It wasn't long before the X-Men recovered and were just as baffled about their new surroundings as the Avengers. Aside from the members that battled Apocalypse and his Horseman, other members of the team of this under-appreciated group of heroes were present as well. The first were two X-Men who were not fighting against Apocalypse but instead were part of the mission to try and stop the ancient mutant's conquest of Earth by infiltrating his Pyramid in Egypt.
The first was a tall, skinny man with a demon-like appearance, in that his body was covered in blue fur, possessed black hair, yellow pupilless eyes, a prehensible tail, three fingers on each hand, and two toes on each foot. His uniform consisted of a red shirt with an 'X' symbol on his chest, black sleeves and pants, and white gloves and boots. Despite his devilish looks, this German-born mutant Kurt Wagner was the most light-hearted of the group but still proved his worth in missions under the codename of Nightcrawler.
The second member was a thin, light-skinned man in his late twenties with black hair and a matching black goatee. Like his teammates, he wore a blue and gold uniform but also had a pair of goggles above his brow and appeared to have a metallic, robotic right leg. Not much is known about this man, not even by his fellow X-Men. All that was known about this man were his cheerful and often irritating geeky personality and his intuitive genius with technology that helped him design and build gadgets that helped the team, hence his codename: Forge.
The final three X-Men on the platform did not travel to Egypt to take part in the battle but were instead ordered to stay behind at the Institute to both watch over and defend the students, as well as be the ones to train and create a new team of X-Men in case the mission went wrong.
The first was that of a fair-skinned, brown-eyed girl who appeared to be nineteen years of age, also in a standard X-Men uniform, which was a yellow shirt with shoulder pads, blue sleeves, pants, gold gloves, and boots, and a belt with red 'X' buckle. Her brown hair had a short shoulder-length hairstyle when in the past it was longer, and she wore it in pigtails but later decided to cut it short to make it easier when on missions, as well as show Logan and the rest of her older teammates her maturity and did not need to be treated as a child anymore. A feat that Katherine 'Kitty' Pryde accomplished long ago, all while under the codename of Shadowcat.
The next was a tall, young woman in her early twenties with pale skin, green eyes, and brown hair with white streaks in a bun hairstyle. She, too, wore a uniform, but it was unique as it was a green and yellow jumpsuit with yellow gloves and knee-high boots, and she wore a brown jacket with rolled-up sleeves. Though her born name was Anne-Marie D'Ancanto, she went by her code name, Rogue, for her brooding loner personality, something which nearly cost the girl her friendship with the X-Men when she briefly sided with a mutant terrorist group, the Brotherhood of Mutants. Though she had since realized the error of her ways and rejoined the team, she knew that most of her teammates still didn't trust her and was determined to regain their trust.
The third was a large, muscular, fair-skinned man with buzzed black hair, dressed in a red and yellow jumpsuit, one which was sleeveless to provide his massive arms, complete with red steel wristbands around his wrists, freedom of movement. The Russian-born Piotr Rasputin was the gentle giant of the group that he considered his second family, and when on missions, he put his strength and power to good use as Colossus. Initially, Piotr chose not to return to the team after the Institute explosion and decided to return to his family in Siberia. However, due to 'circumstances' regarding his little sister, Illyana, he and his parents decided to bring her to the States and over to the Institute, where she could receive the help she needed. However, as he looked around the room in confusion, Piotr began thinking that he and his colleagues were the ones who needed help.
The rest of the X-Men were just as perplexed about the situation, especially Jean Grey. She couldn't help but be astounded. One minute, she was being crushed to death by Apocalypse, and then the next, she was covered in some white light and brought to a strange room made of marble. In the midst of her looking around and surveying her new surroundings, Jean spotted something that not only surprised her but filled her with jubilation. "Ororo!"
The sound of Jean's joy-filled words was enough to snap the disoriented Ororo out of her daze, but once she gained a clear head, her grogginess was replaced with shock. Not just in this strange place but also in the fact that she felt physically fine and healthy! The last thing she remembered was getting impaled by one of Warren's bladed feathers and feeling her blood, not to mention her life, drain out of her body. This prompted Ororo to look down, and her sky-blue eyes grew large when she saw that the feather was gone. Most alarming of all, her wound was closed and healed so perfectly there was no scar! She was then brought out of her stunned state when Jean, her teammate and best friend, ran in and hugged her with a grip tight enough to match that of an Anaconda squeezing its prey.
