* DISCLAIMER * This is a non-profit work of fan-fiction involving characters created and owned by Marvel Comics Group. * MATURE CONTENT * Nudity but no sex. Implied homosexual relationship. Mature language. If you have a problem with any of the above, please do not read this story. * WRITTEN BY * Samy Merchi * ARCHIVED AT * http://mash.yok.utu.fi/corona.html * STARRING * CYCLOPS! SCARLET WITCH! PHOENIX! ANGEL! POLARIS! FORGE! DAZZLER! Old friends and older friends alike, they have decided Charles Xavier is wrong in his credo of teaching humanity to co-exist with mutantkind by hiding the latter from the former. Instead, they have banded together to try and make the highest-profile effort possible to make mutants public heroes, and an accepted part of humanity at large. Currently, they continue the work of Freedom Force and the previous incarnation of X-Factor as a group of highly ranked operatives for the United States government. Samy Merchi presents: THE MYSTERIOUS X-FACTOR in ****************** * PLAY WITH FIRE * ****************** * GUEST STARRING * Pietro "QUICKSILVER" Maximoff * AND STARRING * Jeremy Irons as "MAGNETO" * CONTINUITY * + Shadows of the Future timeline. (http://mash.yok.utu.fi/corona.html) Roughly 3-5 years in the future. *** Genosha. A small island nation halfway between Madagascar and the Seychelles, it is a haven for mutantkind, ruled by one of the most infamous mutants of all -- Magneto, the Master of Magnetism. An economy built on the powers of a precious few, it is one of the world's most hi-tech nations, alongside other miniature giants like Latveria and Wakanda. The capital city of Hammer Bay has been rebuilt in recent years almost completely after it was all but entirely demolished by the civil war raging between the human, mutant and unitarian factions. The city sleeps, as much as it ever does, underneath pale moonlight as warm tropical winds blow thru the city, the glittering waters of the Indian Ocean surrounding the small island on every side. In the middle of the city, in the top floors of the newly erected administrative building of the Citadel, a troubled silver-haired man sleeps in his chambers, the soft ticking of a clock watching over him as it inevitably tocks towards the morning. *** "I suggest haste", Pietro Maximoff wrinkled his nose as he stood beside a huge twenty-foot diameter circular steel door, not alike many massive vault doors. He was dressed in a three-piece gray suit, the businessmanlike appearance of which was rather obviously contrasted by the Nike sneakers on his feet. The other foot was impatiently drumming against the marble floor of the finely polished stone corridor populated only by himself and five other figures. "It's working as fast as it can", Forge replied as his narrowed eyes focused on the little deciphering device he had attached to the door's locking mechanism, little symbols, images and text flashing on the flat LCD screen of the hi-tech skeleton key as it played a feverish game of tag with the cybersecurity systems of the lock. "You should just let me cut thru it", Dazzler smirked, crossing her hands and holding the index fingers straight out to mimic a pistol, letting her fingertips glow brightly with light that wavered in all prismatic colors for a moment, before she brought the fingertips before her lips, blew a puff of air at them, and let the light vanish. "Can't risk triggering security systems, Alison", Cyclops pointed out, sharing Pietro's anxiety and frowning slightly as he listened for any sounds in either direction down the corridor. His jaw tightened slightly, and he glanced at the woman beside him. "I sense them, Scott", Phoenix nodded as she kept mental tags on a squad of Magistrates -- Genoshan security officers -- half a dozen strong, exiting a barracks room some distance down the corridor and around a corner. "They're..." Her forehead furrowed slightly, before her eyes opened and she brushed some bangs of raven-black hair behind her ear, a worried expression on her face. "Coming this way." "Plan B?" Scarlet Witch asked, exchanging a brief glance with Cyclops, who gave the go-ahead nod. She moved over to Forge, raised a hand, and a scarlet glow surrounded it and Forge's deciphering device. Instantly, the LCD screen turned green with 'OPEN' flashing on it in large block letters. With a little hiss of air, the hermetic seals opened, the door no longer airtight, and then with an almost impossible silence for something of its massive size, it slowly swung open in a 180 degree arc, almost brushing against the opposite wall of the corridor. "Bring up the rear", Cyclops voiced quietly to Scarlet Witch as he hopped in thru the circular doorway, closely followed by Phoenix, the pair peering around carefully in ready stances as they took the point. Gray lightning flashed thru the gigantic doorway, and a fraction of a second later, Quicksilver was standing beside them as well. "Told you so", he stated with an upturned nose as his eyes scanned the sight before them. Inside, a huge factory hall opened up. The three mutants taking the point were standing on a metal grill catwalk several stories above the floor of the hall. The hall was square-shaped, roughly the size of half a football field. The far wall was lined by several storage silos of some kind, stretching from the floor several dozen feet up, almost reaching the ceiling. They were separated from the rest of the hall by some kind of transparent plexiglass wall. The rest of the hall was filled by machinery that was running even at that very moment, echoing a low rumble off the rough-hewn stone walls. "Holy shit", Dazzler gasped as she entered thru the doorway onto the catwalk, her eyes locking onto the storage silos on the far wall for a moment, then glancing over her shoulder as Forge, having detached his device from the lock, followed her. "It's true, isn't it?" she whispered to him. Forge's eyes narrowed and he walked over to the railing keeping the occupants of the catwalk from plummeting a few dozen feet down to the hard stone floor. He placed his hands onto the railing, and gripped a bit too tightly as he noticed his non-cybernetic palm starting to sweat against the metal. Slowly, he looked over to Cyclops and Quicksilver, and gave a nod. "I'll have to get in close to analyze and confirm, but those are the exact same kind of storage tanks the Chinese used to store the gas in." He let his eyes fall from the storage silos to the machinery spanning the floor, tubes running from the machines thru the plexiwall to the storage tanks. "Let's go." Scarlet Witch was the last to enter, waiting for the vault door to swing back shut and hopping inside just before it closed. She swallowed slightly at the sight her teammates were admiring. "Dear lord, father..." she murmured under her breath and bit her lip hard. She had hoped with all her heart that it wouldn't have been true -- that they would've found a medicine factory, or anything -- anything but this -- a plant for manufacturing the deadliest gas known to man. The gas that had been used to annihilate eighty percent of the population of former China. Cyclops glanced to Wanda, frowning sympathetically, letting his eyes linger on the woman for a few moments, before he started descending the metal grill stairs leading down towards the floor. "Let's move, X-Factor", he said as the vault door behind them hissed as its airtight seals locked back into place. *** Outside the door, a lithe brown-haired female figure drifted out of the shadows, her eyes narrowing. Then, she whirled around, and stalked towards an elevator, the doors swishing open before her, and swishing back shut behind her. *** "Pietro!" Cyclops shouted as gray lightning zoomed past him down the metal grill stairway, and he noticed a minute movement from the corner of his ruby quartz visor. A fraction of a second later Quicksilver stopped at the last steps of the stairway, and glanced up at Cyclops. "What?" he snapped irritably, standing in place as he waited for X-Factor to follow him. "Look OUT!" Scott shouted as a bright red optic blast lanced out of his visor at the very same moment as a pencil-thin beam of bright whiteness zapped out of a socket on the left-hand wall, high up near the ceiling. "ARGH!" Quicksilver shouted as the beam penetrated his left shoulder at the same moment that the optic blasts hit their mark unerringly, the impact exploding the socket into a cloud of powdered stone dust and metal wreckage. "Pietro!" Wanda shouted, taking a sudden step towards the stairs leading down to the factory hall floor from the high catwalk, and then gasped as another beam of bright white cut thru the air right where she had been. "There are more!" "We're out in the open!" Forge hissed as he started running down the metal grill stairway clattering underneath his weight. "No cover! We need to take them out before --!" "Taking things out is my specialty! Watch this!" Dazzler shouted and pointed her two index fingers towards the small, almost imperceptible socket in the wall which had fired towards Wanda. Two laser blasts shot out of her fingers, and an explosion destroyed the socket in a small detonation, the beam winking out of existence. Even then, two new beams shot out, one from the left, one from the right. "HEY!" Dazzler gasped as one of them hit her in the chest without any effect, while Phoenix blocked the one aimed at her by raising a telekinetic shield first in the beam's path, and then quickly sheathing herself entirely with the shield. "Lasers", Forge realized as he glanced over his shoulder at Dazzler's gasp and noticed the beam stopping onto her chest. "Static", he noted a moment later on observing the beams fixed on Dazzler and Phoenix, even as a second set of beams zapped out, towards him and Cyclops, the former impacting onto the air beside him as a telekinetic shield rose around him. "They're not moving." Cyclops turned his head quickly, glancing all around as bright laser beams suddenly started filling the air all over, one socket after another firing up and fixing another beam in place. "Of course", Forge said as he watched a webwork of lasers form around them as Phoenix shielded all five