***
God damn it, Eric! His faith in is too strong!
It played a cruel joke on us when Apocalypse, carrying Xavier's body and that white-haired girl, barged into his house alongside .
I stayed silent. I tried my hardest to maintain a "glassy" stare, my entire deanor literally screaming that sothing was wrong here. That this was a trick, an ambush, a setup...
But Apocalypse just said, "Co, I will make you stronger." Eric looked at and, without any questions, objections, or clarifications, just went along with him.
I swear, if we make it out of this shithole alive, I'm going to chew him out so badly he won't be able to sit down for a week!
Although, looking at it from another angle: Old Man Nur wouldn't have just let him go anyway. And a battle between an External and an oga-level mutant inside his own ho, in the presence of his wife and two kids—not to ntion Xavier hanging over my shoulder like a limp sack—wasn't exactly the best idea either.
So maybe he wasn't entirely wrong in his decision not to kick up a fuss?
We teleported into a pyramid. En Sabah Nur gestured for to lay Xavier's body on a table in the center of the room. I complied, but in the process, I dragged a claw across one of the thick lines leading to the head of the table. I scored it good and proper, cutting about three centiters deep.
I wasn't sure if it would actually help, but the urge to do sothing nasty to this arrogant, grandiose snob with blue lips was already unbearable.
The External threw open a niche in the wall for Eric, just as he did for the white-haired girl.
Eric, that bastard, stepped inside without hesitation, not doubting for a single second. No one even asked the girl—Old Man Nur just picked her up by the scruff of the neck like a kitten and placed her in the niche. The "doors" closed.
En Sabah Nur placed his hand against one of the stripes on the wall, and a "control panel" rose from the floor, just as strange as everything else around here. But functionally, that pedestal simply couldn't be anything else. The External began performing so kind of manipulations. The lighting in the room started to flicker slightly, as if the "generator" couldn't keep up with the increased load.
And then the pyramid shuddered. Once, twice, three tis. The External pulled away from the console in bewildernt and irritation.
The pyramid shook again, and En Sabah Nur, frowning, headed for the exit.
anwhile, I quickly stepped over to Charles and slapped him a couple of tis. Not hard, just enough to start waking him up. It was about ti; enough minutes had passed since his stupid ntal attack on the uninvited guest. Xavier groaned, and I hurried back to my spot, resuming my impression of a pillar of salt.
Right then, the External returned. In the company of my wife. My very irritated wife.
*I am a pillar, I am a pillar, I am a pillar. A dumb, silent pillar.*
"You are crossing the line, En Sabah Nur!" she said, walking beside the master of the pyramid. She didn't look particularly imposing while doing so.
"In what way, Sorcerer?" he replied impassively. "I have not violated the Treaty. There is not a single mage here. No magical artifacts, active pentagrams, or spellbooks. How am I 'crossing the line'?"
"By the fact that my husband is here!" Suo retorted.
"Husband?" the External scoffed. "First and foremost, he is a mutant, which ans his presence here does not violate the Treaty. Furthermore, he ca here voluntarily, so I see no grounds for your complaints, Sorcerer."
"Let's assu you are technically right, External," Suo frowned. "But you are currently risking making a personal enemy out of , because you used MY husband for your dubious experints."
"He ca here himself," the External repeated. "Besides, it is too late. He has already undergone the transformation... unsuccessfully."
"What do you an, 'unsuccessfully'?" Suo frowned even deeper.
"His brain died. His mind is destroyed. His heart stopped. He was dead for over two hours. That is no longer your husband, but an empty shell with the re beginnings of a mind. An animal."
"Do you realize what you just said?" Suo's face smoothed out, her voice becoming level, calm, and quiet. "Did you just say that you killed my husband in your... experints? Even though you knew he was my husband? Did I understand that correctly?"
"Absolutely," the External nodded. "And now, get out, Sorcerer! The Treaty has not been broken. You can do nothing to , and if you try, you yourself will beco the violator of the Treaty!"
"You will regret living to see this day, En Sabah Nur," Suo said slowly and calmly. "Your death will be agonizing and v-e-e-e-ry long."
With that, she turned her back on him and walked out of the room.
"Aren't you afraid?" asked Xavier, slipping off the "chopping block." "I think she was quite serious about her threats."
"It doesn't matter," En Sabah Nur replied. "She is the Sorcerer Supre. The Treaty binds her hand and foot. And she has no one to pass her title to. If she makes even a single move, it will start a war."
"No one right now. That doesn't an she won't find soone in the future. Then nothing will stop her from carrying out her threat."
