บท 118: The Time for Change
"Apocalypse"
His eyes shot towards me, then swiveled towards Pietro's passed out form and Wanda, who was bound by my magic.
"Ah, it seems you have met my horsemen. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask for them back." He said with a booming voice.
With a wave of his hand, Apocalypse broke Jean's telekinetic hold on Pietro and we all watched as he floated towards him.
I had to admit he looked more menacing in person than the depiction shown in the movies. Standing at 7 feet tall, blue-Grey skin with his ornate armor, he cut an imposing figure.
Apocalypse touched Pietro and a moment later his arm was repaired.
"Hmm... I think I have just the thing. From now on, no one will be able to break you."
A reddish glow emanated from Apocalypse's hand and was transferred to Pietro's body.
Magneto turned to him. " You gave him Shaw's ability?"
" Yes. His ability shall be used to protect your son. "He said.
Watching Apocalypse casually gave Pietro a new power. I was filled with consternation, but on the bright side, Pietro was still under the sleeping spell and won't be waking up for the next few hours.
" Who the fuck are you two! " Wolverine growled out.
At that, Magneto turned to us and a sudden look of recognition briefly passed over his face.
" Why am I not surprised it's the mutt who's barking? " Magneto said, and waved his hand and all the X-Men froze.
" Erik? Is that you?" Charles asked, recognizing his friend.
"Wait. That's Magneto, isn't he supposed to be super old?." Bobby blurted out.
Growing annoyed, Magneto shouts
" Enough!"
I took a moment to survey my surroundings. The rest of the X-men seemed to be paralyzed. Their eyes were moving around in panic. Only Jean and I weren't affected.
" What are you doing to them?!" Jean said.
" Ah, Jean, my dear. I see you're still running around with Charles' castaways. To answer your question, I just controlled the iron in their blood. The mutt in particular has a considerable amount of it. " Magneto said.
"You can do that?" Jean kept him talking.
Magneto smiled. " I can do a lot of things now." His eyes moved to Wanda. " Come, my child."
I stepped forward. " She's not going anywhere."
I laid a hand on her shoulder. < I'm not going to hurt you. But, he's got my friends.> I communicated telepathically.
At my voice in her head, she gave me an impertacible nod. Meanwhile, Magneto's eyes narrowed.
" So, he's the one? " Apocalypse asked.
"Yes. He's the one who took away my powers." He said.
Apocalypse examined me. " You're a magic user, aren't you?" He asked.
" Magic?" Magneto said.
" In my time, There would be a priest chosen by each generation to enact my will. It was normally passed down from father to son. " He turned to Magneto. " Your daughter has the gift too. Even more powerful than his. " He said.
I frowned. I didn't like where this was going. It felt like they were up to something.
The only reason I hadn't attacked yet was the fact Magneto had taken everybody hostage.
Magneto's powers weren't actually restricted to controlling metals.
It was electromagnetism, which was one of the four fundamental forces of the universe. It gave him a much larger scope of abilities, and allowed him to perform much more impressive feats. One of them was, Organic Iron Manipulation.
Which gave Magneto the ability to control the traces of iron within organic matter, which allowed him to have full control over an opponent's body.
Theoratically he could manipulate the iron-enriched blood-flow to one's brain to induce aneurysms or unconsciousness, alter thoughts and perceptions, or blank a person's mind completely.
He could even remove ferrous compounds from the bloodstream entirely through a person's skin.
Only Jean and I were safe from him directly affecting our blood.
Mainly due to Jean's psychic ability which passively counteracted his magnetism. And, my own Endo-Sym Armor which was made of a Vibranium- Symbiote Nano weave.
It worked because Vibranium wasn't ferrous and with its vibratory and energy absorption components it prevented him from simply using the iron in my blood to rip me to shreds.
Which I suspected he was actively trying to do, judging by his glare.
" Let me make this clear. Release her. Or, I'll start removing limbs." He threatened.
At his words, Scott cried out in pain as Magneto pulled him out of the group. And held him in the air in front of us.
Ironically, Magneto picked Scott, who, if I were to be honest, wasn't a good bargaining chip.
I mean I wouldn't let him die. Especially in front of Jean. But, still...I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
Honestly, Orroro would have been a better choice, if she had been here. She was still in the Blackbird heading towards the mansion with Kurt who was injured.
Jean, seeing one of her friends being threatened, grew furious before strength radiated from the burning Phoenix flame that suddenly sprung up from her body.
They all flinched from the sudden brightness, but I had already started moving.
Taking advantage of the distraction caused by Jean. I ran up to them, and using the Space stone's power. I teleported us out of the mansion.
There were too many things that could go wrong. And, both Magneto and Apocalypse had the advantage since they practically ambushed us.
My first objective was getting those two away from the mansion. I couldn't let this escalate in a school full of kids.
My second objective was to get Magneto as far away as possible from anything metallic. So, I created a portal large enough to fit Apocalypse, Magneto and me. While simultaneously using a binding spell on Magneto and Apocalypse. And, with that we disappeared.
[ The Sahara Dessert]
I was still reeling from the strain of forcibly binding and teleporting Apocalypse and Magneto to the middle of the dessert. When I was suddenly hit by an attack. A concussive blast of raw destructive energy hit me, and threw me a ways off.
Apocalypse's enraged voice bellowed.
" Did you think I wouldn't sense your magic binding me sorcerer?! "
I was trying to stand, the air having been knocked out off me. The suit absorbed most of the energy blast, otherwise It would have been much worse. There was still a limit to how much my suit could absorb. And, Apocalypse wasn't holding back.
