Guest - Uh, kind of. Let's just say the 90's Spider-Man Secret Wars arc is one of the inspirations I took to help make this story more grand!
TheAmazingWebWarrior: That's the plan! :D
Rezonan: Thanks, I'm just glad to be writing again.
GIZA, EGYPT
More chaos took place on this sandy night in the Egyptian deserts, all by the emergence of a mysterious large pyramid, one that was larger and wider than those discovered so long ago. Another way that the pyramid stood out was that it appeared to be technically advanced, in that it had black plating and, in the seams, appeared to be glowing blue lights. And hovering above the top of this almost futuristic structure was a mysterious large, muscular bald man with light grey skin, burning red eyes, and blue lips. Black body armor covered his bulky body, and he also wore blue gauntlets, boots, and a massive collar around his enormous neck. His blue belt contained a silver 'A' shaped buckled on the front, and on the back were two metallic cables connected to the back of his elbows. So was the description of the man who was born in ancient Egypt and is long considered by few to be the first of the people born with a genetic mutation caused by what is known as the 'X-Gene' that granted them special abilities. So to was what described Eb Sabah Nur, a powerful 'mutant' who was often considered the bringer and often addressed as Apocalypse.
This seemingly immortal mutant, and many like him, didn't exactly do the mutant population any favors. Especially since the human population knew that their abilities could be dangerous, be it in the hands of mutants who wanted to harm or younger ones who had little to no knowledge of how to control them. As a result, most regular humans hated and feared all mutants, no matter the circumstances. And on this night, Apocalypse only strengthened their fears as he programmed a total of seven pyramids, each built with the use of technology that Apocalypse discovered back in ancient Egypt and used to increase his powers and rule the land for a time and had the remaining float to each of the other continents on Earth. Upon their arrival, each pyramid would produce a massive wave of energy to kill any humans or mutants he deemed 'too weak' to be in his empire.
Luckily, however, a group of mutants was founded by the world's leading expert in the X-Gene, Professor Charles Xavier, and secretly a mutant himself. This group used their powers, which they referred to as 'gifts,' to help people in need, despite most of them shunning them out of fear and hatred. And these brave mutants stood between Apocalypse and his quest for pure dominance, for protecting both humans and mutants was the duty carried out by these 'X-Men,' who took the fight to Apocalypse from both the ground and the air.
On the ground level was the man chosen to lead the X-Men in this battle for the planet's fate. A fierce, short, but muscular fair-skinned masked man with hairy arms and clad in a full-body yellow costume with blue stripes that ran over his shoulders and horizontally under his sides. He also wore blue gloves, boots, and shoulder pads, and around his waist, he wore a black belt with a circular gold belt with an 'X' in the center. Finally, the suit's most distinguishing feature was that the matching yellow mask had a blue 'V' over his eyes and pointed upward to look like the ears. All to make the man known as Logan resemble the animal his codename was based on: The Wolverine.
Here, Logan found himself engaging one of Apocalypse's warriors he deemed worthy of naming the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. One was a thin man with blue skin and whose body was clad in wraps but with a torn white loincloth, and he wore gold and blue boots, gauntlets, breastplate, and nemes on his head. He attacked Logan with a golden staff, with one end having an axe head painted with ancient hieroglyphics that phrased Apocalypse and another containing a large spearhead with a sharp tip. Though he began as a mutant mercenary named Roderick 'Rory' Campbell, he now served Apocalypse after receiving inhuman but powerful enhancements and the name of Famine. And with movements so fast it almost made him appear to be a blur, Famine threw numerous thrusts attacks with the intent to plunge the tip of the spearhead into Logan's abdomen.
Fortunately, Logan proved to be no slouch regarding close-quarters combat. For one thing, he showed fast enough reflexes to successfully avoid the spear thrusts coming his way, mainly due to experience from being in more fights than he cared to count. But what really helped him in this fight was not the weapons he held in his hands but what he had inside them. For each hand had three twelve-inch claws protruding out between his knuckles. These claws, as well as Logan's entire skeleton, were laced with an alloy called Adamantium, the strongest metal known to man. And it was here that Logan put his steel-covered claws to good use in blocking and deflecting the spear thrusts that he couldn't dodge.