"She won't have the strength. Ti is working against her. Very soon, I will beco invincible. And you are going to help with that. But first, I will fulfill a promise I made." The External moved toward Charles.
"What promise?" Xavier tensed and backed away, sensing sothing was wrong.
"I promised the man he used to be," Apocalypse nodded at . "That I would show him how the 'little humans' would be left without their weapons. And I will keep that promise."
"But you just said he was dead?" Charles continued to back up.
"You are right, he is dead," the External nodded calmly, stepping closer. "But long-livers have a thing about promises. A reputation is built over centuries, but it can crumble in an instant."
"What are you going to do?" Charles backed into the wall, pressing against it.
"Speak," En Sabah Nur answered. "With everyone," he added.
The wall behind Xavier abruptly vanished. He tumbled backward and collapsed into a chair that imdiately paralyzed him, stripping away his ability to move.
En Sabah Nur nodded in satisfaction and returned to the "console" he had left behind. He spent about twenty minutes making so adjustnts, the lights flickering again, before two niches opened. Eric and, most likely, Storm stepped out of them. I vaguely rembered her being called Ororo in the comics, but I hadn't had a chance to properly et her here yet.
"Let us begin," the External said, nodding to himself again as he cast a satisfied look over them. Then he walked up to Xavier and leaned in so that his eyes were exactly level with the telepath's. "You have power. That power is imnse. You can be everywhere. All at once. Speak to everyone, decide for everyone..."
"I can't," Charles tried to protest. "Without Cerebro, I'm not that strong. I can't..."
"Nonsense," the External replied calmly. "Cerebro... Crutches. Useless crutches with which you limit yourself." He cupped the telepath's head in his hands. "You don't need crutches when you have ..."
Xavier thrashed in his grip. It looked absurd, considering only his head could move while the rest of his body was paralyzed. A few seconds of struggle, and he went completely still, his gaze turning glassy. The External remained standing in front of him, holding his head, which began to rapidly bald. Hair fell away in entire clumps.
"Incredible power..." Apocalypse murmured. "Thank you for letting in, Charles..."
At that mont, I felt sothing try to brush against my mind. I imdiately imitated the Beast—which, by the way, I still couldn't actually feel. The imitation must have been convincing, because the pressure practically vanished. At the very least, they stopped trying to invade my consciousness. Instead, it was as if they were opening a small channel for to sothing larger, like letting connect to the Internet through a router.
I saw it...
"Oh... Everything is as it always was..." the External spoke, while I saw thousands upon thousands of military personnel flashing by in rapid succession. "But no! No more stones for you... No more spears... No more bows... No more systems... No more superpowers..."
En Sabah Nur truly was grandiose. He was keeping his promise: people all over the world were destroying their weapons. Launching missiles, blowing up tanks, ruining airplanes, helicopters, ships... It was spectacular...
"No!" Charles's desperate but powerful voice suddenly echoed across the "network."
The next second, the "network" collapsed. The External released Xavier and shook his head. The telepath showed no signs of life. Wait, no. I looked closer: his chest was rising, he was breathing, albeit weakly, his heart was beating, and he didn't sll like death. Apparently, he had just passed out from the imnse strain, or knocked himself out on purpose to stop what was happening.
By the way, I was sowhat lost: how much ti had all of this actually taken? Definitely more than a minute. Prepping a nuclear missile for launch, even if it's constantly aid at a target, isn't an instantaneous process. Not to ntion the fact that they had to be retargeted. And that was happening all over the globe. So this whole ordeal must have lasted at least a couple of hours, but the feeling of being involved, of being connected to what was happening, completely threw off my sense of ti.
The External straightened up and stepped away from the telepath. He began tinkering with the tables in the center of the room, adjusting things, preparing and calibrating. Again, more than just a minute or two passed while he was busy with that.
Suddenly, the pyramid shook. Then again. Apocalypse's cheek twitched in irritation, and he marched briskly outside.
Eric, the girl, and I followed him. I hadn't seen this place from the outside yet. It really was a pyramid. Not massive, but definitely about the height of a five-story building. Its facets glead in the sun, and behind it stood a statue easily three tis its size: Apocalypse sitting on a throne in his armor, majestic, grandiose... Hmm, that kind of galomania sparked certain thoughts about compensating for certain complexes. Was his... dignity... on the small side?
But that was a minor detail... Man, I was getting sidetracked. The main issue lay elsewhere: about four hundred ters away from the pyramid, that strange X-n flying contraption—which I couldn't bring myself to call an airplane—hovered in the air. The Sumrs brothers were standing on top of it, shooting at the pyramid. Taking turns. As if they were competing with each other. Sitting next to them in a folding chair was Logan, smoking a cigar and sipping a beer from a bottle.