X-Factor members inside a telekinetic cocoon. "Laser web. The beams staying in place restricts our movement as the web tightens further and further until --" "We get the point, Mr Science", Dazzler pointed out. "Until they slice and dice us like that thing on the Home Shopping Network." "I can shield us", Phoenix said, "but if we've triggered a security system --" "Then security's probably already on the way", Cyclops nodded, then glanced towards the floor a few dozen feet below, where Quicksilver was standing, unpestered by the beams. "What if we just go down the stairs --?" "It'll follow us", Forge replied. "I've seen this technology before, it focuses on the largest concentration of intruders and tries to lock them down, slowly expanding outwards to encompass --" "It'll follow us is all I needed", Cyclops nodded slowly. "You've seen this before? Power source? Main control panel? Can we target either?" "Decentralized", Forge shook his head. "The laser cannons are both powered and controlled individually, only linked together by the network which allows them to share data and concentrate efforts -- but it's spread all over, not in any one location. We can't target any thing except the individual cannons." "Or the program itself", Cyclops's forehead furrowed in thought. "How does it track us?" "Sonar", Forge answered with a frown, and then blinked as something occurred to him. He glanced to Cyclops. X-Factor's leader gave a simple nod in return, and his head snapped over to Dazzler. "Destroy their targeting systems, Alison. They're bouncing sound waves off us." Dazzler blinked, and then smiled slightly. "Let me out", she said to Phoenix, who lowered the telekinetic shields around the blonde. Several lasers were focused on the spot where she was standing, but she was unharmed. Then, she cast her arms up high, and a perfect silence fell over the entire factory hall. The machinery sound was absorbed along with the sonar waves inaudible to the human ear as she converted it all to fuel for her light-projecting powers. The laser web winked out of existence. ((You can get us down there now, Jean)), Forge spoke telepathically, Phoenix relaying his words to the rest of X-Factor as regular speech would get absorbed by Alison just the same. X-Factor were swiftly lowered down thru the air to the floor by Phoenix's telekinetics, and glanced around to make sure there weren't additional threats as their feet touched to solid ground. ((And you can stop absorbing the sound, Alison)), Forge then said. By this time, Dazzler's natural radiance had brightened quite a bit from the absorbed energy, causing her to glow as intensely as a light bulb, making her hard to look at. She sighed in relief, slumping a bit, and the factory rumble flowed back into existence. Cyclops glanced up at the stairway and the catwalk. The laser web didn't spring back to existence, and everything remained quiet except for the background rumble of the machinery. He glanced over to Forge. "The program thinks we vanished", Forge explained. "It couldn't track us while Alison deprived it of its sight -- when it got its 'eyes' back, we weren't there anymore. It figures we teleported away and went back to an inert state -- until whatever we triggered, is triggered again. Probably a pressure sensor somewhere on the bottom of the stairway, since it targeted Pietro first." "Speaking of which", Cyclops turned his head towards Quicksilver, glancing to the silver-haired man's injured side. "I will live", Pietro mumbled, holding his side with one hand. "A lot of people will not, if this facility is allowed to remain." "He's right", Wanda nodded at her brother's words. "We don't have a lot of time. If the security are on their way here, so is --" Phoenix's face tightened. "Magneto." *** She stood in the middle of the darkened bedroom for a few moments, nibbling thoughtfully on her thumbnail as she watched the older man turn restlessly from one side to the other, his breathing quickening slightly, his sleeping face turning slowly into a frown, then tightening a little bit further as he sank deeper and deeper into his dark dreams. "Magnus?" she said, flipping the light switch on the wall beside the doorway, banishing the darkness in an instant. Then, she just stood silently in place, waiting for his reaction. He gradually stopped moving. Then, without warning, a trio of electrical cords snaked thru the doorway like living beings, and in a whiplash motion, wrapped themselves around the woman's throat. "You", Magneto hissed as he opened his eyes and glanced at the lithe woman in short brown hair. He rubbed his eyes briefly, and then frowned with a sharp glare. "Yes? What is it, Chief Magistrate?" "There are intruders in the Pyrrhos Plant", the woman replied, and watched Magneto instantly tense and wake up fully. "I've dispatched two squads of Magistrates, but --" She quirked an eyebrow. "It's X-Factor, Magnus." "X-Factor", Magneto said darkly, and got out of bed, the sheets falling from around him and revealing his nude body. He extended his arm towards his wardrobe, and his red and purple Magneto armor flew out, sliding over him in seconds, his helmet placing itself in his hand. "Who?" "Cyclops, Phoenix, Scarlet Witch, Forge and Dazzler", the woman replied, and then hesitated a brief moment, her expression turning hesitant. "The minister as well..." Her face darkened a bit. "Pietro." "I'm not surprised", Magneto said, levelling his eyes onto the woman. "We all knew he wouldn't stand for the plant's existence. It was only a matter of time until he would find out and call upon allies to help him destroy it." He raised his helmet, and slowly lowered it over his head, his eyes crackling once with blue electricity as the helmet slid into place. "Summon...Exodus." "Exodus?" the woman blinked, eyes widening a bit. "But --" "I *know*", Magneto decreed, and stalked out of the room. *** "Pyrrhos gas", Forge said, indicating with his laser pointer the chemical diagram projected onto the wall. "One of the most lethal substances known to man, most of you are familiar with it from its pivotal role in China's civil war last year. Used by some rural rebel factions, it became a horrible weapon of mass destruction when it ended up being used in rapid succession -- over the course of only a few weeks -- against most of China's major cities, all but annihilating their populations overnight without the destruction of any buildings in the --" Six other operatives of the US-sponsored 'X-Factor' intervention team listened in tense silence as their unofficial briefing unfolded before them. Only two days ago, their member Wanda Maximoff had been contacted by his brother Pietro, holding a high governmental position in the African island nation of Genosha. Pietro had allegedly discovered where the Pyrrhos gas used in China's civil war had been manufactured -- and worse, where it still was being manufactured. "-- of Pyrrhos' most interesting aspects in addition to being able to multiply and rapidly blanket large areas of inhabitation, is its ability to completely annihilate any forms of organic life, including micro-organisms. This slows down the decomposing of the massive amounts of bodies created by the gas. As we all know, this was part of what caused the rise of cannibalism in post-war China, as human bodies were the most widely available source of food. Fortunately for all of China, the gas doesn't permanently pollute or render unusable --" Wanda's hand absently rose in front of her mouth and she looked ill for a few moments. "-- area of effect grows geometrically but thankfully, the gas has a failsafe in its short lifespan. Any traces of it vanish from the affected area within weeks, preventing it from becoming a part of the food cycle and causing untold ecological disasters --" "Uh", Alison blinked slightly. "A billion dead people isn't an ecological disaster?" "In the specific case of the Chinese civil war, it certainly was", Forge gave a little nod. "I'm talking on a general level, though, Alison, in which case the short lifespan of Pyrrhos is an incredible advantage making it the equivalent of such anti-personnel weapons as the neutron bomb, killing people but leaving the buildings intact." "Sorry, Forge, but *nothing* that killed a billion people can be referred to as 'advantageous'", Jean shook her head disapprovingly. "We're going to find the plant that manufactured the gas that killed those people, and we're going to *destroy* it. I'm not here to admire the gas, I'm here because I want to make sure it isn't ever used again. End of discussion." "She has a point", Scott nodded slowly as he stood up and walked over to the front, taking the laser pointer from Forge and nodding to the older man to dismiss him back to the seats. "As far as the technical specifications of the gas go, we know all we need to know. Let's move on to the tactical side of this operation. I've talked with Pietro and he's arranged a way for us to get into the country incognito so we can try to pull this off without creating a diplomatic incident. The target area is on a subterranean level of the Citadel --" *** "It's Pyrrhos", Forge nodded grimly as he stopped in front of a rumbling machine and inspected its various displays, dispelling any last hopes and facing X-Factor with the reality of the situation. "These machines are manufacturing it, it's conducted through those tubes", he motioned to a series of tubes running from the machinery filling the room thru the plexiwall into the silo compartment, "into the storage tanks. Whatever you do, do *not* touch or damage the tubes." "Joy", Dazzler mumbled slightly, walking as far away from the tubes as she could manage without being left behind from the others. Then, she froze in place as there was a hissing sound that she couldn't quite place. "The seal!" Forge looked up from the machinery. "The door is opening. Someone's coming in!" "I'll take care of it", Cyclops replied. "Forge, Wanda, neutralize the gas, what*ever* it takes. Jean, Alison, watch over them!" he said as he dashed off, heading back across the factory hall towards the stairway leading up to the catwalk. At the same moment as Scott ran up from behind