Finally, with his thrust attacks going nowhere, Famine tried another approach. In that, he spun around and threw a backward slash with the intent of using the axe end to take Logan's head off his shoulders.
Luckily for Logan, it was an attack he easily spotted and quickly ducked to save himself from being beheaded. However, he looked up to see Famine raise the axe end of his staff over his head and swing downward to try and drive it into the clawed mutant's skull. This made Logan instinctively hold his hands up in an 'X' fashion and thus use his claws to block the axe before it could even reach his masked head. Tired of being on the defensive end, Logan pushed the axe upward as he stood back up on his feet. Then, with a loud, angry snarl, he used his claws to pull the staff out of Famine's hands and tossed it to the left side.
A surprised Famine watched as his staff flew and landed just a few feet away, inadvertently turning his head in that direction. An act that proved to be a mistake, for as Famine looked forward, he saw a screaming Logan using his right leg to throw a front kick and plunging his foot into the Horseman's gut before he could react. Now in control, a grunting Logan pulled his foot out and allowed the winded Famine to bend down as he coughed and searched for air. All so the battle-hardened X-Man could throw a left-legged round kick that connected to Famine's temple and fall face-first into the sand.
After lifting his head in a daze, Famine managed to shake his head to regain his focus, then after letting breathing out in frustration, which in turn blew off the sand that was on his face, he rolled forward, ended up in a kneeling position, and turned around to face Logan once more.
This frustrated Logan, as he hoped that that kick would knock Famine out of the fight and allow him to assist his fellow X-Men with the rest of the Horsemen. As such, he let out a loud grunt as he looked down at the kneeling Famine but still had his claws drawn and in a readied fighting stance. "Best damn thing for you to do is to stay down, bub!" Logan warned, all while trying not to let his frustration build into a blinding rage for the sake of his teammates, that still needed his help.
Instead of heeding the X-Man's words, Famine only grew enraged by it, mainly due to the power enhancement process that made him a Horseman augmented his aggression as well as his strength. As a result, he took Logan's advice of surrender as an insult and responded by throwing his arms outward, which in turn, caused two twenty-inch blades to pop out of his gauntlets. With new weapons in hand, the seething Famine got back up on his feet, all while giving Logan a death glare.
While seeing a man with long blades ready for murderous intent would intimidate most men, Logan only let out an aggravated grunt and muttered this to himself as he braced himself with claws on the ready. "Fine, but don't say I didn't give you an out."
Meanwhile, three other X-Men on the ground were engaged with two of Apocalypse's Horsemen. The one on the right was a man in his mid-twenties dressed in a black full-body suit, and a black overcoat covered his entire fair-skinned, athletically toned body. His gloves were black to match the color, but he wore a yellow belt with a red 'X' buckle around his waist. His hood, which covered everything except his mouth, contained a silver visor over his eyes, with thin, horizontal red lenses made of ruby quartz. This visor's circular design earned the man named Scott Summers the codename of Cyclops.
The one was that of a young, thin, eighteen-year-old male with spikey hair, a blue sleeveless body suit with an 'X' button on the right side of his chest, and appeared composed of ice, almost like he was a completed ice sculpture given life. It was in this form that young Bobby Drake would take he was on missions with the team, as well as give him the name Iceman.
And the third and final X-Man on the left was a large, bulky man covered in blue fur and an ape-like appearance, almost resembling that of an ape rather than a human. His massive hands and feet had claws at the end of each finger and matching blue hair with muttonchops and fang teeth. Though his animalistic exterior granted Dr. Hank McCoy the name of Beast, as well as the strength of one, he possessed a genius-level IQ that earned him many PhDs, and he was one of the most intelligent people on the planet, a feat that helped his team in many missions.