Seeing her friends and loved ones getting gravely injured always hit Jean hard, and though seeing Ororo, whom she loved and cherished like a sister, miraculously healed after getting stabbed was confusing, it didn't matter to her. Just as long as she was alive. It wasn't until Jean heard Ororo choking that she released her grip and pulled away, giving her friend an apologetic smile as she coughed. "Sorry!"
Once Ororo finally caught her breath, she gave Jean a reassuring nod and smile, all while rubbing her throat in pain.
Moments later, Jean turned her attention to Ororo's abdomen, and her confusion returned. "Your wound is healed? How is that possible?"
"I…do not know," Ororo replied honestly, just baffled as she briefly touched where the feather once was.
It wasn't long before Ororo's enigmatic recovery soon caught the attention of the rest of the X-Men, particularly Logan, who, while glad that Ororo's life appeared to have been saved, was just as baffled as his teammates about how her recovery was so sudden and in a way that would put his healing factor to shame. However, he kept a cool head for the sake of the team's morale, especially given the circumstances. "Well, you ain't dead, Storm. So, I call that a good sign."
"Obviously," Ororo answered with a hint of sarcasm in her voice but was nonetheless in agreement concerning her life being saved in the most mysterious of ways.
Logan then looked around the room for possible clues until he saw something that made him narrow his eyes in annoyance. Or, more accurately, that 'something' was a certain 'someone' named Forge, who was trying to clear his head from the transfer. "FORGE!" Logan barked, loud enough to snap the mechanical genius out of his dazed and turned to look at him with wide-opened eyes like a deer in the headlights. "What the hell did you do?!"
"Whoa, whoa, Logan, hold on!" Forge replied nervously as he held up his hands in defense. His anxiety increased when he saw the rest of his teammates glaring at him. I swear that this is not part of the plan!" It was here that Forge, still uneasy with his friend's anger-filled stares, explained what went wrong in said plan back in…
EGYPT
…more specifically, inside a dark, vast, technically advanced control room located in the center of the Apocalypse's main Pyramid. It was here that Forge was in the far-left corner of the room with his hand-sized computer plugged into the wall and hacking into the Pyramid's computer system. Fortunately, Forge was not alone in performing this dangerous task, for Kurt was also in the room and was in the middle of fending off hordes of humanoid robots in black plate armor with gold bracelets, boots, loincloths, and nemes, and faceplates designed to resemble the face of Apocalypse himself. The tailed X-Man was armed only with a cutlass sword, which was fortunate, considering that each robot wielded two curved ancient Egyptian blades known as khopeshs.
Oddly enough, these mechanical drones were all controlled by one mind, one that did not belong to Apocalypse, but rather a white-skinned man with buzzed black hair and crimson red eyes with a matching red diamond symbol on his forehead. He was dressed in a dark, metallic blue jumpsuit, complete with a shoulder piece with a large collar and hundreds of tassels running down his back like a cape. In another life, this man's name was Nathaniel Essex, a brilliant scientist obsessed with the deterministic interpretations of the natural evolution and emergence of the beings that the world would come to know as mutants. However, after a fateful encounter with Apocalypse, who genetically mutated him, he was reborn as the tyrant's most trusted servant, Mister Sinister. As far as how he controlled the drones, Sinister wore a gold, crown-like device on his head with two wires connected to a desk, transmitting his mental commands to the CPUs of each drone. And though his bread and butter was genetics, he nevertheless found this method of killing the X-Men enjoyable, considering how much they've interfered with his experiments in the past.
Nevertheless, Kurt pressed on in his part of the mission of keeping Sinister and his drones busy so Forge could get into the Pyramid's computer system and shut off not just the fortress that they were standing in but the other pyramids that were on their way to the different continents of the planet. Fortunately, he managed to stay in one piece through two things. One was the cutlass sword that he held firmly in his right hand and masterfully used it to parry any incoming slash attacks from the drones and respond with a few of his own. The second was his gift, which saved him and his teammates numerous times.