" It doesn't matter if you know about it. The point is to keep you occupied. Long enough for me to finish you off." I said.
"What did he do?" Magneto asked.
"His magic isn't allowing me to teleport, but I can break it with a little time."
Seeing an opening my eyes glowed in an ominous light. As I activated my [Chi Mode] boosting my strength and speed to three times it's normal level.
It's been a while since, anyone pushed me enough for me to use it.
Two long black stingers grew out of my wrists, and both were instantly coated by a layer of Vibranium as the nanites dug themselves in and sharpened them.
I rushed towards him without fear. When Apocalypse evaded, he suddenly moved behind me and waved a blade that sprang up out of his gauntlet.
I slipped to his right to dodge his strike, and at that moment, I suddenly opened my hand wide, turned around and shot a Venom blast. The shot got him right in the face and he stepped back and grimaced in pain.
Deciding not to give them room to recover. I immediately began bombarding them with spikes made of earth, to the point one could hardly make it out what was happening through the cloud of dust that formed.
Moments later, they emerged unscathed. A semi-tranparent force field surrounding them.
Sage's mutation worked overtime trying to dicpher what was happening, only to discover they were surrounded by a large Electro-magnetic force field.
"An old dog can really learn new tricks. Finally figured out your powers weren't strictly limited to controlling metals. Did you? " I taunted.
Magneto snarled as he flew into the air, still surrounded by his shield.
Meanwhile Apocalypse was still on the ground looking particularly pissed off.
Magneto raised both his hands in the air, his palms facing upwards." I'm going to make you curse the day you decided to go against me."
He summoned large chunks of Earth letting the earth's electromagnetic force flow through him and shape the earth around him and threw at me chunks and pieces of earth.
I could feel his powers affecting the very bonds that held the Earth. All held together by electromagnetic forces.
While some were blocked, other pieces were enough to destroy my hastily put up Mandala shields.
A beam of blue energy shot at me, but I blocked it with no problem, then I looked at Apocalypse, who just tried to sneak attack me with a beam extending out of his forefinger.
" You think yourself our equal sorcerer? I'll show you what happens to those who go up against Gods!" As he spoke his form began to grow and expand, reaching truly massive proportions.
" They get stepped on like ants!" He finished with a booming voice deep enough to rattle my very bones.
I gulped as I contemplated how to end this, preferably within the next few minutes. I didn't like how fast Magneto seemed to be adapting. Not to mention Apocalypse himself.
He was surprisingly fast, and doing a great impression of an enraged Godzilla. He stomped on the ground, trying to crush me. But, I zipped around faster than he could keep track off. I wasn't as fast as Pietro, but I was certainly faster than him.
I briefly contemplated taking them to the mirror dimension, but I knew Magneto would be wary of such an attack, and with Apocalypse covering his back. It would be that much harder to catch them by surprise.
Taking them both on, was proving to be a challenge with each of them covering for the other.
Apocalypse was extremely versatile as I was and had a plethora of powers and abilities to draw upon. Magneto was essentially a flying tank, one ready to exploit any opening I left and defend against anything I threw at him.
It seems I was going to have to reveal one of my trump cards, especially If I wanted to come up on top.
So, I summoned an earth hand that I used as a platform and jumped to punch Apocalypse's head off.
Using my Grav-Reactor core to increase my mass I shot off and hit Apocalypse hard enough to knock him down while still in his titan form.
The titan shook the very ground, as he crashed down on Earth digging trenches into the ground.
His form began to shrink, returning to his normal size. He was slowly getting up never having taken his eyes of me.
" You are strong. But, I think you know you can't take us both on."
I sighed. " Can't you guys just fuck off from wherever you came from? I don't see what's the point of all of this."
" My goal is simple. It's to eliminate the impure and be ruler of our kind. Peace does nothing to test, to increase mutants' strength. To force them to evolve into the strong "
I rolled my eyes." So genocide, followed by world domination. How original."
As the pace started to pick up, and we fell into a rhythm of attack and defense, our fight started to cover more of the desert.
A natural consequence of us both being as strong as we were was that when a hit landed we'd be knocked back a fair ways, and we could clear that distance just as fast.
And while I had gotten used to that type of fight over the past few years, Apocalypse had a lot more experience than that.
Magneto was still floating in the air surrounded by his shield. He had his eyes closed the whole time as if meditating.
My healing factor was allowed to catch up. The sensation of having my bones rearrange themselves and the muscle tissue reforming was beyond uncomfortable, but at least it kept me awake.
I was starting to grow exhausted from our prolonged battle. All whilst making sure I kept something in reserve in case Magneto suddenly decides to attack.
I cursed. ' It seems I'm going to have to opt for the nuclear option.'
I let Apocalypse's next blow knock me back. Increasing the distance between us.
My hand goes up to my ear. " Sophie is it ready?"
" Yes, payload should be arriving in 3 minutes." She said.
My eyes focused on Apocalypse who was charging up for another energy blast. And, Magneto who was still standing in the air with his eyes closed and his arms stretched out.
My enhanced senses picked up on faint tremors coming from deep underground. Coming closer by the second. Whatever Magento was trying to do I had a feeling I wasn't going to like it.
" Make it one." I said, before my spidey sense warned me to take to the skies.
I did it just in time to see a geyser of molten lava shoot out of the ground, turning the surrounding sand to glass, a byproduct of the sweltering heat.
The molten lava kept pouring out, seemingly without end. When Magneto suddenly opened his eyes.
" The time for subtlety is passing. Now is the time for 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲." He said, as the lava started forming into humanoid shapes.
(Chapter End)
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