However, it looked like it would take both Hank's brains and brawn, as well as the powers of Scott and Bobby, to take down the massive Horseman that stood before them. He was a large man, as big as a truck, with his enormous frame covered in wraps, and had the same armor and nemes as Famine but were colored black and gold. Before tonight, he was once named Michael Baer, a mutant who used his incredible strength for a mercenary group known as the Marauders. But now, having proved his worth to Apocalypse, he underwent a procedure that quadrupled his power and made him more fitting of the name War. And with a battle cry, War lifted his giant fists over his head and attacked first by attempting to smash Bobby into the ground.
"Oh, god!" The wide-eyed Bobby exclaimed, then managed to avoid this attack by instinctively concentrating his willpower into his hands. As he did so, he was able to manipulate the water particles in the air and fire two ice beams that propelled him backward and created two blocks of eyes in the sand, which War ended up smashing instead. Once he landed on his feet, Bobby used his left hand to fire another ice beam which ended up hitting and covering War's eyes in a large block of ice, momentarily stunning him.
This spontaneous but effective act from Bobby allowed Scott to make a move of his own, namely using his visor and how it helped him use his 'gift,' which was to absorb and metabolize ambient forces such as sunlight into his body and release it in concussive blasts from his eyes. Unfortunately, when Scott was younger, he experienced a head injury that damaged a part of his brain that allowed him to properly control his ability to store and release the blast willingly. As a result, Scott's power remains 'on' and would constantly fire blasts unless he shuts his eyes completely or wears the visor during missions and specially made ruby-lens glasses when engaging in ordinary affairs. Both eyepieces were designed to block the blast that his eyes continuously produced. And it was here that Scott showed that the visor existed not only to protect his teammates and innocent bystanders but also could use it as a weapon, which he used when he placed his right fingertip on a button on the right side of the visor. As he pressed it, the ruby quartz lens rolled down, releasing the energy from Scott's eyes. Thanks to the visor's design, the blast came out as a single red beam, all of which made it easier to hit its target, which was the side of War's right knee, forcing the Horseman to kneel and turn to the left side.
This prompted Hank to move in with an attack of his own. In that, he ran forward, then jumped up and showcased incredible agility by flipping forward and kicking his large feet forward with enough strength to shatter the ice that grafted onto War's eyes, and in the process, kicking the Horseman in the face and driving him down back first into the sand. With War now off his feet, Hank hopped off the bandaged giant's face, flipped forward again, and landed safely on his feet and right next to Scott. As Bobby came and joined his two teammates, Hank turned around and grew concerned when he noticed War rolling on his left side and standing back up, more furious than ever. "Well, that's not very reassuring," thought the worried Hank as he watched War up on his feet and more furious than ever, leading him to allow this horrible thought to creep into his head. If the whole team struggles with these Horsemen, what chance would they have against their master?
But while Logan and his teammates were busy with the persistent warriors of the mutant warlord high above them, they had taken their minds off the fourth and final Horseman, still frozen in a block of ice from a prior fight with Bobby. However, just a few moments later, the ice seemed to shake and, more unsettling, began to crack due to immense energy coming from the inside. Moments later, the ice block exploded, and the Horseman was revealed to be not a man but a thin, screaming, bandaged woman whose armor was green and black and a headpiece above her brown and under her white hair. She destroyed her icy prison by admitting strong energy waves from her hands. In the past, this woman also served in the Marauders under the name Vertigo. She was given the name due to her ability to admit swirling psionic waves that caused the people that she targeted to become dizzy and distorted. But now, she served Apocalypse under the name of Pestilence and with newly enhanced powers that made her even more dangerous.
And upon noticing Logan trading slashes and parries with Famine, Pestilence decided to use a new additional power as part of her enhancement. Namely, she pointed her left hand in the air, concentrated, and produced big psionic waves stretching above the desert and into the sky. And it was here that by focusing her willpower through the waves, she was able to attract large amounts of locus from far and wide and, through mental commands, ordered them to fly towards Logan and aid her fellow Horseman.