It was the ability to teleport from one area to the next, which Kurt quickly put to good use when he spotted one of the drones coming towards him and winding the khopesh in his right hand back, intending to take his head off. As such, the X-Man wasted no time concentrating and soon vanished in a puff of black smoke, which the drone ended up slicing through instead. Before the drone could react, Kurt reappeared behind it and cut its head clean off its shoulders, sparks of electricity flying out of its now open neck. Suddenly, Kurt heard the running footsteps of metal feet, and as he looked over his shoulder, he was alarmed when he spotted two more drones heading toward him. All of this prompted Kurt to vanish again, but this time, he reappeared in mid-air and in front of the drone's now headless body, which was still standing. Here, the tailed X-Man moved by using both legs to kick outward and plant his two-toed feet into the decapitated drone's chest plate, sending it flying backward and crashing into the two drones, causing them to fall to the floor. After flipping backward and landing safely in a crouching posture, Kurt looked around for more incoming drones. As he looked over his left shoulder, he spotted another drone standing over him, with its left hand over its head and going to split Kurt's head in half with an overhead slash. Naturally, Kurt immediately held up his blade up in a horizontal position and successfully blocked the attack, and out of pure instinct, he once vanished in a puff of smoke, then reappeared behind the drone in a crouched posture of his feet. From there, Kurt quickly threw a right backhanded slash and sliced the drone's legs off at the knees, leading it to fall to the floor.
Upon getting back up on his feet, Kurt looked from side to side to see two drones speeding toward from both the left and right side and holding their khopeshs back with the intent of taking his head off. As such, he took action by waiting for his robot attackers to get close, and once they did, he teleported once again and caused the two drones to decapitate each other instead. From then on, Kurt teleported from one place to another as he fought off the rest of the drones. One moment, he appeared in front of one drone to slice its head off, and in the next, he disappeared and reappeared on one drone's shoulders, flipped backward, and used his legs to throw it into the air and right into threw more attacking drones, causing them to fall to the floor hard.
Though the tailed X-Man's ability was helpful, it did have one unpleasant drawback, namely that every puff of smoke Kurt created when teleporting left behind the smell of brimstone, which obviously wasn't a pleasant experience for the people nearby. And though the drones were not bothered by this, Sinister found the pungent smell irritating and distracting, making it difficult to channel his thoughts into the dashboard and control the drones.
The brimstone was so strong it reached the nostrils of Forge. He was still hard at work getting into the Pyramid's mainframe with his minicomputer, making it hard for him to focus on his task. Nevertheless, he soldiered on as he looked at his minicomputer's screen, which showed strange, alien images that almost resembled ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics that he managed to download from one of Sinister's computers when he and the X-Men rescued Jean Grey when she was kidnapped and taken to one of his labs just a few months earlier. During that time, Forge studied these images, and on this night, he used them to develop a specially made virus, which he is now trying to download into the Pyramid's system and finally shut down all of the pyramids. "Come on, Come on!" Forge muttered in frustration as he stared at the screen and saw that the downloading process was going slowly.
Meanwhile, Kurt continued to take down one drone after another masterfully. At one point, the X-Man grabbed one drone's khopesh with his tail and, as if it were a third arm, whipped it in front of him to use the weapon to block an incoming right downward slash from one drone. Now in control, Kurt commanded his tail to push the drone's weapon downward so he could throw a downward right slash of his own and chopped the robot's arm off its elbow, followed by an upward slash to remove its head. After that, Kurt turned his attention with a confident smile. "I'm am disappointed, Zinister," Kurt told the scientist in a laid-back tone reminiscent of the heroes in the swashbuckling tales he heard growing up. "For a man who is zuppose to be an evil genius, I vas expecting more of a challenge." Suddenly, Kurt listened to another drone charging toward him on the left side. Without even looking, he flung his tail to that side and realized the khopesh, which was then lodged into the center of the drone's head, splitting it in half as it dropped to the floor. Even when Kurt held up his blade to stop another slash attack from a drone attacking from the right, his smile remained as he heard Sinister grunt of frustration, making the drone's movements sloppier, confirming that his plan of distracting the scientist was working. At one point, Kurt vanished again to avoid another drone that attempted to drive its curved blade into his face, then reappeared in another part of the room with a large screen. And just as he squared up for another attack, Kurt noticed the screen through the corner of his left eye, and what he saw caused his swashbuckling attitude to vanish and instead be replaced with fear and concern.
