Chapter 64

Invasion!

Disclaimer: As mentioned earlier, I am ignoring Time Travel this time around for this fic so the whole take over arc is no longer included.

It was just another night for many in California, especially those that lived along the Coast Line and an hour and a half until the Sun began to rise. But then attacks began to happen from the air starting from the State line that divided Oregon and California and until hitting the city of Ferndale and some of the surrounding areas before flying off and changing a great deal of Californian lives in the process. Both Human and Mutant. And thanks to the fact the attack had been done during the cover of darkness, no one really had a clue who had been behind it. Those like the FOH immediately started to blame Mutants for the attacks as they reasoned who else could it possibly be? And with Emergency Services, the National Guard, the Police, and some of the Military focusing all their attention all along the Coast Line with few Police Officers remaining behind to keep an eye on things, had left a number of other areas open for all manner of things to start happening thanks to all kinds of Crooks taking advantage of the situation once they realized the opportunity they'd been given. It wasn't long before a good portion of Northern California starting near Oregon was turning into a chaotic Nightmare for many a resident and seeing the West Coast based Joes/Misfits teams and as well as X-Factor being brought into help deal with the situation.

To further complicate matters, said situation was seeing that those in Prison were breaking out and even simply walking out in some cases. Leading to some to start suspecting that everything, starting from the bombings to now, was all being orchestrated by someone or someones. By One PM, Southern California was starting to come under fire and everyone would get their answer as to who was behind it when Cobra revealed themselves to be behind everything with quite a fair deal of assistance from solo Criminals, Organized Crime, and a shadowy organization or two through out the state that hadn't been brought down by the West Coast Joes just yet. The Cobra High Command was even in attendance for it all in a HeliCarrier of their own design that was nearing Burbank's airspace just as the original Joe/Misfits team arrived to start fighting. There were even members of the FOH getting involved in the fight as while they may hate Mutants, they hated Cobra even more thanks to their Terrorist actions. SHIELD and the Avengers were unfortunately dealing with a problematic situation courtesy of AIM and thusly, weren't able to help.

It should also be noted that gangs like the Bloods, the Crips, the Warlords, and a few other Gangs were fighting back against Cobra as well since California is their home and didn't like the idea of someone else wanting to invade their respective territory. Hawk, having no desire to see the High Snakes escape once again when this whole mess was over with, ordered a massive airstrike against the Cobra HeliCarrier. One that proved to be a success and thanks to the massive attack, would ensure that any attempts to escape weren't possible much to the massive horror and anger of Cobra High Command and anyone else who wasn't a Synthoid. "Manifold! Think you can keep that thing from crashing into Burbank!?" Hawk asked through the Joe Comm as he saw the eyesore starting to descend from the sky.

"I can but try, Sir! I can but try!"

Now considering the chaos going on, doing what Hawk wanted was difficult as Manifold had to not only defend himself from attack but concentrate on a portal big enough to swallow up the HeliCarrier and put it elsewhere like out in the Ocean. Thankfully he had a few Greenshirts, several Bloods, Firestar, and Shooter helping keep attacks away from him so he didn't need to worry about his own defense as much. "Alright, let's do this!" Shouted the young man as he threw out his hands and with a yell, opened a portal in front of the flaming HeliCarrier.

Grunting and even starting to sweat, Manifold pointed a hand towards the direction of the Ocean and another portal would open in the air with the Helicarrier already starting to come out of it as it continued to explode in various sections. Once it was through, a heavily sweating Manifold closed the portals and collapsed to his knees as the flaming Helicarrier descended safely into the Ocean. "You alright, bro!?" Shane asked as he hurriedly came over to him as Firestar continued to fight.

"Oh… Yeah… Just never did… Something… Something like that." Panted out the Teleporter.

Not even when he had done the portals for the Battle of Northbrook had he felt this exhausted! "You want to head back to Base to recover or stick around?"

Manifold shook his head. "I'll stay, even as exhausted as I am I'm not leaving any of you behind."

"Then I'll watch your back til you recover." Shane told him and gained a grateful nod from his fellow Misfit.

"Sure, leave all the real work to the women!" Called out Firestar teasingly and making the two roll their eyes with a chuckle.

As the Cobra High Command went down in flames, Toad had found himself ending up somewhere in Cypress Grove after being teleported there against his will and unable to teleport back to where he'd been previously. Leading to him encountering Major Bludd who all too happily took the credit for getting him there since he wanted a private one on one. Of course he wasn't going to make it easy for Toad as he took off in a nearby vehicle, forcing Toad to give chase after some quick hotwiring of another nearby vehicle. Y'know, its funny, I was under the impression that Bludd still had trouble walkin' and couldn't really operate some things because of it. Guess the Cobra Health Insurance must be pretty good.