the row of machines closest to the stairs, a pair of Magistrates leaped thru the opened doorway into the catwalk, pointed their rifles at him, and opened fire. Cyclops broke to the right, snapped his eyes not towards the Magistrates, but at the stone ceiling above them. Red optic blasts lanced out of his visor, smashing into the ceiling and pulverizing a crater into it, a massive cloud of stone dust exploding out and enveloping the catwalk for a moment. A moment was all Cyclops needed, as he dashed over to the stairway, and crouched underneath it, quickly inspecting the last dozen steps or so while the cloud slowly dispersed. Again, fire was opened at him, as the Magistrates' vision cleared sufficiently to make him out at the bottom of the stairs. He ducked and rolled to the other side of the stairs, letting the rifle shots impact to the stairway for a few moments, before he reached out, and slammed his hand down on the sixth step up from the floor. Almost instantly, a bright beam of light zapped thru the air about halfway down the stairs, roughly at chest-level of an average person. Scant moments later, another beam cut thru the air higher up, shimmering in the slowly dissipating dust cloud and bringing out a cry of pain. Two more beams sprang into existence as the laser web started finding its targets and focusing onto the group of Magistrates up on the catwalk. They were soon followed by two more, then by four, eight, sixteen, as the air up on the catwalk grew thick with the web growing tighter and tighter. "It's the laser web!" "Somebody shut it the fuck off!" "MEDIIIC!" "Pull out! Pull out!" A hushed silence suddenly fell. The laser web winked out of existence. More silence. No Magistrates in sight, the dust cloud had dissipated. Cyclops crouched at the side of one of the front-line machines, taking cover behind it as he kept a close watch on the open doorway. And then, the figure in red and purple, his cape cascading behind him, eyes crackling in the shadows of his helmet, entered. Magneto stood on the catwalk, imposing, larger than life. The Magistrates weren't behind him, backing him up. He didn't *need* them. He just stood there, rigid as steel, immobile as a statue, and seemingly completely unworried about anything. "Scott", he spoke, his voice booming from inside his helmet and echoing easily over the low factory rumble. Finally, he moved slightly, his chin gradually lowering as his eyes surveyed the factory floor opening up underneath him. "I know you're there somewhere, ready for me. Just as I'm ready for you." He held a slight pause, before walking off the catwalk, the railing parting before him and letting him step into midair. "I offer you *one* chance to leave. Now. You will be escorted out of the country, unharmed." Cyclops frowned silently as he watched Magneto hover high in midair. Then, he stood up, and walked forward. Magneto's eyes locked onto Cyclops as soon as the younger man stepped forth. Inside his helmet, he quirked an eyebrow minutely. "You're not going to accept my offer", he simply stated, not even bothering to ask. "Don't be an idiot, Magneto", Cyclops replied. "Don't start a battle in here, or you'll end up killing us all. A battle between you and us would be destructive enough to destroy the storage tanks and release the gas." "Why battle?" Magneto simply asked, and suddenly Forge's form was yanked up into the air from the back of the hall, flying in a high arc towards Magneto, dragged by his bionic leg. "I have you, Forge", he said, turning his attention to the man dangling upside down in the air only a few feet in front of him. "None of the others have the technical expertise to neutralize the gas." "Yeah?" Forge hissed, yanking a pistol from its hip holster, and pointing it straight at Magneto's face, the barrel mere inches from the helmet. His eyes narrowed, his hand tensed, his index finger tightened on the trigger -- to no effect. "Yes", Magneto simply replied. "And you can stop squeezing the trigger. No matter how strong your bionic hand is, it's no match for my magnetic powers holding the trigger immobile." VAM! Magneto left a little smoldering trail behind him as he was blasted backwards right thru the circular doorway, slamming into the wall on the other side of the corridor outside the doorway. "Who says that was the only trigger?" Forge said as he, now unheld by Magneto's powers, plummeted towards the floor. THOOM! The vault door smashed shut as Phoenix soared into the air and yanked the huge block of metal into place. Metal gnashed and grinded as she twisted and wrenched it around to destroy any locking mechanisms. "I've got you, Forge!" she shouted as she telekinetically caught the inventor and lowered him to the floor. "Good work, Forge!" Cyclops called out. "But we're not going to catch him off-guard a second time! Get back to your work! Figure out how to neutralize the gas! We'll keep Magneto occupied as long as we have to! Alison!" "Ready and willing, handsome", Dazzler replied as she ran up to Cyclops. "What do you need?" WHOOM! "Plan Justice!" Cyclops shouted to Alison as the vault door blasted in as easily as if it were a soccer ball, and Scott quickly glanced over his shoulder. "Jean, the door!" "On it!" Phoenix growled, and used her telekinetic powers to brace herself in midair as she placed herself in the path of several dozen tons of flying metal. Her fiery bird aura flared into existence behind her, and then focused forward, energy flashing brightly as telekinetic energy blasted out. BOOM! The twenty-foot diameter, several feet thick disk split in half in the path of Phoenix's fury, the halves knocked to the sides and with jarring crashes embedding them in the walls at the height of a couple dozen feet. "Since you refuse the friendly approach", Magneto snarled as he hovered in thru the destroyed doorway, "I'll use my official position as the ruler of a sovereign nation. As representatives of the United States government, Cyclops, you and the rest of X-Factor are ten seconds away from causing a diplomatic incident unless you leave, this instant." "We're here strictly as private citizens, Magneto!" Cyclops replied as he cut loose with his optic blasts, jerking backwards slightly as red energy screamed from his eyes thru the air towards Magneto. "Yeah, and the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of our actions!" Dazzler smiled as she unleashed all the energy she had stored up from the sonar and the factory rumble in one tightly focused blast aimed to hit the same precise spot as Scott was targeting. "Fine", Magneto gritted his teeth as waved an arm, raising a magnetic shield to meet the attacks. "Remember, Cyclops, you brought this on yourselves --" ((Great)), Forge thought to himself as he zigzagged among the machinery towards the far back of the factory where he had been working until Magneto's interruption. "Wanda!" he waved an arm out as he approached his teammate rapidly. "Get ready to --" "-- to be taken down!" a woman shouted as she emerged thru the floor like a ghost right underneath Forge, holding hands with a figure in purple, black and gold as they soared up intangibly thru him. "ARGH!" Forge gasped as his cybernetic leg sparked and short circuited, locking up in place and becoming paralyzed as its circuits were fried. He stumbled forward, crashing to the floor but managing to catch himself with his hands. "Home is the warrior", white teeth flashed a grin from the darkness of a shadowed face framed by short brown hair. Chief Magistrate Pryde let go of the hand of her purple-black-gold companion and dropped to the floor in a catlike crouch as her companion soared higher. "Behold now -- the Exodus!" *** "Scott!" Phoenix gasped, her eyes widening, her head turning to glance over her shoulder as she sensed something on the other side of the hall while she was facing off with Magneto Magneto wasted no time eliminating his most powerful foe. As soon as Phoenix looked away, blue lightning crackled in his hands, and then streaked thru the air towards the redhead. "AIEARRGHH!" Phoenix screamed as her body spasmed from the electricity coursing thru it. Everything went black in her eyes, and she plummeted towards the floor, unmoving. "Jean!" Cyclops shouted, glancing up at his wife, and then snapped his head to the side. Gray lightning flashed up the metal stairway just as bright red optic blasts first missed the stairway, hit the wall behind it, ricocheted back, and finally smashed into the stairway at a point about a dozen feet from the floor. "UNGH!" Magneto stumbled forward slightly as a blur of a fist impacted to the back of his helmet as Quicksilver had used the stairs as a launchpad, having accelerating up them and then streaked into the air towards his father to administer a blow with the momentum of one of the fastest men on Earth. "Whoulff!" air escaped from Phoenix's lungs as the lower third of the stairway was blasted apart from the rest by Cyclops's optic blast and knocked to rest upon a piece of machinery, just so that it would catch the falling redhead. Phoenix rapidly tumbled down the stairs, until she lay still at the bottom. Quicksilver continued his course after attacking Magneto from behind, and ricocheted off a wall once before landing in a crouch atop a piece of machinery. "Now!" Cyclops shouted to Dazzler as he rushed towards Phoenix. Dazzler spread her arms, and a blinding lightshow sprang into existence, aimed straight towards Magneto, with her at the very center. Magneto instinctively raised his hand to shield his eyes, but too late. Spots swam in his eyes, everything was a multicolored blur as his eyes tried to cope with the sudden overload. Cyclops, crouching beside Phoenix, two fingers placed at her throat to search for a pulse, turned his eyes towards Magneto and unleashed an optic blast. "Sorry", a familiar voice spoke as the optic blast impacted onto something invisible in mid-air. "Can't let you hurt him", Exodus said as she hovered high in the air looking down on the battle. Scott's jaw fell as he turned to look at the erector of the telekinetic shield that had blocked his attack. Dressed in Exodus' purple, black and gold costume was a