridge viewport and Red Skull tapped a control on his belt, causing an image of the area as seen from above to appear on one of the smart-panes, an image overlaid with vector-lines.

"The attackers are disorganised, but they are moving on three axis." He explained. "The first group is moving to intercept us directly while the other two are moving in to strike us from behind."

"Then split our forces and let My new Chariots prove their worth." Apocalypse commanded.

"Wie sie befehlen, Mein Herr!"

Apocalypse nodded, then frowned slightly.

"They cannot hope to stop me… yet they try nonetheless. But what do they hope to achieve?"

Apocalypse stood motionless for a moment, then he gave a sharp nod of decision.

"I will send another message."

.

"I speak to the forces massing to oppose my ascension." Apocalypse declaimed from the screen. "You stand no chance against me. My army is vast while even before my Awakening, my powers were as far beyond those of mutants as mutants are beyond normal humans. Now I have power beyond even the one you call Superman. Surrender to my Will now and I shall grant you the honour of serving me."

"Arrogant bastard." Talon growled, his claws extending slightly as he gripped the flight-yoke.

"He does seem somewhat enamoured of his own prowess." Beast noted. "I wonder, though… he mentioned his awakening and an empire… how much progress has he missed, do you think?"

Talon blinked. "What?"

"He is splitting his forces to meet our attacks." Beast said, pointing to one of the secondary screens that had been re-purposed into a tactical display. "Had he accelerated instead, he could have met the first group with his full strength, then turned to attack the second, then the third, defeating them in detail. Instead, he divides his forces… I do not believe that he is fully cognizant of the realities of modern warfare."

"You mean…" Talon prompted and Beast nodded.

"I mean that while he may be a great warrior, he is no soldier. His tactics will be crude and predictable, something that we can use to our advantage."

Beast's fanged grin was matched by the feral one that settled on Talon's face.

.

"Message from Beast of the X-men, sir." The comm-tech called and Fury looked at her. "He says that we'll be up against primitive tactics, that Apocalypse doesn't understand advanced strategies."

Fury frowned. "Is he sure about… no. He wouldn't have sent that unless he was sure."

The bridge seemed almost silent, then Fury nodded. "Link me to Genosha."

A moment passed, then a holographic screen formed in front of Fury. "King Marko."

"Director Fury." Juggernaut replied politely. "How may I help SHIELD?"

"Are you aware of the new threat calling himself Apocalypse?"

Juggernaut nodded. "My analysts are getting very concerned about his plans. I assume that you want my help taking him down?"

"I'm calling in every favour I can afford and quite a few I can't." Fury admitted. "If you can…"

Juggernaut held up a hand, causing Fury to stop speaking.

"We are coming."

.

"Move! Move! Move!"

Armor staggered out of her room, yawning as she looked round.

"What's happening?"

"Kent-San has asked for our aid!" The Silver Samurai snapped and Armor jolted in shock before spinning round and darting back into her room with a cry of "Where's my uniform?"

.

"Dammit!" Stryker cursed as he slammed his phone down.

"Problem?" Trask asked and Stryker nodded with a scowl.

"The Palestine situation just heated up again, multiple attacks. The FMC would be a perfect counter to this lunatic who's stolen those flying boats, but I can't extract them since the situation's gone hot again. Renegade militia, my ass!"

Trask tilted his head slightly as he communed with Master Mold, then he blinked.

"Master Mold has sliced into their command systems. Your people are facing the elite units of each army, units that have been instructed to kill your soldiers and secure DNA samples for analysis and use as a basis for cloning."

Stryker blinked, then snatched up his phone. "Get me Sarge! The one in Palestine!"

.

"I don't like his claim of being stronger than me." Clark frowned.

"Clark, we both know that you have never shown your full strength." Xavier noted. "I doubt that he is a true match for you, although I would recommend seperating him from his supporters, just to be on the safe side."

Clark nodded, then he frowned in thought. "His claim… I wonder…"

Xavier waited silently, allowing Clark to work his way through whatever chain of logic he was following, then Clark poke.

"Sinister is known for being a genius with bio-manipulation, if I recall the SHIELD files correctly. What if he's infused Kryptonian QNA into Apocalypse?"

"That would be…"

"Bad." Clark finished, then he grinned. "However, it also means that he now has a weakness that we know about."

"Kryptonite." Xavier realised and Clark nodded.

"I think that this could be a mission for Logan."

"Logan?"

"Logan." Clark confirmed with a wry grin. "He always wanted to find a way to make his claws work against Kryptonians and I have an idea…"

.

Apocalypse blinked, then a snarl briefly flashed across his face. Tapping a control on his wrist, he lifted his arm as a voice emerged from his gauntlet.

"Master?"

"Mesmero, you are still guarding my old prison, are you not?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"Excellent." Apocalypse stated. "I wish you to perform a small task. Underneath the end of the altar that held me is a small panel. Behind it should be a row of crystals. I want you to swap the two first and last crystals so that none may use that altar against me."

"As you command, my Lord." Mesmero replied and the link went dead.

"Master, that order…" Sinister asked diffidently and Apocalypse shrugged.