It was the image of Ororo dying on the sand with a feather blade in her abdomen, his teammates being beaten by the Horseman, and a now giant Apocalypse holding and squeezing Jean like an empty soda can.
"NEIN!" The horrified Kurt cried, unknowingly leaving himself open for a stiff right elbow strike to the jaw by a drone, and tumbled down to the floor like a ton of bricks.
This sight pleased Sinister greatly, so much so that he ordered two drones to grab the dazed Kurt with his arms and hoist him up off the floor. Moments later, the scientist noticed the screen and saw that Apocalypse and the Horsemen were standing triumphant over the X-Men, which led him to rightfully deduce that this was what caused Kurt to lose concentration, all of which caused Sinister's evil smile to spread wider. "Ah, the sight of one's friends in trouble. One of my favorite weaknesses to exploit!" Sinister declared with evil glee, then commanded the drone that held Kurt's right arm to pull out its khopesh and hold it up against the X-Man's throat. "Normally, I'd let you watch the demise of your comrades before finishing you off, but you're obviously a nuisance that's too dangerous to let live!" Suddenly, Sinister is alerted by another sound of a young male voice in a hopeful but still anxious tone…
"Almost there!"
…this caused Sinister to turn to the direction of where he heard the voice and saw that it belonged to Forge, who saw that the virus was almost entirely downloaded, causing the scientist to narrow his red eyes in disdain. "And so are you," Sinister said in aggravation, then sent a mental command to one drone to throw its khopesh at the unsuspecting tech geek.
As for Forge, he was alerted by an incoming wheezing sound, and as he turned to see what it was, his eyes widened when he saw it flying toward his face. "Oh, sh-!" Before the horrified Forge could utter what would've been his last words, he was soon enveloped by the cosmic white glow, along with a surprised Sinister and a semi-conscious Kurt. It didn't take long for that same glow to turn into a brilliant flash of white light that enveloped the entire room, and Forge, Kurt, and Sinister were nowhere to be found. And the two X-Men now founded themselves in…
THE BEOYNDER'S THRONE ROOM
…where Forge, now safe and sound, still found himself on the receiving end of furious glares from not just Logan but also the rest of his fellow X-Men. The only positive thing he could think of was that his new uniform concealed not just body heat and fluids. Be it sweat or the other liquid that 'used to be water' but came out due to fear of getting his head split open by a khopesh and the cold stares of his teammates. "But I swear, I didn't mean to bring everybody here!" At one point, Forge noticed Kitty, Rogue, and Piotr and was confused to see that the three members who were supposed to stay at the mansion were also in this strange place. "And I do mean 'everybody!'"
Naturally, this remark caused Logan and the rest of the X-Men in Egypt to turn around and were just as shocked to see Kitty and the other two X-Men tasked with watching the younger students here with them. However, out of the two X-Men in opposite groups, Bobby and Kitty were the most shocked to see each other. However, upon catching a glimpse of each other's faces, they turned away and avoided each other's gaze. The reason was that they dated at one point but had recently broken things off, and, suffice to say, things were awkward between them.
While the rest of the X-Men stood in stunned silence, a wide-eyed Logan chose to be the most vocal about this development. "What the hell are you three doing here?!" The gruff mutant yelled as he knew that they, Kitty and Rogue, at least, tended to disobey orders and come along on missions. As if that weren't enough, Logan received another surprise when he heard the familiar voice, one that he knew from all the way back in the Second World War…
"Logan…?"
Upon hearing this voice, Logan curiously turned around and was shocked and confused to see his former fellow Howling Commando, Steve Rogers, as well as the Avengers, all of whom he had not seen since Galactus's invasion. Moments later, Logan's eyes soon shifted to Tony Stark and the Fantastic Four's Reed Richards, causing his eyes to narrow and for him to assume that those two 'eggheads' must've teleported them here as part of some experiment. All of these things made the already grouchy mutant mutter this under his breath. "Just friggin' perfect."
Naturally, the Avengers and X-Men were all surprised and baffled once they finally noticed each other. The team's respected leaders and longtime allies, Steve and Logan, began to approach one another, and both were determined to find answers as to how they were transported out of their brutal battles.