As for Logan, he used the claws in his left hand to block a left slash from Famine and pushed it outward, then spotted his bandaged attacker throws another slash with the blade on his right hand and ducked, saving himself from getting beheaded and walked past the Horseman and stopped just a couple of feet to create some distance. It wasn't until Logan spun around to face Famine did he receive a not-so-pleasant surprise in the form of the locus flying around and attaching to his body. "What the…frigging hell?!" The alarmed Logan exclaimed as he threw his arms around to try and swat the bugs away from his person.
Needless to say, the interference of these insects benefitted Famine, as this allowed him to run in, pull his left arm back, and drive the tip of his blade right into the unsuspecting Logan's abdomen, causing the clawed mutant to let out a loud, pain-filled gasp. And it was here that Famine displayed naturally born mutant ability before the enhancement. While using the blade as a conduit, he began to extract Logan's life force into his own body. This process caused Logan to get a more skeletal appearance and Famine himself to become bulkier.
Of the three X-Men facing off against War, Bobby noticed Logan getting the life sucked out of him through the corner of his right eye and was mortified. "LOGAN!" The horrified young man screamed, which caused Scott and Hank to turn around and share in Bobby's terror upon seeing Logan getting impaled and drained.
The sound of Bobby's frantic shouting caught the attention of Pestilence, who turned around and faced the three X-Men and pointed his opened right hand in their direction. Moments later, she emitted more waves and used them as she originally did as a Marauder, in that once they made contact with the X-Men, Bobby, Scott, and Hank began to feel dizzy and lose their balance, causing them to fall to the sand almost immediately.
To make things even worse for the fallen X-Men, War was not affected by Pestilence's waves, mainly due to a special chip implanted in his nemes designed to block said waves should he be near her when she used her power. All this gave the giant Horseman the opening he needed to crush the downed X-Men that lay disoriented before him. As such, he walked towards Scott, as he deemed him the first to squash like a bug, then lifted his right foot up and went to stomp and crush his skull.
However, the deaths of Logan and his fellow X-Men were prevented when their salvation came in the form of three lightning bolts from above. The first bolt struck War in the face, which caused him to stagger and fall flat on his back. The second hit Pestilence in the chest, causing her to stop admitting waves as she flew backward a few feet. And the third hit Famine in the chest, and as the Horseman was sent soaring, he inadvertently pulled the blade out of Logan's gut, causing him to fall on his knees.
His mutant ability began to take effect and ultimately save his life! His stab wound started to close in a matter of seconds, and the muscles in his frail body grew to their original, bulgy size until he was again in a fit and healthy state. All thanks to his incredible regenerative healing factor, courtesy of the X-gene in his blood. With it, he can heal from almost any wound almost instantaneously. It also slowed down his aging process and made his actual age impossible to determine, meaning that, besides Apocalypse, he could very well be older than everyone else in the battle. While this ability helped Logan in many fights, he also saw it as a curse, as many people that Logan knew and cared for over his long life were either old or dead. Regardless, the battle-hardened X-Man kept these feelings to himself to stay focused on bringing down Apocalypse, and as Logan stood back up on his feet, he spotted Famine lying dazed on his back with smoke coming from his chest. Even while in great pain from having a blade in his abdomen, Logan remembered seeing the lightning bolt and had a pretty good idea where it came from, and as he looked up, his suspicions were confirmed when he saw where the bolt came from, causing him to smirk briefly. "Good timing, lady."
Hovering high above the sky, the source of the bolts was not a cloud, but that of a tall, beautiful African woman with long, flowing white hair, dressed in a black body suit with a matching cape, a black headpiece in her hair and large gold earrings. For her ability to manipulate the weather, which she used in both missions and to help feed villages in her native Africa, the mutant named Ororo Monroe was given the codename Storm. And it was here she used her gift to conjure and fire lightning from her outstretched hands and struck the three Horsemen before they could kill her comrades down below. With Logan and the others now saved, Ororo returned to another problem she was dealing with. One in the form of the fourth and final Horseman.