Or was pretty good considering the Head Snakes had just went down in flames and all! The chase would take Toad around the docks of the Marina del Rey and from there would have to continue by way of a Jet Ski after Bludd had boarded a Boat and took off. "Guys! I'm on a Jet Ski chasin' after Bludd in the Marina del Rey area! If we could somehow get some eyes in the sky for this to help stop him, that'd be great, yo!" Reported Toad into his Joe Comm.

He barely paid any attention to what was said as he focused on catching up to Bludd and once he did just as they were passing the Beach, quickly hopped on board the Boat. He'd get punched in the face for his troubles and would find himself shocked to see Virus on the Boat afterwards. "What the!? Virus!? How'd you get here so fast!?"

Virus smirked at him. "Oh, that's easy, I made meself look like Bludd to get you here all alone."

Toad was understandably confused and even a bit on the wary side because of that and the smirk. "I even got the other West Coasters thinking I'm mending fences with my bastard old man after he supposedly reached out to me." Which… Actually was technically true but he wasn't gonna tell the damn Toad that!

"Kinda think this is the wrong time for a one on one between us, yo." Toad told him as he readied himself for anything.

A snarl came from the other Mutant. "NO! Its EXACTLY the right time! As I'm sick and tired of you keeping me and my Mermaid of the Sea apart when we are meant to be!"

Toad narrowed his eyes at those words, not liking them one bit. "I guess that talk Clara told us she had with you really didn't work out after all." Sighed the Amphibious Mutant with a shake of the head.

Sneering at him, Virus pressed a button and Toad found himself yelling out in pain as he fell to his knees thanks to a surge of Electricity going through him while Virus himself remained unaffected. Breathing heavily after the Electric attack ended, Toad tried to get up to his feet, only to find himself being stabbed in the gut with a knife. His eyes widened as he looked into the sneering face of Vincent James who then pulled out the knife and stabbed it through the Joe Comm on Toad's wrist. Earning another loud scream of pain in the process as the Comm device became useless thanks to the knife and all so that Toad couldn't reach out to the others or even teleport. "With you out of the picture you damned Froggy freak, Althea is MINE!"

"She'll… She'll never be yours!" Got out Toad as pain coursed through him.

Something Virus wasn't too happy to hear and shocked the Hell out of him again before forcing Toad off the Boat and into the water. Dusting off his hands in a pleased manner as he sighed happily, Virus spoke. "Now the girl of me dreams and I can finally be together."

And with that, used his Comm to teleport away from the boat to keep up the act of being with his old man. Not knowing that the remaining forces of Cobra were either in retreat or surrendering and likely wouldn't have cared even if he did. But even with the defeat of Cobra, chaos was still engulfing California and it would take some time before it finally calmed down. One individual however, was rather happy with the state of things. "Well, Cobra is officially done for good." Commented Frost in Hungary.

Volkoff nodded with a pleased smile on his lips. "That they are and now one less obstacle is around!" He said happily.

Sure, others would no doubt step into the void left by Cobra Command but they could be easily dealt with if the man felt they needed to be. And besides, he was certain that they wouldn't be anywhere near as useless and annoying as Cobra! It'd also take some time to find him but our Heroes were able to locate Todd despite the chaos all around them thanks to his last known whereabouts but they were unprepared for what they would find where he was concerned after getting him out of the water. "Todd!? Baby, wake up!" Pleaded an alarmed and fearful Althea as her eyes began to get watery.

And hers wasn't the only ones doing so either thanks to the grim nature of the situation. "TODD!"

Elsewhere With Magneto

While the State of California was in chaos thanks to a no longer functional Cobra Organization, chaos was also happening in the hidden base of Magneto as well. Chaos that began after Lorna had overheard some conversations and ended up finding out some hidden truths regarding her origins. Around this time also saw a Clone of her awakening earlier than intended and sparking a huge fight in the process and causing A LOT of damage as it went on. The fight had no clear winner thanks to Magneto getting involved and Lorna had hauled ass away from the area as she no longer wanted anything to do with what the man and his people were doing while the Clone had fled into the wilderness to avoid Magneto's wrath. The man himself was especially not happy over this development! "I'm afraid to inform you that this has set back our plans by several months, Sir." Informed Winters as various individuals worked to put out any fires.

Magneto hissed as he closed his eyes for a moment. "Damnit. This is not something we needed!"

"Agreed. I've already sent two teams to bring back Lorna and Z-A-1-A."

Magneto nodded his approval. "Good, a much needed conversation must be had with them." He declared darkly.

Author's Notes: Oh boy, this definitely isn't good! Virus has betrayed the teams, California is in chaos, and Toad's no better with a very uncertain future to boot.