The X-Men themselves couldn't help but stand in stunned silence in the presence of not just the Avengers but the living legend, Captain America himself even though they had long since known that Logan's healing factor slowed down his aging, the fact that he fought in World War II, and alongside Steve no less, was still quite mind-boggling.
And one young X-Man, Bobby Drake, couldn't help but be utterly star-struck by the Star-Spangled Avenger he had idolized for so long. "Oh crap, Captain America!" Bobby whispered ecstatically, then coughed to make his voice sound deeper and puffed up his chest to make himself look bigger in order to impress the 'world's first superhero.'
However, Bobby's eagerness to look presentable to Steve only annoyed Kitty, who looked at him with a narrow brow. "Geez, Bobby," Kitty whispered with narrowed eyes. "Fanboying much?"
Once the two leaders approached one another, Steve was the first one to speak. He looked over Logan's shoulder and saw the X-Men, though he seemed to be put off by Bobby making himself more muscular. "I see that you brought your team with you."
Logan responded with a sneer as he looked behind Steve and glared at Tony. "More like We were brought here by THEM," the displeased Logan declared. "Stark, if you and Richards built some contraption to beam us up here to help you fight off some giant monster wanting to destroy the world, we were already dealing with one of our own in Egypt!"
Tony immediately became perplexed when he heard that Logan and his team were in the country where the team's new problem, the flying pyramids, was coming from. "What, you were at-?!" Suddenly, Tony could hear the leather that covered Logan's fingers and palms rubbing against one another as a result of the X-Man tightening his fist in aggravation. As such, he decided to explain how this wasn't his doing before Logan chose to pounce on him. "N-No, no! We were dealing with a group of HYDRA wannabes led by Fury's brother called the Zodiac. After that, we got a call about some flying pyramids coming from Egypt. We were on our way to deal with it, but then we got covered in some white light. Next thing you know, we ended up here."
The mention of the 'white light' reached the ear canals of 'The Thing' himself, Ben Grimm, and thus raised a curious, rocky eyebrow. "That a fact?" Ben then pointed his large thumb at Johnny and himself as he shared his experience with that strange glow. "That same light covered me and Hotshot over here while we were watchin' the game."
A disappointed Johnny nodded in agreement. "Yeah, right up to the point where the Mets were about to win, and Ben was about to pay me twenty bucks."
Though Ben loved Johnny like a brother, he also viewed him as a source of eternal aggravation, one that would make him pull out his hair if he still had any. Upon hearing Johnny remind him of the bet they took, specifically how the Mets were about to beat his beloved Yankees, Ben saw nothing but red as he gave the young blonde a death glare. "Now, hold on, you little-!"
Johnny could tell that Ben wanted to hurt him. Anxious to prove that he was no pushover, the figurative and literal hotheaded Johnny was about to burst into flame and show his rocky friend what happens when one plays with fire. But before the tense situation between two of the most impulsive members of the Fantastic Four could escalate, a small transparent wall suddenly appeared between them before a single blow was struck.
A barrier was created by Sue, who projected it from out of her forehead, for along with turning invisible, she also possessed the ability to create transparent shields and constructs. Something that was the most useful, whether it was fighting off villains or shielding herself, her teammates, and other people near her from incoming threats, or in this case, playing din mother to her short-tempered brother and her husband's irritable best friend. "Rein it in, you two!" Sue commanded sternly, showing her patience, for their bickering wasn't as strong as it usually was. She then turned her attention to Reed, who appeared curious about this new Marble room they found themselves in. All of which caused Sue to let out an exasperated sigh; for while usually, Sue found her husband's curiosity charming, now was not the time for it. More importantly, she remembered that the last time she saw Reed was when he, as always, was working in his lab, which led to the uneasy Sue saying this. "Reed, please tell me this isn't part of one of your experiments!"
The sound of his wife calling his name was enough to snap Reed back to reality and make him turn to face not just a concerned Sue but the very annoyed expressions of his fellow heroes. "I'm sorry, what?" Reed asked, confused, then remembered that he was working in his lab and realized that his less-than-pleased fellow heroes thought that he might have something to do with this and thus held up his hands in defense. "W-Wait, wait!" Reed exclaimed nervously, then took a deep breath to settle his nerves before explaining himself. "Yes, it's true. I was working on something in my lab, but it was a prototype generator designed to power all of New York with clean energy for five hundred years. But before I could even test it, this 'white light' surrounded me, and well…here we are."