It was a man with light blue skin, blonde eyebrows, and white eyes with no visible pupils. His hooded body suit, which was tight enough to show his athletic build, was dark blue and contained dark pink accents. But the Horseman's most distinguishing features, something that kept him airborne, were a pair of large metallic wings with feathers that appeared to be razor-sharp blades. Before tonight, the Horseman went by many names. The first was that of his born named, Warren Worthington III, the son of a wealthy businessman who was born with feathered wings, and thus went to the Xavier Institute where he not only learned how to fold them under his clothing to appear more 'formal,' but he also used them to help defend humanity as the X-Man known as Angel. Sadly, after an accident, one that damaged his wings so severely that they had to be amputated, and in his state of depression and desperation, he went to a scientist by the name of Nathanial Essex, who performed a procedure that granted him his razor-sharp techno-organic wings. Through this transformation, Warren was given the name Archangel, but since Nathanial also served Apocalypse, he sent him to serve the mutant as one of the powerful mutant's Horseman, one that required his name be changed…to Death.
Usually, Ororo would rather use her gifts for peaceful means and hated using them in fights, and sadly, this one was no different. Especially since Warren was a former teammate, one that she grew close to and, over the years, perhaps grew into something more. But to her grief, she had to accept that what she saw before her was not Warren but an enemy that served a mutant that threatened all life on Earth. And so, Ororo regretfully pointed her open palms and fired two more lightning bolts at her former teammate, who veered to the left with excellent aerial agility.
And the purpose for Ororo engaging Death was to protect another teammate behind her who was also airborne. The X-Man was a fair-skinned woman who appeared to be twenty-eight years of age, with long red hair and just as beautiful enough to be comparable to a fashion model. She dressed in a blue and orange jumpsuit, with blue portions being her headpiece, top with shoulder pads and gauntlets. Her lower body had orange leggings with matching boots and pouches on the sides of her leggings. As for the headpiece, it contained a diamond-shaped amulet which helped her in using her 'new gifts.' Such was the new uniform of Jean Grey, who managed to stay in the air thanks to her ability of tactical telekinesis. She also had some psychic ability, which she was in the middle of developing under the tutelage of Charles Xavier himself.
She was also, at one point, thought dead after an explosion just over a year prior destroyed the Xavier mansion and temporarily disbanded the team for a year. However, circumstances concerning machines called Sentinels and the government-sanctioned Mutant Response Division, or MRD, caused the team to reform. During the five months of the X-Men trying to bring down the Sentinels, it was revealed that Jean was overtaken by the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force, and thankfully, not only was she freed herself from it, but it was also destroyed, thanks to, strangely enough, one of her kidnappers, Emma Frost. However, the experience with the Phoenix affected Jean in another way, in that it increased her powers significantly and allowed her to manipulate psionic energy. She showed this feat to Apocalypse firsthand as he placed her right hand, concentrated her willpower on the jewel on her forehead, and fired three pink orb-shaped energy blasts, which soon formed into what looked like three flaming birds at the waiting Apocalypse. An ability she learned to hone back in…
XAVIER INSTITUTE (ONE DAY PRIOR)
…more specifically, inside a large round metallic room. At the time, one month had passed since Jean, dressed in a green-sleeved top, a red necklace with a yellow 'X' on it, brown pants with a belt, and black shoes, had been rescued and officially returned to the mansion, but was now in the middle of training with her new powers. The reason for this was that, on the day after she returned, Jean suffered a brief incident where Logan startled her, which resulted in accidentally firing a psionic blast that put Logan through the wall. Though thankfully, Logan recovered quickly due to his healing factor, Jean was horrified that her possession from the Phoenix still made her a danger to the team that she loved, like family and the people she long swore to protect. And so, after talking with Logan, as well as Scott, whom she was the closest to, Jean decided that it was time for her to 'get back to basics' and learn to hone her new abilities if she was going to help in searching for their new threat in the form of Apocalypse. And on this day pointed her outstretched arms and stared intently at a pink energy orb she conjured up and concentrated on keeping its shape.