familiar redheaded woman. "Rachel", he whispered. "That's me, dad", Rachel Summers replied as a fiery bird erupted into existence behind her. "Surrender." *** VAM! VAM! VAM! Chief Magistrate Katherine Pryde tossed her head back and laughed as the blasts from Forge's gun passed thru her intangible form without effect. WHOOM! An explosion tore thru the factory hall as the blasts hit their true target -- the machinery behind Kate. The fireball erupting from the point of impact momentarily clouded her from sight, and when it subsided, a cloud of yellowish gas had billowed out by several dozen feet. Kate's smile quickly vanished as she was right in the epicenter of the cloud, and clutched at her throat, starting to choke. "FORGE!" Scarlet Witch screamed with horrified eyes. "We're all going to --" "No", Forge quickly shook his head as he pushed a button on his cybernetic leg, detaching it, and stumbled up, bracing himself against a piece of machinery as he started hopping towards Wanda. "The gas isn't toxic at that point yet. It has to run through the final process in the last machine before it becomes lethal." He glanced over his shoulder at Kate. "Take her out. Now." Wanda raised her hands above her head and scarlet energy grew in them. "She isn't invulnerable -- one hex bolt should be enough", she hissed, and cast her hands forward, a bolt of energy lancing out. Kate coughed and wheezed at the gas surrounding her, and hissed a glare in Scarlet Witch's direction, her eyes watered up, just barely clear enough to let her notice the preparation for the hex bolt. SHOOM! The bolt hit the floor right behind where Kate had been standing. She wasn't there anymore, though. Having leaped to the side, then flipped forward and up, she had landed outside the gradually dissipating gas cloud, and perched in a crouch atop a piece of machinery. With a swift motion, she pulled a pistol from a hip holster, and aimed at Wanda. VMMP! VVMP! "Kate!" Wanda shouted as she whirled towards the younger woman and raised a hex shield in front of her, causing the charge of the pistol's plasma blasts to dissipate into thin air before hitting her. "This gas *has* to be destroyed! Don't you see? It was created for one thing, and one thing only -- to annihilate entire *areas* of human inhabitation!" "I don't like it either, Maximoff", Kate hissed as her blasts dissipated, and without missing a beat, swung her arm in a wide arc, sending the pistol streaking thru the air. "But we weren't the ones who used it. It's not our fault it was used. *Guns* don't kill people." "UNGH!" Wanda gasped as the pistol whacked her in the forehead, knocking her stumbling back a few steps, disoriented for a few precious seconds Kate used to leap down from atop the machinery, her leg poised straight in a leap kick. Before Wanda could react, everything went black for her as Kate's heel smashed to the side of her head. "*People* kill people", Kate said grimly as she stood over the unconscious Scarlet Witch. "And we weren't those people." POW! "GNH!" Kate wheezed as a silver blur streaked past her and a furious impact to her jaw sent her hurtling thru the air, smashing into the plexiwall separating the gas tanks from the factory hall. "No", Quicksilver snarled, his fists clenched as he towered over the downed Chief Magistrate who wiped a trace of blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. "You merely supplied the means for that mass destruction. Are you *mad*, Katherine Pryde?" *** "Magneto's right, dad!" Exodus gritted her teeth, the firebird behind her growing in intensity as she strengthened the telekinetic shields in front of her blocking the bright red optic blasts blasting out of her father's visor. "None of us like it that so many people had to die! But China was destroying itself anyway! The rest of the world has much better chances of surviving without it being a drain on our resources --" "*Everyone*'s a drain on resources, Rachel!" Cyclops shouted as he kept shifting the aim of his optic blasts, moving the beam all over the shield as if probing for weaknesses. "We don't have the right to choose who should get to be a drain and who shouldn't!" With that, his optic blasts suddenly intensified, as if having found the right spot. "AGH!" Rachel gasped as the optic blasts smashed into her side after ricocheting off her shields, to she shield Magneto had up defending against Dazzler, and back to Rachel herself. Smashing her into a piece of machinery, she bounced off it, to lie immobile on the floor. "Shield yourself from every side, Rachel", Scott said with a faint frown of worry. "Not just against frontal assaults." "And you, Scott", Magneto spoke as Cyclops' visor suddenly flew off his face and into the air, landing gracefully in Magneto's hand, "should learn to control your optic blasts without electronic crutches, if our paths are going to keep crossing as they have in the past." "Great!" Dazzler growled and pointed her arms towards Magneto. "Let's see how you like a concentrated light dazzle-blast!" Her body pulsed with light, growing bright as a star, and then all the light drained into her arms, focusing in preparation for being unleashed. "Now that I can fully concentrate on you, Alison", Magneto said as he turned his eyes onto the woman and stared at her blinding light unwaveringly, "you'll excuse me if I end this quickly." Dazzler's photonic blast lashed out, and then ended in mid-air as if cut with a knife. Alison's eyes widened in confusion, and then closed with a facial spasm as something hit the back of her head, and she collapsed limply onto the floor. Magneto dissipated the spherical lump of metal hovering behind where Alison's head had been, back into the air from whence he had condensed it. "Really, Scott", he said a bit wearily. "A light projector against the master of electromagnetic energy?" "I know", Cyclops responded, and opened his eyes. * DISCLAIMER * This is a non-profit work of fan-fiction involving characters created and owned by Marvel Comics Group. * MATURE CONTENT * Nudity but no sex. Implied homosexual relationship. Mature language. If you have a problem with any of the above, please do not read this story. * WRITTEN BY * Samy Merchi * ARCHIVED AT * http://mash.yok.utu.fi/corona.html * STARRING * CYCLOPS! SCARLET WITCH! PHOENIX! ANGEL! POLARIS! FORGE! DAZZLER! Old friends and older friends alike, they have decided Charles Xavier is wrong in his credo of teaching humanity to co-exist with mutantkind by hiding the latter from the former. Instead, they have banded together to try and make the highest-profile effort possible to make mutants public heroes, and an accepted part of humanity at large. Currently, they continue the work of Freedom Force and the previous incarnation of X-Factor as a group of highly ranked operatives for the United States government. Samy Merchi presents: THE MYSTERIOUS X-FACTOR in ****************** * PLAY WITH FIRE * ****************** * GUEST STARRING * Pietro "QUICKSILVER" Maximoff * AND STARRING * Jeremy Irons as "MAGNETO" * CONTINUITY * + Shadows of the Future timeline. (http://mash.yok.utu.fi/corona.html) Roughly 3-5 years in the future. *** A vast whiteness stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction. Ahead, behind, left, right -- even up and down, there was nothing to be seen. And in the middle of the blank-paperesque emptiness hovered a figure in green and gold, her ink-black ponytail wavering slightly in a faint breeze that rustled the golden sash tied around the hips of the Phoenix costume. "Rachel", Jean Grey spoke as the astral plane sluggishly started taking on vague forms and colors, slowly morphing and starting to take on the appearance of boundless sky, the whiteness everywhere starting to shift towards blue except for the billowing clouds what appeared like several hundred feet below. No reply came, causing Jean's eyes to narrow slightly. She soared a bit higher, sun glittering from the golden parts of her costume. It took her a moment before she realized that the temperature was climbing, and climbing rapidly. Her eyebrow quicked, and her head snapped around to glance towards the sun. Just as it exploded. Jean's lips pulled into a snarl, shielding herself as everything in sight turned into blazing fire, the sky burning from horizon to horizon. The psychic flames encompassed everything for a few brief moments, before dying out as soon as they had been born. With the clouds having been incinerated, Jean could now see a charred planet below, a city with alien-looking buildings that were nothing but smoldering husks, the streets strewn out with blackened corpses of humanoid beings everywhere as the world had come to a stop by a sudden armageddon of flame. "D'bari IV", a voice spoke, and Jean turned her head back towards what was left of the sun in the sky -- a fiery bird looking down from the sky towards her. "You're no stranger to massacres, genocides, and the deaths of millions, are you mom?" "Cheap shot, Rachel", Jean hissed, clenching her fists in reaction to the nausea welling gradually up in the pit of her stomach. "That wasn't me, it was the Phoenix. *It* destroyed the D'bari solar system when it was imitating my form!" "Really?" the firebird asked, and the flames of its body parted slightly as the red-headed woman with open shoulder-length hair, in purple-black-gold Exodus costume stepped forth thru it, the firebird remaining blazing behind her almost like the wings of an angel of vengeance. "Funny, then, isn't it, that the Phoenix hasn't gone on a killing spree whenever it's inhabited anyone else? The professor, me, or even when it was on its own in control of my body? Maybe it was *you* who wanted to kill, mom?" "It wasn't me", Jean replied sharply. "I don't care what anyone says, I'd never do anything like that! Ever think that maybe when the Phoenix copied my mind, it might not have done a perfect job? What*ever* the me-Phoenix was, I refuse to accept that I would kill a solar system of people, just. For. My. Own. *Pleasure*!" "Saint Jean", Rachel sneered sarcastically. "You'd *never* do anything like that, would you?" Her expression turned angrier. "*Everyone* can fall from grace, mom, and do things