"Now that I am awake, Mesmero is no longer required." Apocalypse shrugged. "I have little trust for those mortals who can twist the minds of others, especially when their power makes them immune to My control. At least he will remove that ever-cursed altar and the shield that protects its technology from Me and My marked Servants, meaning that I will never again be imprisoned in the sleep outside time. His sacrifice will be remembered."

Sinister nodded, hiding his frown with the ease of millenia of practice.

"As you say, My Lord."He murmured before retreating.

.

Mesmero sighed as he dropped the phone into his pocket. Looking round, he spotted a large snake nearby and stared at it for a long moment before picking up the thermos and taking a sip of its chilled contents.

As he relaxed, the snake slithered down the stairs and into the ancient underground fortress. Travelling down the center of the corridors, it made its way to the empty altar and slithered to one end of it. After several moments, it moved to the other end and wrapped its tail around a small handle. Pulling at the handle, it slid the recessed panel sideways to reveal the line of crystals, then it took the first one in its mouth and lifted it out of its setting.

Outside, Mesmero opened a packet of cookies, then he froze as the ground started to shake. An instant later, he was running away from the structure as fast as he could, diving for cover in a shallow depression as a blast of energy lanced out of the entrance and into the sky, scorching everything around it.

Pulling himself up, he stared at the crater that had been the once-concealed archway, then he growled and pulled out his phone and quickly typed a number into it.

"Quicksilver. You do not know me, but I have news for you. Your father is alive, but is being controlled by the one named Apocalypse. To save him, you need to peel off the device that forces him to serve... No, I'm speaking the truth, he is participating in Apocalypse's attempt to conquer America… Because Magneto's master tried to kill me and I want revenge."

Mesmero switched off the phone, then paused before extracting the battery. Throwing both parts into the crater, he turned and stalked off, heading towards civilisation once more.

.

Pietro Maximoff stared at the phone in his hands, his eyes blinking furiously, then he turned and dashed into the office building behind him.

"Chrome!"

"Yes, Quicksilver?" The man said, looking up from the paperwork piled on his desk

"I'm heading to America, I just received word that dad's alive!" Pietro said as quickly as he could while still allowing Chrome to understand his words. "I'm going to try and get him back, but it's time-critical!"

"Understood." Chrome nodded. "Good luck."

Pietro grinned, then he blurred away in a streak of blue and silver.

"Damn." Tekmage mused as the blur vanished over the horizon at a multiple of the speed of sound. "The enhancement really boosted him."

"Any idea why our powers were not increased by it?" Chrome asked and Tekmage nodded.

"He's still a teenager. We're adults."

"Then we shall ensure that the next generation gain access to it, that they may serve the cause better." Chrome declared as he turned his attention back to the papers and e-forms on his desk.

.

Sinister tapped at his phone, then walked up to his master.

"My Lord, it is done. Mesmero is no more."

"Excellent." Apocalypse gloated and Sinister stepped back as his master resumed his contemplations.

.

Fury stared at the large holo-screen floating just below the deck-head. On the screen, a trio of red icons pulsated as they moved away from each other, each one aiming for a different cloud of green dots.

"We have an incoming communication, sir." The comms operative said as she concentrated on her console. "Someone named Chrome."

"Put him on." Fury ordered.

"On, sir."

"This is Fury."

"Director Fury, I am Chrome of the Acolytes. We are incoming to aid in defeating the threat posed by Apocalypse. One of our own should already be there, I have asked him to make himself known to any agent of SHIELD that he can find."

Fury glanced at an updating list of metahuman assets and nodded.

"That would be Quicksilver, yes?"

"It would be, yes." Chrome replied. "We will be there in about fifteen minutes."

Fury glanced at a second screen and nodded. "We have you located and agree with your ETA. Out of interest, what sort of plane is that?"

"We managed to reverse-engineer some Kryptonian technology and TekMage combined it with Iron-Man's Repulsor-tech. While it isn't as fast as a Javelin, it is more than adequate for our purposes."

"Understood." Fury replied. "Do you have any news about what we are facing?"

"Yes." Chrome said. "Magneto is being controlled by Apocalypse's technology. Remove the technology and you can free him from Apocalypse's control."

Fury looked up as a new screen activated, this one highlighting the metal bands on four of those who had escorted Apocalypse on his theft of the three ships.

"Thank you." He finally said. "Fury out. Comm! Tell all the heroes that if they can pull off those metal bands, they should do so!"

"Right away, sir!"

"And someone work out a way to get those ships to ground level!" Fury barked. "As long as they're in the air, they can use all of their weapons! We need to get them grounded so that we can get them back!"

"I may have an idea." Tony Stark's voice said and Fury sighed in annoyance.

"Tony, we'll talk later about your hacking of the Helicarrier's systems… again. Now. What is this idea you have?"

"Well," Tony began, "I was worried about the repulsor technology escaping my control, so I created a way to force a shut-down of the repulsors. The devices initiate a plasma instability which propagates through the…"

"We don't have time for technical details!"

Tony sighed. "The repulsorlifts power down, lasting long enough to do a controlled landing. However, I only have two devices."

"Then we shall use them to take out his reserves." Fury decided. "We'll try to take those two intact if we can. As for the Principalitus, consider it collateral damage."

"I'm mounting the devices onto drones in order to get them into position." Tony said. "But I'll need the anti-air systems suppressed."