Upon hearing Reed's answer, Tony breathed in and sighed out his now in frustration. For one thing, he knew that as brilliant as his friend was, Reed's one-track mind when it came to science was always annoying and only made Tony further wonder why a woman as stunning as Sue saw in him. However, as he turned around, Tony soon spotted another person looking around the room with interest. That person was Dr. Stephen Strange, and the sorcerer's calm behavior caused a suspicious Tony to raise an eyebrow as he stated this theory. "Well, if science isn't how we got here, there's always magic."
Clint heard Tony's declaration, and as much as it pained him to admit it, he believed that his 'spoiled rich boy' of a teammate did have a point regarding magic being the likely cause. After taking part in battles against magical-based villains like Loki and Enchantress, the usually skeptic archer knew that magic was not only real but also something that was not to be underestimated and, in this case, not to be ruled out. Moments later, Clint saw Tony facing Stephen's direction, but before he could shift his gaze at the Sorcerer Supreme, the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent spotted a worried Peter on his left and narrowed his eyes at the masked young man in disdain. "And I think we all know who to thank for that!"
Through the corner of his eye, Peter noticed Clint staring daggers into him, and he was both offended and confused as he realized what the archer was implying. "Whoa, whoa, wait a sec! What makes you think I had anything to do with this?!"
"Well, you did piss off a lot of people after your little 'wardrobe change,' bug boy!" Clint explained angrily. "Maybe one of them is that Mysterio clown you've been known to tussle with, and not only did he decide to bring you here, but for some God knows why reason, all of us too!"
Though Peter didn't blame Clint for being angry, he still couldn't help but feel perplexed by this accusation. "Whoa, whoa, hold on!" Peter exclaimed with his hands held up, then briefly exhaled to settle himself down so he could explain his innocence. "Look, when the white light got me, I was in my apartment and out of my costume! Which, if it makes you feel everyone feel better, I was about to toss into the Hudson and stop being everybody's problem!" Upon giving this answer, Peter could see everyone look at him with still angry expressions, some of whom were stunned at how this one young hero was considering giving up.
Chief among these surprised heroes was Steve Rogers himself, who always saw Peter as an outstanding young man and saw firsthand that he had great potential when he helped him fight off the terrorist group known as the Serpent Society, all while underneath a collapsing sewer, trying to save civilians. The memory of this faithful day was enough to make the soldier have enough faith in Peter that he would be strong enough to learn from his mistake and earn everyone's trust back by continuing to save lives as he always did. But upon hearing the young man's decision to give up, Steve could only look at him with disappointment and heartbreak.
Peter could feel his stomach knotting up as his fellow heroes, many of whom he looked up to, looked down on him with condemnation and knew they had every right to feel how they felt about him. But regardless, he continued to explain himself. "Point being, if there's anyone powerful enough in magic to not only find out who I am and bring us all here, I know that it's not Beck! He's nothing but smoke and mirrors and doesn't even use real magic!"
Surprisingly, Peter had only one person in this gathering of heroes who supported him. That person was Stephen Strange, who still appeared transfixed in these odd new surroundings. "The kid's right," called out the calm Stephen, especially when it came to Quintin 'Mysterio' Beck, a man who came to him just two years before asking to train him but obviously refused.
Suffice it to say that this caused all suspicion to fall on the Sorcerer Supreme. And Tony, who looked at Stephen with narrowed eyes, was the one to be vocal about it, as always. "You don't say?"
"Before you say anything else stupid, Stark, no, I didn't bring us here," Stephen clarified sharply without turning to face the eccentric billionaire and continued to look around the room with intrigue. "Still, something about this place seems…familiar."
Steve immediately took a step forward to confront Stephen. As cryptic as he was, he knew the sorcerer had some idea of what was happening and needed to get as much information as possible. "How familiar?"
"Only from what I've read about in one spell book within the Sanctum's library," replied Stephen. It told of a being that was so powerful that it made Galactus look like a giant teddy bear!"