they'll regret! Accept it! Accept that that's exactly what you did!" she shouted, and cast one arm towards Jean, a blast of flame leaping forth and streaking towards the older woman. "Not a chance", Jean snarled and, throwing one hand forward, sent forth a psi-blast impacting onto the middle of the flame blast and parting it down the middle, sending the two halves careening off to the sides. "*Yes*, I can make mistakes! I can fly off the handle! I like hurting people, sometimes! I can kill! Hell, I can even believe that I could be corrupted to a state where I'd kill millions for my pleasure, but I *refuse* to shoulder the responsibility for something someone else did, unless you can *prove* that the Phoenix copied me flawlessly! I'm *not* going to tear myself apart over something that horrible unless I'm *sure* it's my fault!" "ARGH!" Rachel gasped as twin flame-blasts impacted onto her back, her own attack having been taken over and curled around to strike her from behind. She stumbled forward thru the air for a moment, the sky and charred planet winking out in that moment, replaced with empty starlit space. "Magneto's been corrupted by his power over Genosha, just like the Phoenix was corrupted by its own power!" Jean said sternly, as golden-colored armor winked into existence around her, a sharp blade springing up in her hand and a shield on the other arm. "You try to blame me for what the Phoenix did -- how can you let Magneto get away with what he's doing?" "You --" Rachel started, and took a moment to fix herself in place and form an armor -- red-colored -- around herself as well, her arms grasping a massive two-handed sword. "-- fine, the *Phoenix* did what it did for *pleasure*. We're *saving the world*. Don't you get it, mom? The Earth doesn't *have* enough resources to maintain as much people as there are right now!" "Who the *hell* makes *you* the one to decide who gets to live and die, then?" Jean asked as she leaped forward, slashing from left to right with her blade. "We have organizations to figure these things out! They're not for any one person to make!" "We don't have the time to discuss this in a committee!" Rachel blocked the attack with her own blade, a bright flash of light emanating momentarily from the point of impact. "Besides, do you think the United Nations, or any other organization for that matter, would officially sanction *killing* millions, even billions of people? No way! Besides --" she growled "-- *we* didn't do a *thing*! The *humans* are destroying each other! Blame the ones who *used* the gas!" "Oh, fuck this", Jean snarled and suddenly chains flew in out of nowhere and wrapped around Rachel in repeated coils. "You're not going to listen to my point of view any more than I'm going to listen to yours -- but I'm going to destroy that gas, and if I have to go thru you to do it, I *will*!" *** "UNGH!" Magneto wheezed as bright red energy hammered at the magnetic shields he held up in front of him, and knocked him backwards in the air for several moments. Then, in the face shadowed by his helmet, bluish energies flared from his eyes, white teeth revealed in a snarl as he pushed back and fixed himself in place against the sustained blasting. "Impressive", he hissed. "You're more powerful than when we last met." "I've learned a trick or two since then", Cyclops answered, and suddenly his visorless eyes stopped firing their optic blasts. Magneto's eyes widened. "You --" ZAKT! "ARGH!" Magneto gasped as optic blasts lanced out again, ramming into his shields while he was surprised and off-balance -- and demolished them. Smashing thru his shields, the optic blasts hit his stomach, sending him flying backwards thru the air, doubled over, before he impacted onto a wall and plummeted towards the floor. A metallic clatter of chain mail against stone floor accompanied a "NNFF!" sound as Magneto crashed down. ZAKT! "Nice try", Magneto gritted his teeth with a strained voice, weakly waving his arm, a crackling blue glow enveloping his hand as his magnetic force field sprang back into existence around him, just in time to block Cyclops' new blast. "Very nice..." he gave a little cough as he forced his way back to his feet. "You really did completely and utterly surprise me, Scott... I had no idea you had learned to control your optic blasts..." He regained his regal posture as he got back up onto his feet, his head having cleared. "I do offer my congratulations. It was about time." "Accepted", Scott replied as he faced off with Magneto, red eyes smoldering with energy staring into steel-gray eyes crackling with blue electricity, both men having straight, rigid postures, neither one even thinking about backing down. "Now let us destroy the gas. It isn't worth all this." "It's worth more than you can imagine, Scott", Magneto replied. "After the civil war, Genosha's economy was in turmoil. We needed *exports* to transform the economy from mutate-based into a more mainstream one. It was the *only* way to bring peace to this island!" he growled. "Genosha has always been possessed of a high level of technology. Exporting that helped stabilize the economy, create a sufficient inflow of cash to purchase food from mainland countries to sustain our population levels, and maintain the peace. *You*, Scott, were the ones who *started* this when you brought down Cameron Hodge and the mutate-abusing regime. Are you saying that was a *wrong* decision?" Scott hesitated momentarily, his lips parting a bit and mouth open for a few heartbeats. "No", he then answered, and shook his head. "No, we did the right thing. The mutates deserved to live free, just like every human being does. The mistake was in creating the mutate-based economy in the first place, and relying on that, letting the population grow so much that it couldn't be sustained without the mutates." "Agreed", Magneto nodded. "But that is a mistake neither of us made. But a mistake *I* had to *fix*. And there was no easy answer, Scott. In the end, I will rather provide other people with a gun with which they *might* kill other people, than put a gun to the head of my people, and with certainty kill them myself." He paused a moment, and narrowed his eyes. "I take care of my people, Scott. I always *have*." "And I will stop you from using too drastic means to do that", Scott retorted. "I always have." "So be it, then", Magneto snarled as his fists started crackling louder with blue energies. "I'm sorry, Scott", he said, a piece of machinery behind Cyclops disassembling itself into several dozen pieces. *** "You ready yet?" "Dad?" Exodus blinked momentarily at the voice echoing thruout the rapidly shifting surreal landscape where she was battling her mother, atop of metallic platform. "ARGH!" "Give it up, Rachel", Phoenix hissed, slashing her blade across Exodus' stomach, tearing thru the glowing red armor and leaving a deep gash. "Before I have to seriously hurt you." "You can't hurt me enough", Exodus took a step back to recover and get over the pain of the injury. "I have the power of the Phoenix Force. I can take you out whenever and however I want, mom." "I guess you don't want to, then", Phoenix commented sarcastically. "Jean?" "I'm ready, Scott", Phoenix replied as she leaped forward, ducked underneath a slash of Exodus' two-handed sword and slammed her fist up to Exodus' jaw, following up with a swift knee to Exodus' gut, sending the younger woman gasping for breath. "Just busy kicking our daughter across the astral plane. When?" "Now." "Right now?" Phoenix growled as she leaped back, bringing her golden shield in front of her, feeling the large two-handed blade impact onto it with a jarring crash. "Right now." "Damn it", Phoenix wrinkled her nose. "I was just about to get her." Then, she winked out of existence. *** "You're good, Scott", Magneto said, arms crossed over his chest. "One of the best. But one of your flaws is lack of adequate defensive measures. That will cost you today." ZAKT! Optic blasts zapped out of Cyclops' eyes, pulverizing several of the metal pieces zooming thru the air towards him. He tilted to the side, dodging another one attacking him from behind, missing him just barely with a scratch to the side of his blue costume. Snapping his head to the side, he unleashed another blast at a group of three streaking at him from the left flank, and demolished them in mid-air. "UNGH!" he cried out as yet another blasted to his side from the right flank. "You can't destroy or dodge them all", Magneto smiled confidently. "One of my strengths is an abundance of adequate plans", Cyclops replied with gritted teeth as he recovered his balance with a gasp of pain flashing thru him from his bruised side. "Scott?" Phoenix sat up from where she had fallen. "Where?" Cyclops asked quickly. "What --?" Magneto blinked at Phoenix. "THERE!" Phoenix snarled viciously as she stood up, and cast her arms at a spot in the ceiling, stone dust exploding in a cloud from the spot as she rammed all her telekinetic power straight at it. The factory hall rocked slightly as optic blasts joined in at full strength, ramming into the ceiling. *** Several dozen yards above, the parking lot of the huge Citadel was all but empty, bathed in soft moonlight and tropical winds blowing in from the Indian Ocean. BWA-THOOOM The ground exploded as crimson energy lanced upwards at the skies, debris blasting in every direction from the instantly excavated hole in the ground. *** "Magneto!" Exodus climbed back onto her feet hurriedly, waving an arm and telekinetically sweeping all the dust away as if with a gust of wind and tossing it into a corner of the factory hall, revealing the hole in the ceiling. "I can sense --" "I'm surprised you *have* any sense", a figure with short green hair zoomed into the hall thru the hole in the ceiling, right on the heels of a winged man. "Ah", Magneto's confusion faded and gradually a smile grew back onto his lips. "The rest of the active roster. I had wondered." "Lorna, Jean, Magneto's yours", Cyclops called out, and whirled towards Exodus the exact same instant as she whirled towards him. She unleashed telekinetics, and he unleashed optic blasts, the forces crashing into