All while under the supervision of Professor Charles Xavier, In a matter of speaking. For Charles' physical body, which was revealed to be that of a bald man with a fair-skin tone and appeared to be in his late sixties, sleeping inside a glass chamber, the result of being caught in the explosion that destroyed his home and left him in a coma that would last for twenty years. And through these circumstances, and with the help of a machine called Cerebro, Charles utilized almost unrivaled telepathic ability by communicating from the future and through a dimension only telepaths can access, known as the Astral Plane. And it's through this plane of existence that Charles informed Logan and the rest of his X-Men of the horrible future where killer machines called Sentinels ruled the world, wiped out most of humanity, and successfully changed the timeline. Unfortunately, the altered future that Charles found himself in was far worse than before, as it was one that Apocalypse ruled with an iron fist! As such, the professor found himself sharing what intel he could find in this far future with his X-Men in the present to make this future better. Sadly, the process took longer than expected because Apocalypse was so careful about his personal information.
On this day, though, Charles took a break from gathering information concerning Apocalypse and chose to help out very differently. In that, he created an astral form, one in the shape of his head, that hovered over the case where his sleeping body was located and trained Jean in how to control her new psionic abilities and observed her after he instructed her to try and shape the energy orb.
Though creating psionic energy balls proved challenging during the past few weeks, Jean was now at the point where it no longer strained her to the point where it gave her a migraine so immense it felt like her head was about to explode. Thus it was no longer difficult for her to concentrate and have the ball change its shape to of a small puppy, one in the form of the dog her family once owned, which she was seven years old and had fond memories of. After Jean lowered the construct to the floor, the energy-based puppy barked twice before running and jumping into Jean's arms, licking her face and causing her to smile.
Something which left the Astral Head of Charles astounded upon how quickly Jean mastered this training. Though he remembered that Jean mastered her telekinesis quickly when she first came to his mansion, he only helped Jean develop her telepathy slowly, as he knew that anything to do with the mind shouldn't be rushed. But upon seeing her learn how to master a new level of power in weeks, which was faster than he expected, Charles started to feel like maybe he wasn't doing her justice by having her go through a slow pace. At the same time, though, he remembered Logan telling him about the wall incident and knew that this next phase in Jean's powers could be just as chaotic as the first. Thus Charles reminded himself that no matter how much Jean had improved, a slower pace was often the best solution. Still, for the sake of her morale and to display his pride in the woman that he considered a daughter, Charles gave Jean a small but sincere smile. "Well done, Jean," Charles said warmly as he watched Jean happily pet the construct. "You're no longer straining when manipulating psionic energy. It shows that you're making great progress, as I knew you would."
Instead of feeling happy to hear her mentor's compliment, Jean's expression changed to fear and worry. Thus she tried to mask these feelings with a small smile as she turned to face him. "Thank you, Professor."
Psychic or not, though, Charles wasn't fooled by Jean's words and could sense the uneasiness in her voice. "And you're not happy about it?"
"Oh, no, no! I am! Really! It's just-!" Jean let out a saddened sigh before explaining what was bothering her about what should be a great accomplishment. And, to help illustrate her point, Jean mentally commanded the energy puppy into a miniature version of the Phoenix, which then vanished in a small spark. "It's still there. The fear of me losing control again and…this time killing everyone I love around me."
Upon hearing this, Charles provided one of his other requirements of being a teacher and offered sage advice. "The fear of losing control is always present, Jean. Even I still have it. But it doesn't have to be negative. In fact, I've often found it a great motivator to maintain discipline and control for the sake of all around me. The trick is you just can't let it overtake you, and the best way to keep this in mind is to remember what I told you and the rest of the X-Men when you first came to me. You control your gift; it does not control you…."
GIZA, EGYPT (PRESENT)
…and Jean kept the professor's words in mind as she used her power to attack Apocalypse. Though she knew the bird constructs wouldn't hurt the armored mutant, she theorized that they would distract him long enough to connect with his mind and shut it down telepathically.