As Stephen went on to explain what being he was referring to that could dwarf the planet-eating entity that nearly devoured the Earth, the word 'library' seemed to trigger the X-Man, Piotr Rasputin, and make him freeze in pure terror. As it reminded him of when he was back in…
THE XAVIER INSTITUTE
…more specifically, when he, Kitty, and Rogue, all out of their uniforms and in regular clothing, were in the library standing in front of an opened hidden doorway behind a bookcase with Piotr and Kitty on the right side of the door while Rogue was on the left. They all guided the running children, all in their pajamas and lined up in a single file, into the doorway that led to the lower levels of the mansion. The reason was that they saw the news coverage of the flying Pyramids being spotted flying in the air via footage sent by on-lookers in the streets of Cairo. Thus, they assumed the worst for their teammates in Egypt and proceeded with Logan's orders to get the children to shelter.
Usually, such an extreme circumstance would scare any child into a panic. Still, oddly enough, these young students of the Institute seemed calm as they made their way through the doorway and to the bottom of the mansion, especially for two particular female students who were the closest to him.
The first was a skinny, fair-skinned thirteen-year-old red-headed girl named Tilde Soames, who was brought to the mansion due to her mutant ability to manifest her nightmares and make what she dreamt of real. It was an ability that proved quite dangerous and scared even the girl herself, for she once unintentionally created a building-sized monster that nearly destroyed a city. It was thanks to the efforts of the X-Men, more specifically Rogue, that she would bring this ability under control, and she's been in the school learning to control her powers ever since.
The second was that of Pitor's pale-skinned, blonde-haired little sister named Illyana, who held on firmly to Romeo's left hand to avoid falling and getting trampled by her new schoolmates. Like Tilde, she, too, had an emerging mutant ability that would be considered chaotic, as it somehow allowed her to gain access to the dimension known as Limbo.
Most distressing of all was that both girls' powers, though different, reacted based on their emotions. And it was when they were under tremendous stress and fear that things became chaotic. All of this made Romeo's job difficult, as he had to focus extra hard on both Tilde and Illyana to keep them from panicking, and thus giving himself such great strain, he started to gain a migraine.
The process of getting the children to lower levels ran smoothly. However, just seconds later, something surprises the children. Especially Romeo, so much so that he stops concentrating and allows the calmness he created for the children to fade away.
That surprise was the cosmic white glow beginning to consume Piotr, Rogue, and Kitty, which understandably shocked the three X-Men as well.
"Piotr!?" Illyana exclaimed, her fear escalating as Romeo's calm influence wore off.
Piotr was momentarily brought out of his stunned silence when he heard his sister's voice. He looked up and saw her frightened face and tears running down her cheeks. "ILLYANA-!" Piotr screamed as he reached up to her, but before he could tell her to keep following the students downstairs, the entire room was consumed in white light, and seconds later, Piotr, as well as Kitty and Rogue, ended up in…
THE BEYONDER'S THRONE ROOM
…where the memory of his sister's frightened face made Piotr's eyes grow large with fear and panic. 'ILLYANA!" The muscular X-Man yelled hysterically, then immediately ran past and nearly knocked down two of his teammates, Bobby and Hank, as he began his desperate search for his little sister. "WHERE ARE YOU, SNOWFLAKE?! ILLYANA!"
Out of all the heroes to stop the panicky Piotr, it was the rocky Ben Grimm who placed his large, three-fingered, Stoney hand on the X-Man's massive chest. "Hey, hey, hold your horses, pal!" Ben told the anxious Peter, trying to sound reassuring, despite finding the role of supporter a little off-putting, as he usually used his fist to bring down a rampaging large man rather than words.
The idea of anyone stopping him from saving a member of his family never sat well with Piotr, whether it was by ordinary humans or, in this case, a rock man who was globally known as a hero as opposed to a monster, which was what Piotr and his fellow X-Men were referred to. Nevertheless, this sparked enough anger within Piotr to make him instinctively activate his mutation. Which was to instantaneously convert every tissue in his body into an organic metal-type substance, making him, unlike Tony, a true man of iron. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Piotr roared in a rage, then would his steel right hand backward and nailed Ben in his rocky jaw with an uppercut, which, in his metal form, was strong enough to knock the Fantastic Four's powerhouse off his feet, causing the rest of the Fantastic Four to run towards him in worry.