each other. "You know you really look like Jean?" Angel asked as he swooped down from the ceiling and picked Exodus up from underneath her arms, soaring back upwards after grabbing her. "Though actually, I think you have a cuter butt, but don't tell Scott or Jean I said that..." "Don't waste your breath, 'uncle' Warren, I'm taken", Exodus smiled slightly with a roll of her eyes, as she spread her arms and telekinetically broke free of him, spreading her cape to full splendor. Fists staring to burn with flames though she didn't manifest her Phoenix Effect, she focused her telekinetic energies in her hands, spinning towards him and preparing to blast him down. "That's okay, so am I", Angel's voice came from somewhere else -- he definitely hadn't stayed behind her waiting for her to attack. "I won't tell if you won't --" "You're a pig", Exodus rolled her eyes again, turning her head around as she tried to locate Angel, before giving up and instead using her telepathy. "It's men like you why I turned lesbian", she said as she whirled around, straight towards him. "Aw, drat", Angel swooped downwards, aborting his charge towards Exodus as she turned towards him, barely dodging the telekinetic blast she unleashed. "Don't suppose I could watch next time --?" *** Magneto stared sharply at the two women in front of him, as Polaris landed beside Phoenix. They stood side-by-side, facing him, short green hair and ponytailed black hair. His eyes locked with theirs, all three parties dead serious, for several moments, as he gave them the chance to back down. After the several moments, he undid his arms from over his chest, and let his fists crackle. And an evil smile creeped onto Phoenix's lips as she cracked her knuckles audibly. *** "I hate super-speed", Chief Magistrate Katherine Pryde hissed as she wiped some blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her black-leather glove. "If I phase in, to attack someone, you can tag me before I can phase out again." "Yes", Quicksilver commented humorlessly. "That's okay", Kate smiled as she got back up onto her feet, for a moment leaning onto the plexiglass wall separating the factory hall from the gas containers on the other side. "I don't need to phase in to affect some things. If I pass thru electronic equipment while phased, it's ruined." She glanced over towards the large rumbling machine from where a lot of tubes ran thru the plexiwall and to the storage silos. "Right, Forgie-poo?" she smiled sweetly before starting to stride towards him. "Quicksilver, she mustn't reach me", Forge said sharply as he worked on the large machine, standing on his one remaining leg. "If she destroys my equipment, I won't be able to neutralize the gas." "And ain't that just too bad?" Kate smirked. Quicksilver quirked an eyebrow. "And how do you propose I should stop her?" he asked. Then, the next moment, he whizzed away. And the next moment, he whizzed back in a flash of gray, putting Phoenix down. "Stop her", he simply told her. Kate hissed at the sight of the dark-haired woman, and leaped ferally towards Forge. It took a few moments for Phoenix to regain her bearings, blinking in confusion, but then her eyes narrowed, focusing on Kate. "UNGH!" Forge wheezed as Kate slammed into his back, the two of them crashing to the floor together. "Thank you", Quicksilver said, streaking over to the pair, grabbing Kate by her neck, and yanking her up with one hand. Before she could react, he pulled back a fist. POW! "UMPH!" Kate gasped as the fist slammed right onto the center of her face and sent her flying backwards thru the air for a good half-dozen feet. Then, when her momentum started slowing down, Quicksilver was right in front of her again. POW! She didn't have time to even crash down to the floor before his fist slammed to her face again, sending her backwards once more. POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! After several blows in which almost an entire two seconds had passed, she had been slammed back for several dozen feet and finally crashed to the stone wall, slumping limply down at the foot of it, her eyes closed and blood flowing from her nose and mouth. Quicksilver towered over her, nose wrinkled. "I have wanted to do that for *months*." "Preventing her mental access to her powers was simple", Phoenix commented. "I only wish Magneto and Rachel had as little in the way of psychic defenses..." BWHOOM "Look out!" Phoenix shouted, raising a telekinetic shield around herself and Forge as a green-haired cannonball exploded thru one of the large machines in the hall, blowing it up in a cloud of metal debris and yellowish gas, the former clattering off her shields like pebbles. "Unnnhhh..." Polaris groaned as she leaned against the plexiglass wall, half-unconscious. "I have had enough", Magneto declared as he emerged thru the yellow gas cloud, stalking towards Forge and Phoenix. His eyes flared once. "ARRGH!" Forge cried out as his bionic hand exploded, the remnants forming into a collar around his neck, bringing a gurgle from his throat as the metal started constricting. "Forge!" Phoenix hissed, her eyes flaring with energy and telekinetically wrenching the metal from Forge's throat, tossing the scrap metal off to the side. "You enjoy attacking cripples, Magneto?" she snapped with a furious expression. "What's next, babies?" WHAMMM Two van-sized pieces of machinery smashed into Magneto from his sides, burying him between them in a jarring impact. The next moment, the crumpled-together pile of metal tore in half and Magneto waved his arm, tossing the ruined machines along the length of the factory hall, sending them crashing into the wall where the entrance was. "Please", he rolled his eyes. A roar rose in Phoenix's throat, and she leaped forward, soaring straight at Magneto and crashing into him with a tackle. Teeth bared in a snarl, she pulled back her fist, concentrated her telekinetic powers onto it, and drove it straight at Magneto's helmeted face. THWAMM "UNGH!" Magneto gasped, and then retaliated with a wave of his arm, casting Phoenix thru the air into some machinery with a loud crash. "You'll never change..." Phoenix snarled, pushing herself back onto her feet, her firebird aura bursting into existence behind her as she cast her arms wide, energies blasting out and slamming into Magneto, sending him crashing back to the stone wall. "You've always been crazy...mad...evil...killing people, threatening the world, and we have to stop you, again and again and again, how many times do we have to dance this dance, you sick little bastard..." "As many as it takes", Magneto answered angrily shoving himself off the wall and striding towards Phoenix, "until you realize not all people are Charles Xavier, and will be able to accept that." "I've always accepted that", Phoenix narrowed her eyes as she rushed forward, slamming her fist across Magneto's helmet. "I'm not Charles Xavier! Scott isn't Charles Xavier! Everyone doesn't have to be the same! But everyone deserves the chance to *live*!" "You're living in the same naive idealistic dream world as Charles", Magneto snapped as he smashed his blue-crackling fist across Phoenix's face, driving her back a few steps. "There'll never be a world in which everyone has his beliefs!" "Not if we don't try our best to convince people of his beliefs!" Phoenix growled as she met Magneto blow for blow, rattling his helmet. "We have to show people his path, and offer them the chance to walk it along with us!" "Everyone won't join Charles' path", Magneto replied as his fist whipped Phoenix's head back. "You'll never get all the people in the world to unite under one cause -- *any* cause!" "Maybe not", Phoenix delivered a furious backhand smashing Magneto back several steps. "But even if only a tenth of the people who the path is offered to accept it, then offering is worthwhile, because there would be less people on the path if it wasn't offered to anyone. I will offer the path to people, because I think it's a good path! But I can't offer it if I don't follow it myself!" "Why do you insist on following someone else's path?" Magneto hissed as he regained his balance and slammed a powerful hook to Phoenix's jaw. "I can hear it in your voice, Jean! You *know* his path has flaws! You only follow it because it is the best available option! Why don't you make your *own* path? The *right* path for you?" "I --" Phoenix started, and then hesitated with a mildly stunned expression as she realized she didn't have an answer. She wanted to say something, shove Magneto's words right down his throat, but no words came out no matter how hard she tried to think some up. Reacting to the frustration, just a slight bit of moisture appeared in her eyes, and she wordlessly drove her fist forward with all the rage and fury in her heart. Magneto's helmet flew off with the power of the punch and he stumbled back a step or two, but his expression was now set. Certain. No longer angry, but thoughtful. He waited. Phoenix gritted her teeth in silence and swung another punch. His hand snapped up, and grabbed her wrist, halting her attack in mid-punch. SKKKZZZZTTT "YEARGH!" Phoenix screamed as electric blue energy coursed thru her body, making her spasm wildly. Magneto held her wrist in a firm grip, steel-hard eyes staring into hers unwaveringly as he stood unmoving in the flickering blue glow. She screamed for what seemed like an eternity. Then, it ended. He let go, and she slumped to the floor, unmoving. Extending his hand to the side, his helmet rose from the spot on the floor where it had settled, and hovered over to his hand. "Pietro, Wanda..." he said levelly to his children standing near Forge, Wanda having recovered her consciousness. "Please don't stand in my way. Forge...move away from the machine." "Won't happen, Magneto", Forge narrowed his eyes at the Master of Magnetism as he stood on one leg at the machine, with one hand tapping commands into the book-sized mini-computer he had attached to the machine. "You want to stop me from neutralizing the gas, you'll have to *kill* me. In cold blood. So do it. I won't stop otherwise." Magneto narrowed his eyes, staring at the dark-haired man silently for