Off to the other side, sitting calmly on a beautiful, soft-looking carpet that hovered in the air through inexplicable ans, was Suo, holding a mug of tea. Next to her sat Mystique with a video cara. Behind them, at a distance of about fifty ters, people of varying ages and genders sat on similar carpets, wearing typical mage attire. Also present on those carpets were people in completely different clothing styles—specifically, an assortnt of outfits belonging to various nations and even eras. I recognized two of them: Selene and Candra. Presumably, the rest were Externals as well.
A group of Observers, no doubt. Suo had worked fast.
Cyclops's optic blasts... He was actually a pretty powerful guy when he let go of his control a bit. He was hamring it so hard that the pyramid was shaking, and cracks were starting to snake across its surface. His little brother was clearly weaker, but still no walk in the park.
En Sabah Nur thrust his hand toward the X-Jet (oh, I rembered what it was called), and his eyes glowed blue. Only, instead of the X-n's flying toy crumbling, the head of En Sabah Nur's statue fell apart.
"Witch," he hissed through his teeth. "Shoot them down!" he ordered Eric.
The X-Jet instantly plumted to the ground as if it had been swatted by a giant slipper. The mutants on it, however, were completely unhard. They dusted off the sand and dirt and resud their interrupted activity.
"She's mocking !" En Sabah Nur roared, but he didn't dare attack Suo. anwhile, the pyramid was cracking heavily under the Sumrs' onslaught. "Destroy them!" the External commanded Eric and Storm.
They obediently shot up into the air, but space warped so bizarrely that both of them ended up right in front of Suo. She swiftly slapped her palms onto their foreheads, and Eric and the girl collapsed onto the sand like limp dolls.
The External ground his teeth in impotence and rage. He couldn't attack the Sorcerer Supre right in front of the Observers without breaking the Treaty, and he couldn't destroy the enemies wrecking his ho because of her interference. And judging by the complete lack of reaction from the Observers, she was providing that interference without violating the Treaty.
En Sabah Nur clenched his fists. The next mont, he and I teleported directly onto the X-n's flattened craft in the sand. And this ti, he hadn't even touched .
The expected panic, however, didn't happen. Neither did any kind of commotion. The Sumrs brothers stopped what they were doing and looked at us with interest. Logan got up from his chair and walked right up to us. He burped, unzipped his fly, and proceeded to take a leak right on Apocalypse's boot.
Even I was stunned for a mont. Never mind the super-powerful mutant who had kept entire nations in fear for centuries. But I managed to pull myself together faster than the External could adequately react to the situation. And I kept my face stone-cold. I was a dumb animal, after all.
*Hmm... A dumb animal, huh?*
Under the dumbfounded gazes of both the External and the Sumrs brothers, Logan finished his business, shook it off, zipped up his fly, and took another swig of beer. While Apocalypse was boiling over, I ostentatiously flared my nostrils, drawing in the air as if sniffing it. That successfully shifted everyone's attention to , whereupon I unzipped my own fly and replicated Howlett's feat.
Well, why not? It fit the persona perfectly, and was very much in the spirit of the Lupines.
The next second, everyone was in pain. Except for and En Sabah Nur himself. Or maybe they weren't? The X-n's flying craft, along with the Sumrs brothers and Logan, simply vanished instantly as if they had never been there. I landed softly on the sand and straightened up. The External descended slowly and grandiosely in front of , utilizing his flight abilities.
He stared at . Once again, if I had Gar abilities, I would have leveled up my "Stone Face" skill by another forty levels over those long seconds.
I don't know what he would have decided to do with , because he got distracted. The X-Jet reappeared right where it had been. (I managed to jump out of the way right as it started materializing, and only because I was already on edge and expecting a dirty trick, but the pompous External didn't react in ti). Apocalypse ended up trapped inside that hulking piece of tal. On top of it, the Sumrs brothers sat down exactly where they had been standing, while Logan strolled over to his chair, took a sip of beer, and stared thoughtfully up at the sky. Apparently, the thoughts running through his head at that mont were of the utmost philosophical nature.
Then the X-Jet was ripped to shreds, and Apocalypse flew out, mad as hell. He glared at Suo, who was ostentatiously and calmly lowering her shiny green trinket.
The Eye of Agamotto, I recalled the na of that piece of jewelry with an Infinity Stone tucked inside, having read about it during my recent "journey to my roots."