Unfortunately, this action didn't amount to much, as Apocalypse disposed of the birds quickly with a few abilities of his own. Namely, sending a mental command to his right arm and having it take shape into a shield which he held in front of his body and allowed the bird constructs to fly into it and dissipate upon contact. Such a feat was made possible by his ability to manipulate his own molecular structure and morph his body into anything he could imagine. "Pathetic!" Apocalypse said with a deep voice that sounded more god-like than human, clearly not impressed with the attack's effectiveness in disgust. After reverting his right hand to its original state, Apocalypse turned his attention to his left hand and formed it into a massive, technologically-enhanced rifle. Once he pointed it up and took aim at Jean, Apocalypse channeled his vast kinetic energy through the cable at the back of his belt, into his arm, and out of the barrel in the form of a large, red energy blast that sped towards the airborne X-Man.
Seeing the blast coming her way with wide-open eyes, Jean instinctively held out both hands and projected waves of telekinetic energy as a concussive force, stopping the blast before it could reach her body. However, because of the strength of the blast, it felt like Jean was holding back a title wave, and the strain made her brain feel like it could explode like a grenade. But despite this pain, Jean refused to back down. For her family, that was the X-Men, to all of the mutants and humans of Earth, she defiantly pressed on against the blast. As Jean continued to push forward, her eyes glowed with pink energy, and her body was consumed in that same-colored glow that formed into a massive aura in the shape of a Phoenix that let out a loud screech that was heard throughout the entire desert. Naturally, Jean heard it and was reminded of her conversation with the professor. She was just as determined to remember his advice as she was to bring down the monster before her.
As such, while still channeling her energy to repel Apocalypse's blast, Jean held her hand upward and, through sheer willpower, sent a mental command to the bird construct to attack Apocalypse himself. With one final screech, the construct drove its head down, collided with the blast, and began pushing it forward.
This sudden burst of strength from the red-headed telepath left Apocalypse astounded. For out of all the people who tried and failed to kill him in his long immortal years, this woman had the power to rival his and thus truly would be considered worthy of living in his new world where only the strong were to survive. To this, Jean had Apocalypse's respect, but he knew she was a threat to his utopia. And so, for the sake of his plan's succession, Apocalypse channeled more energy into his blast to increase its strength.
Despite the ancient mutant's offense, Jean's aura did not falter and continued to push the blast back and head straight towards Apocalypse, making the all-powerful tyrant struggle to stay airborne, and appeared that she was about to put an end to him and save everyone on the planet, both present day and the future.
Meanwhile, Ororo, after blasting Archangel out of the sky with a lightning bolt, watched Jean's overpowering of Apocalypse completely stunned, as well as allowing a surge of emotions to consume her for what she saw. On the one hand, she felt joy seeing her friend overwhelming the ancient mutant and was inches away from ending this threat. But on the other hand, fear also gripped her, as it reminded her of the explosion back at the mansion that nearly wiped out everyone at the Institute. The sight of the Phoenix aura was enough to make Ororo fear that history would repeat itself on this night. However, what Ororo spotted only strengthened her fear of how this was about to turn for the worst.
Namely that Archangel had recovered from getting shot down, flew up, and hovered behind Jean, who was still focused on overwhelming Apocalypses and just now close to doing so. At that moment, Archangel saved his master by curling his steel wings inward, and as he threw them outward to show his incredible wingspan, he shot four bladed feathers, with the target being the unsuspecting Jean's back.
"NO!" Ororo scream out in horror, then flew in with speed matching that of a typhoon, ended up behind Jean and fired more lightning bolts, and succeeded in shooting down two of the bladed feathers. Unfortunately, she failed in hitting the third and final blade, which narrowly missed the bolt and ended up in her abdomen, filling her with pain that felt like getting pierced by thousands of needles getting pierced with a thousand needles and intense enough to make her let out a gasp of agony.
Ororo's pain-filled wheezing was loud enough to startle Jean and break her concentration on her bird-shaped aura. Now worried and praying that what she heard was just her imagination, Jean looked over her shoulder and was mortified to see a shaking Ororo in a slightly bent posture while holding her stomach. Moments later, she fell from the sky to the ground below. "STORM!"