several moments. Then, he took his helmet in both hands, and lowered it slowly over his head. As the helmet was in place, his eyes flared with blue energy once. "As sovereign ruler of the nation of Genosha it is within my legal rights to rule an execution." "So what are you waiting for?" Forge asked, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead. "Father --" the Scarlet Witch pleaded with an agonized expression. "Please --" "If you kill him", Quicksilver said sharply, gritting his teeth, "I will not rest until you have paid for your deed." Magneto raised his hand, letting it crackle with blue energy. "Forge", he said in a booming tone, his voice seeming to almost echo from inside his helmet. "Cease and desist all activity immediately." He snarled, baring white teeth visible in the shadows of his helmet. "This is your last chance." * DISCLAIMER * This is a non-profit work of fan-fiction involving characters created and owned by Marvel Comics Group. * MATURE CONTENT * Nudity but no sex. Implied homosexual relationship. Mature language. If you have a problem with any of the above, please do not read this story. * WRITTEN BY * Samy Merchi * ARCHIVED AT * http://mash.yok.utu.fi/corona.html * STARRING * CYCLOPS! SCARLET WITCH! PHOENIX! ANGEL! POLARIS! FORGE! DAZZLER! Old friends and older friends alike, they have decided Charles Xavier is wrong in his credo of teaching humanity to co-exist with mutantkind by hiding the latter from the former. Instead, they have banded together to try and make the highest-profile effort possible to make mutants public heroes, and an accepted part of humanity at large. Currently, they continue the work of Freedom Force and the previous incarnation of X-Factor as a group of highly ranked operatives for the United States government. Samy Merchi presents: THE MYSTERIOUS X-FACTOR in ****************** * PLAY WITH FIRE * ****************** * GUEST STARRING * Pietro "QUICKSILVER" Maximoff * AND STARRING * Jeremy Irons as "MAGNETO" * CONTINUITY * + Shadows of the Future timeline. (http://mash.yok.utu.fi/corona.html) Roughly 3-5 years in the future. *** "This is your last chance, Forge", Magneto held his blue-crackling hand raised threateningly. "Disengage your equipment from the gas-processing machine. Cease and desist all attempts to neutralize the gas immediately, or I will be forced to kill you. Move. Away." Forge swallowed and gritted his teeth as sweat trickled down his forehead into his eyes, making them sting but he couldn't take a hand to wipe his eyes clear because he was too busy tapping commands into the mini-computer. He took a deep breath, shoulders shaking a bit, and then said, "No." "Don't do it", Quicksilver glared at Magneto. "Don't do it, father", Scarlet Witch said breathlessly. Magneto watched Forge silently for several heartbeats. Then, his eyes flared once. "NO!" Forge shouted as the mini-computer came off the machine it was attached to, and then streaked thru the air into Magneto's hand. "You choose", Magneto narrowed his eyes at Scarlet Witch. "I will destroy this -- or I will kill Forge. I will do one or the other." Scarlet Witch watched her father's eyes quietly for a few moments, and then simply said, "Why do you even ask?" Magneto stared at Scarlet Witch quietly for a few moments from the shadows of his helmet, and then an electric blue explosion obliterated the device in his hand. "I don't know", he said. Scarlet Witch watched her father quietly for several moments, and then said, "You wanted an easy choice. Something we could agree on, for once in our lives." Magneto stood in place quietly. *** "Fancy flying, uncle Warren", Exodus said as one telekinetic blast after another missed their mark, blowing up machines, the floor, walls, the ceiling, anything but the winged man maneuvering flawlessly amidst the blasts, debris and clouds of yellowish gas. ZAKT! "Unff!" Exodus wheezed as ruby red optic blasts smashed into her back, and she whirled around with a snarl towards her father down on the floor below her. "I did what you said, dad. Shielded myself on every side. Happy?" she asked as she waved her arm and shot a telekinetic blast towards him. "Yup", Cyclops answered as a red-white blur zoomed past and carried him off just before the blast hit the ground where he had stood. "Thanks, Warren", he said as Angel carried him off. "That's what I'm here for, Cyke", Angel smirked as he looped about in the plentiful airspace of the hall, dodging another one of Exodus' blasts. "To help you out when you get beautiful women mad at you. The Worthington charm never fails." "Yeah?" Exodus asked as Angel suddenly halted in midair, his wings freezing in place as they were grabbed by telekinetic energy. "I don't have to hit you to affect you, Warren. Give it up, I don't want to break your wings. I don't want to hurt you." ZAKT! "UMPH!" Exodus gasped as optic blasts rammed her back thru the air and sent her crashing into one of the walls with an accompanying cloud of smoke dust erupting from the point of impact and obscuring her from sight. "Thanks, Scotty", Angel smiled as he landed -- Exodus' telekinetic grip broken -- and put Cyclops down. "That's what I'm here for, Warren", Cyclops smiled. "To help you out when you get temperamental redheads mad at you --" "THAT DOES IT!" Exodus snarled as she soared out of the stone dust cloud with her Phoenix Effect firebird blazing behind her. "I didn't want to do this, dad --" "Argh!" Angel gritted his teeth as he fell to his knees, his face tightening as he summoned his willpower to fend off the telepathic assault hammering at his mind. Cyclops gasped, but remained standing despite the mental blast, clenching his fists, his back arching in strain as he pitted his mind against his daughter's. "Force of arms...isn't everything...Rachel..." *** "Force of arms isn't everything, father", Scarlet Witch narrowed her eyes at Magneto. "Being second-in-command to Captain America, and now Scott, I've learned that no matter the odds, no matter how much power's up against you, there's always a way." Her hands started glowing with scarlet chaos energies as she spread her legs slightly, taking a firmer, more determined posture. "We're not leaving until the gas is neutralized. And you'll have to kill each and every one of us before we quit." "Don't force my hand, Wanda", Magneto hissed as his hands started glowing as well, with crackling blue electricity as he leaned forward threateningly towards Scarlet Witch, his eyes starting to crackle as well from the shadows of his helmet. "The gas stays. Without the funds it generates, Genosha will starve." "That's a problem we'll solve later -- together, if you'll let us", Scarlet Witch answered unhesitatingly, not backing off from Magneto's threatening posture. "But the ends -- even if they're saving lives -- don't justify producing weapons of mass destruction. I believe that with all my heart, and I'm willing to *die* for those beliefs, if that's what you'll force this to come to." "You're the one forcing the issue", Magneto snapped, snarling white teeth gleaming inside his helmet's shadows. "*Leave*, Wanda! I won't tell you again!" "Neither will I, father", Scarlet Witch said, and her glowing hands made a few gestures. "Scott wouldn't back away, and I won't either. Let us destroy the gas, or we'll have to take you down." "No", Magneto replied, and then blinked as his helmet rose off him into the air. POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! Quicksilver's fist struck Magneto's jaw several times a second, and a dozen super-speed punches later, he pulled his fist back all the way, held it for a fraction of a second, and then streaked it forward faster than a bullet train. *POW!* "UNGH!" Magneto gasped as the final blow sent him arcing thru the air for a dozen feet, and crashing into a pile of debris. He lay there, still, not moving. "Good work", Scarlet Witch smiled, "Lorna." "No problem", Polaris answered from where she was still on her knees, leaning against the plexiwall between the main hall and the gas tanks in order to keep herself up. "Getting thru his magnetic shields is almost impossible. But *neutralizing* the shields -- just requires the opposite..." Thru her weakness and bloodied face, she managed a wry smile. "...polarity." "What are the odds of you waking up just in time to help us?" Forge smiled to Polaris. Scarlet Witch let the scarlet probability-altering hex energies dissipate from around her hands and smiled. "Big enough for me." *** "Gnnnn --!" Exodus gritted her teeth as she landed on the floor, marshaling her strength, the Phoenix Effect behind her flaring stronger as she focused her strength on the sustained telepathic attack trying to force her opponents to unconsciousness. But Rachel Summers was up against two of the oldest, most experienced X-Men who had almost as many active years of service and training behind them as she had lived. And they were not going down easily, especially since they had been trained *by* a telepath who had made sure to train them against that very mode of attack. Sweat streamed down the brows of Cyclops and Angel just as well as Exodus', but neither side was budging yet. "Hey!" Exodus blinked and glanced towards the voice, to be hit full power by a dazzling lightshow that instantly overloaded her retinas and sent her stumbling back blindly. ZAKT! Cyclops instantly fired an optic blast as he felt Exodus' grasp on his mind momentarily release. As he had suspected, it ricocheted off the invisible telekinetic shields Exodus still had around her, and instead bounced off towards the back-up target Cyclops had calculated. WHROOM! One of the very few pieces of machinery still left standing in the factory hall exploded as the optic blast impacted onto it and blew it apart, releasing a cloud of yellowish gas to billow outwards. Not missing a beat, Angel instantly flexed his wings and started flapping them rapidly, blasting the gas straight towards Exodus, sending the woman coughing and wheezing. "Scatter and fall back!" Cyclops shouted as he fired off an optic blast into the cloud of gas, at the point just under Exodus' feet before she had been obscured from sight, hoping to knock her