Naturally, the sight of the Blue-Eyed Thing receiving a punch powerful enough to knock him down shocked members of the Avengers and X-Men alike, but for those like the Hulk, he only growled angrily and then pounded his fists together. "Finally! A chance to smash!" Hulk said, seething, not because he liked Ben, but because out of all the fights they've had, the green-skinned powerhouse felt that only HE and he alone could bring down the Blue-Eyed Thing. As such, he used his massive legs to propel himself forward, then once he got close enough, grabbed Piotr by the throat and pinned him down to the floor.
As the heroes stood shocked at the situation going from bad to worse, this caused Tony to roll his eyes in aggravation because, just like any other disasters that he and the Avengers faced, the Hulk may have just made it worse due to his loving for 'smashing.' "Oh, beautiful," Tony muttered sarcastically but was then alerted by a beeping sound coming from his chest. This prompted him to look down and saw that it came from the Ironheart, which also had a small flickering blue light, indicating that it was now out of sleep mode and back online. Not wanting to waste another second, Tony quickly used the tips of his right index and middle fingers to tap the blue light, which in turn released the nanites in their silver liquid form, allowing them to flow out of the Ironheart and consume Tony's entire body in a matter of seconds. It didn't take long for the nanites to take the shape of the Mark L armor and for its systems to come online.
One of the systems was that of J.A.R.V.I.S., who transferred his data from the Avengers Mansion headquarters to a space satellite owned by Stark Industries and into the Ironheart. Something considered a safety precaution should the armor pick up energies associated with transporting Tony's matter from one place to another. "Greetings, sir," said J.A.R.V.I.S. in a pleasant tone. "Data transfer complete, and all Mark L backup systems are online."
"And not a moment too soon!" Tony declared, then, with a mental command, his jet boots powered on and thus flew straight towards Hulk like a torpedo for the seemingly impossible task of prying his green-skinned teammate off the struggling Piotr. The rest of the Avengers, as well as the Fantastic Four and X-Men, were not far behind.
Another science lover who witnessed the fight between the two strong men of their respected teams was Hank Pym, who, disturbingly, had a sadistic grin on Hank Pym's face. A smile that did not belong to the brilliant pacifist that Hank had long thought to be, but rather that of the 'Yellowjacket,' a persona that Hank inadvertently created via the stress and guilt of creating Ultron, one of the team's most powerful enemies and one who wanted to destroy all humanity. "Hey, don't hog all the fun, Jolly Green Giant!" Hank called in a bold, arrogant tone, then clicked his belt to activate his suit's Pym Particles to shrink to insect size, then used the suit's flight capabilities to fly towards the Hulk.
All of this frightened and worried Jan, as she had gotten to know Hank's new persona firsthand and how it already made whatever disaster they faced worse than they already were. "HANK, NO!" The wide-eyed Jan cried out, then quickly shrunk down herself and, as her wings sprouted out, flew after her former partner just as the Avengers and X-Men had gathered around Hulk to try and pry him off the struggling Piotr.
The only hero who seemed hesitant to try and contain the Hulk was the young Peter, who, despite possessing enough strength to bench press a car, wasn't sure if it was enough to take the Hulk head-on. However, just like all problems, his conscience told him to honor his late uncle; he had to help out in any way he could and thus let out an exasperated sigh. "Come on, Parker, they may hate your guts, but you still have to at least try to help them!" he thought, then pointed both of his hands upward, with the tips of his middle and ring fingers on top of the trigger buttons of his web-shooters underneath his gloves, to shoot two web-lines at the ceiling and hurl himself in the air and on top of Hulk's shoulders, where he would grab his eyes and hopefully get him off Piotr and allow the much strong Avengers like Thor and Ms. Marvel subdue him down. Steve could talk some sense into him.
However, before the chaos could increase even further, the commotion among the heroes was brought to an abrupt halt when that same blinding light consumed the room, followed by a commanding, booming male voice. "ENOUGH!" The voice echoed, and though the heroes heard it, they were too busy rubbing their eyes in pain from the flash. As such, they did not see the light condense itself into a ball, which formed into the one responsible for this unusual get-together: The Beyonder. Despite the heroes 'rowdy behavior,' he still chose to be a gracious host and waited for their vision to clear before introducing himself properly. It didn't take long for the heroes to regain their senses, and once they all looked at the omnipotent being in white with shock and confusion, the Beyonder finally addressed them. "Heroes of Earth…welcome."