Needless to say, this allowed Apocalypse to push his blast forward and not only repel against the Phoenix aura but also cause it to dissipate once it hit Jean, sending her back, flipping uncontrollably. Now in control, Apocalypse reverted his left arm to its original form and levitated forward. Once he was safe from his pyramid, Apocalypse mentally shaped the molecules in his body. Instead of turning his limbs into weapons, he commanded them to enlarge and grow his body until he was taller than the pyramid behind him. When the tyrant's enlarged feet, which were each the same size as an FCM 2C battle tank, hit the ground, they caused a tremor strong enough to shake the Earth and briefly stop the fight between the X-Men and the Horsemen, causing all members of both teams to lose balance and fall to the ground.
As for Jean, she just barely managed to stop herself in an upright position in the air, but before she could do anything else, she found herself wrapped around the fingers of Apocalypse's enlarged hand as he grabbed her like a doll. In response, Jean tried to conjure up the aura again but, sadly, was too exhausted from her last attack to manipulate the energy needed. A sad fact that was further indicated when Apocalypse tightened his grip, her bones feeling like they were about to shatter and thus causing her to out a pain-filled scream.
And out of the disoriented X-Men still trying to recover on the ground, it was Scott who was brought back to reality when he heard Jean's scream, and as he looked up, pure dread consumed him as he saw a giant version of the powerful mutant tyrant that threatened the planet crushing the woman, he loved like she was a Styrofoam cup. "JEAN!" The distressed Scott cried out, then felt things go from bad to worse when he felt his head grabbed by the large hands of War.
Scott's screaming also brought Logan to his senses, and the first thing he saw that shocked him was Ororo lying in the sand with the feather blade still in her abdomen. To make matters worse, Logan noticed Apocalypse's large foot; then his eyes shot wide open when he saw the now giant mutant squeezing the life out of Jean. "No!" Logan said in distress at the sight of Ororo dying on the sand and Jean, the woman he viewed as both the world's last hope and held a torch for despite being with Scott, about to be crushed like a Styrofoam cup.
As for Apocalypse himself, he stopped squeezing Jean for a moment and looked at her with a stone-faced yet somber expression as she coughed and searched for air once she could breathe. "You possess remarkable strength, woman," he said with a now loud, booming voice and evident respect for Jean for her power and spirit. "The kind that would make you worthy of living among those deemed fit to live in my grand utopia! However, I cannot allow you…." Apocalypse turned and looked down at the fallen X-Men in disgust as he continued. "Or any of these insects stand in my way. As such, for my vision to flourish, you must face annihilation! But for you're display of great power, I shall grant you a-." Amid his speech, Apocalypse stopped when he noticed a brief flash through the corner of his right eye. This prompted him to look forward, and what the mutant conqueror saw shocked even him.
Namely, Jean was again encompassed by another glowing aura, but not of pink but pure white, which surprised even Jean herself. Strangely enough, this glow didn't stop with just Jean, as it moved his it's way to Apocalypses' right hand, until it enveloped the stunned tyrant himself!
Down below, that same white light soon took and shocked the Horsemen and the rest of the X-Men. Especially Logan, who looked at his glowing hands in complete bewilderment. "What the friggin' hell?!" As if things weren't nerve-racking enough, the feral X-Man received another surprise when the astral form of Charles Xavier appeared right in front of him. This time, he appeared to have a full body, dressed in a tattered body suit and with a troubled look on his face, mainly due to his feet beginning to disappear. "Charles?!"
"Logan, what's happening?!" Charles asked in bewilderment, which only increased when his lower body was the next to vanish, followed by his torso. "Something is happening in here in the future! Everything is-!" Before Charles could finish, his entire head completely disappeared, and in that instant, Professor Charles Xavier, founder and longtime father figure of the X-Men, ceased to be.
"Charles?! CHARLES!" Were Logan's last panicked words as the white light enveloped himself, Jean and his teammates flashed and encompassed the entire area.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: And now we got the heroes, and I know what you guys are thinking: 'ABOOK, isn't this only half the X-Men roster from Wolverine and the X-Men, as well as have the roster of Avengers from EMH?' And the answer: Yes. But don't worry, the other halves of both teams will arrive soon enough to help in making this fic more epic! Stay tuned true believers!