En Sabah Nur wasn't saying anything anymore. He just growled and bared his teeth as he looked at her, but he made no attempt to attack. He was holding back. That Treaty of theirs must really be serious business.
I flared my nostrils; it felt like the air had suddenly grown humid and the breeze had turned chilly. Then I jumped about ten ters straight up into the air. Not out of danger this ti, but out of sheer surprise. Try not jumping when a lightning bolt strikes the ground just five ters away from you!
Ah, no, not the ground, I realized as a slightly scorched External landed next to , looking even angrier than before. I looked up. A massive, black thundercloud already covered half the sky. Hovering sowhere near its center with her arms spread wide was Storm in all her glory and power, her hair whipping in the wind, her eyes glowing white and sparking with electricity.
A loud crack and a rumble echoed from the direction of the pyramid. Everyone turned to look with interest. There, the pyramid was leisurely tearing itself out of the earth and ascending into the sky. All of it at once. Along with its entire underground section, which was about three tis larger than the part above ground.
The structure rose a hundred ters off the ground and began to "crumple" in mid-air, folding in on itself. As it did, the stone crumbled away into fine gravel, exposing the tallic frawork underneath.
It was an incredible spectacle. The sheer scale of it staggered the imagination. It was obvious to that Eric had just joined the ga of "piss off the External." However, Magneto himself was nowhere to be seen, which was incredibly smart—his World War II experience was showing. The tactic of "first dig yourself in as deep as possible, and only then hamr the bastards" had been thoroughly drilled into the boy then known as Max by both and the Germans. So, he had dug himself in. Try digging him out now. Or rather, try finding him.
Distracted by the gravel cascading from the great ruler's forr citadel, I forgot about Storm again. Big mistake. Because the thundercloud now covered the entire sky, and Storm definitely hadn't forgotten about Apocalypse. The next lightning strike made jump almost higher than the last one.
The second lightning bolt was followed by a third, then a fourth.
En Sabah Nur thrust a hand toward Storm and utilized his power, completely disintegrating his own statue in the process until not a trace of it remained.
The External unleashed a loud roar and turned toward Suo. She ostentatiously opened a large, colorful umbrella over herself and her companion. The mont she did, the rain poured down. A heavy downpour. Accompanied by massive lightning bolts that struck the exact sa spot over and over, as if tethered to it.
anwhile, all the stone had crumbled off the pyramid into fine dust, leaving nothing but tal behind. And there was a hell of a lot of tal left. All of that tal abruptly compacted into one dense sphere. Sothing exploded violently inside it (probably around four or five kilotons' worth), but the force suspending it in the air was so imnse that the sphere didn't blow apart; it just "bulged." aning, it expanded sharply and instantly contracted back down, refusing to let any fire, shockwave, or shrapnel escape. It looked completely badass. Then, long, sharp "icicles" began protruding from the fully ford sphere, launching themselves at En Sabah Nur with the speed of a machine gun.
He unleashed his power at maximum capacity to defend against the barrage, disintegrating the projectiles before they could even hit him. It created a sort of impenetrable sphere with the External standing dead center. A very angry External.
A fragile dynamic equilibrium was established. And then my "freeze-fra" kicked in.
Without overthinking it, I "jumped" inside the External's defenses and slashed all his armor to ribbons with strikes from my katana. And slashed him to ribbons while I was at it. Then I "jumped" back to my spot and "released" the freeze-fra. And I did it voluntarily. It shocked so much, plunging so deep into my own thoughts, that a terrifying scream from Apocalypse made flinch.
I jerked my gaze back to him: his armor was falling apart, an arm had dropped to the ground, and horrific wounds covered his entire body. His head, unfortunately, stayed attached, and he didn't collapse into a pile of minced at like I had hoped—that's a reinforced healing factor for you. But it didn't save him. The split second he was distracted by the pain proved fatal: he was impaled by Eric's tal spikes while simultaneously being fried by Storm's lightning, which his armor could no longer deflect. Then the Sumrs brothers joined in, hamring the agonizing External with blasts of an energy nature I didn't quite understand.
*Yeah, I wouldn't want to be in his shoes,* I sighed, looking at what was left of the fearso Apocalypse. Or rather, at the absolute nothingness. Not a single molecule of him remained. Just a crater in the sand.
Then I shifted my gaze to Suo and Mystique, who were calmly drinking tea. Mystique had set her video cara aside, shivering involuntarily. Looking at their faces, I understood Eric with all my soul—he was in absolutely no rush to dig himself out, even though the massive tal sphere had already lowered to the ground. Even the rain was starting to let up...
And I still have to explain myself to my wife today... Maybe I should go bury myself sowhere too?
***
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