off her feet and buy some time. Then, he whirled around and ran off towards the back of the factory hall. "But --" Dazzler started, glowing brightly and eagerly. "She's --" "Do what Cyke says, Alison!" Angel shouted from the air, having anticipated Cyclops' order and taken to the air before it had even been given. "He's got his reasons! A telepath doesn't need eyes to see!" Cyclops frowned at the sight of Phoenix lying unmoving on the floor but didn't slow down, passing her by and continuing towards the other members of X-Factor further away. "Wanda!" he called out. "You're up! Lorna, defensive! Quicksilver, support duty!" "Great --" Polaris groaned weakly as she started forcing herself back onto her feet, every muscle aching and straining from the beating Magneto had given her -- WHOOM! The ground exploded underneath Cyclops' feet as Exodus rose into the air from the gas cloud, growling and the Phoenix Effect blazing angrily. ((Kate, Magneto!)) Exodus snapped into her allies' minds, trying to get them to wake up. Cyclops arced thru the air from the force of the blast, but gray lightning breezed by, catching him before he crashed down to the floor. "I *know* what to do", Quicksilver wrinkled his nose distastefully at X-Factor's leader. "I don't *need* orders." "Let's see how you like a little hex bolt to start off", Scarlet Witch took a step forward, her hands glowing scarlet for a moment before a bolt of energy lanced out straight towards Exodus. "How about 'I don't give a damn'?" Exodus asked as the crimson bolt dissipated upon striking her telekinetic shields. With a wave of her arm, a blast of telekinetic fire erupted from the flame-wings underneath her arms. "Take this, witchie girl!" "Gnh!" Polaris grunted, eyes flaring with green energies and fresh blood starting to flow down her nose as she yanked a ton of debris from all around, forming it into a shield in front of Scarlet Witch. The telekinetic blast impacted onto it, and with a whipcrack of thunder, the shield blew apart. Polaris stumbled backwards, tears streaming down her cheeks and a sob shaking her body. "Lorna, rest!" Cyclops shouted as Quicksilver put him down. "Wanda, defense! Warren, interference!" "You got it, Scotty!" Angel answered and swooped in close, wings humming in a blurry motion as he pulled ever-tightening circles looping around and around Exodus, gambling that he'd be moving too fast for her to get a lock on him. "Alison, with me!" Cyclops braced himself, and gritting his teeth, cut loose with an optic blast. He was joined by Dazzler who held her hands together like a pistol, and fired a laser blast from her outheld index fingers. "ARGH!" Exodus cried out as the blasts impacted onto her, missing Angel who deftly soared up right between the two blasts and moved out of the way. ((Cut off the heads and the body will die --)) Exodus thought. ((Scott's mine.)) "HEY!" Scarlet Witch gasped as she was tackled, and Chief Magistrate Pryde phased both of them thru the plexiwall into the part of the hall where the gas tanks were. Kate made sure Scarlet Witch fell underneath, crashing onto her back and wheezing as she had the breath knocked out of herself. Kate rolled away into a crouch and brandished the plasma blaster she had picked back up before her surprise tackle of Scarlet Witch. She took quick aim at X-Factor's second-in-command and smirked evilly. Scarlet Witch's eyes widened. VAM! A blast shot from Kate's weapon, a golden energy lance streaking towards Scarlet Witch. Outside the plexiwall, Magneto regained consciousness and forced himself back onto his feet, hissing slightly and raising a hand which started crackling with blue lightning. Quicksilver noticed, and bared his teeth, clenching his fists. In a fraction of a second, lives can change. In a fraction of a second, misjudgments are easy. A fraction of a second is all it takes for Pietro Maximoff to act. POW! Gray lightning breezed past Magneto, Pietro's fist smashing Magneto's head back and sending the Master of Magnetism into a stunned stumble backwards. Kate's blast impacted onto a crackling blue energy field that manifested in front of Scarlet Witch, and then instantly dissipated when it was hit. But not before the blast ricocheted away, to one of the gas tanks. WHOOM! "WANDA!" four men screamed all at once. Cyclops, Angel, Quicksilver, and Magneto. But all their voices together were overridden by another scream reverberating not only in ears, but the minds of everyone present as well. (("KAAATE!")) Exodus cried her throat raw, staring wide-eyed in horror, her vocal and mental scream tearing at everyone's minds like a white hot cheese grater. Kate leaped out, phasing thru the plexiwall, and then just stood there with blank eyes and an equally blank expression. The next moment, the compartment behind the plexiwall was flooded with the greenish gas swirling around. Scarlet Witch coughed. Her body shook with it, but the sound of the cough couldn't be heard thru the plexiwall. She felt weak and dizzy, and her effort to get up onto her knees failed, and she slumped back down onto the floor. "My god!" Angel landed beside the plexiwall, placing his hands against it and gaping at Scarlet Witch. "Scotty!" he glanced over his shoulder. "We've got to do something -- we've gotta -- gotta --" Cyclops stared at Scarlet Witch as well thru the plexiglass, his eyes glowing brightly with red energies, crackling in anticipation to release and blast their way thru the obstacle -- He hesitated. Glancing over his shoulder, Cyclops looked over to Forge, opening his mouth to ask for a solution -- any solution... Forge shook his head grimly. Exodus let out a sob of relief as she landed beside Kate and put her arms around the Chief Magistrate, squeezing the brown-haired woman and buring her face against Kate's neck. "Thank god...thank god..." she sniffled. "Huh?" Kate blinked, her eyes suddenly coming to focus, and she glanced around in confusion until finally looking over her shoulder and seeing the billowing green gas filling the compartment behind her. "Oh --" her throat constricted and a nauseous feeling started swelling in the pit of her stomach as she saw Scarlet Witch. "Rachel --" she grimaced. "Get her out of there!" Quicksilver shouted, skidding to a halt in front of Cyclops. "Get her out of there, right now!" "Quicksilver --" Forge started. "Silence, cripple!" Quicksilver snapped angrily. "You can't do anything! Cyclops!" he snarled. "Blast the wall! Blast the wall *now*! *NOW*!" "Dear lord..." Angel sobbed as he collapsed onto his knees, wings sagging and tears starting to run down his cheeks. "Scotty -- *please*...dear god...someone do something...*anything* --! I love her, for god's sakes --!" "WHAT?" Quicksilver whirled around wide-eyed. "Pietro, this isn't the time --" Cyclops started. Quicksilver was already over at the plexiwall and grabbed the front of Angel's shirt, yanking the blond man up. "If you have touched my sister, Worthington --" he snarled. "PIETRO!" Polaris shouted with angry eyes, bared teeth. "Don't you think there are more important things to worry about right now than who Wanda fucks?" "I love her", Angel stared seriously into Quicksilver's eyes thru his tears and pain-distorted, anguished expression. POW! Angel flew back a good dozen feet, crashing to the floor as Quicksilver seethed furiously, fists clenched and trembling in a craving to hit more, hit something, anything that could provide a convenient outlet. Anything he could lash out at -- "This is YOUR fault, Katherine Pryde!" Quicksilver snarled as he streaked over to the Chief Magistrate and Exodus. "If Wanda dies, I will *kill* you --" "I'll kill *you* before I let you touch her!" Exodus shouted, the confrontation quickly degenerating into a furious shouting match between the two women and Quicksilver. Cyclops closed his eyes impotently, and in the darkness, saw, again and again and again, a Harrier jet crashing down from the blue sky, leaving behind a billowing black smoke trail. A final defiant shout echoing in the air. "Cyclops, the *aircraft*...it's..." "I can see it, Peter..." "Cyclops, the *aircraft*...it's..." "I can see it, Peter..." "Cyclops, the *aircraft*...it's..." "I can see it, Peter..." "Cyclops, the gas...we can't..." "I can see it, Peter..." "Peter?" Forge blinked in confusion as he held his one remaining hand on Cyclops' shoulder, half to offer support to X-Factor's leader, half to support his own balance, only having one leg left, as he was. "Cyclops, it's me, Forge..." "Huh?" Cyclops glanced over his shoulder and blinking like he'd seen a ghost when he saw Forge's face. Taking a few moments to recompose himself, he swallowed and turned his eyes elsewhere, onto the man who hadn't done anything, or said anything. Magneto was standing quietly at the plexiwall, fingers held against the transparent material. He stared at Scarlet Witch quietly, his stoic face trembling slightly in an effort to retain its rigid composure. Dazzler just watched quietly, her eyes wide and her hand in front of her mouth. Her eyes were moist and she tried blinking away the tears, but it didn't work. And like Cyclops, words were ringing in her head. "Jim, no! You'll flood the entire compartment!" She was a bit more superficial than Scott. And like in Star Trek II, Scarlet Witch got to move a bit. Straining, aching, coughing, dizzy, she managed to crawl over to the plexiwall. Unlike the movie, there was no speaker in the wall. Trembling, shaking, she managed to raise her chin and look upwards. She coughed again. Magneto kneeled down to her level, meeting her eyes with his. He knew Angel was standing to his left, behind his shoulder. He didn't really care. "Wanda..." Quicksilver gasped in agony as he kneeled down beside Magneto, tears filling his eyes as he watched his sister cough one more time. Wanda Maximoff glanced briefly up at Warren. Then, she let her eyes drift down to Magneto and Pietro. For long moments, she studied their eyes. The two silver-haired men full of so much hate, arrogance and temper. She gave a little, weak, sad smile, and locked her eyes with her father's. Then, the spark in Wanda Maximoff's eyes faded away, and her eyelids drifted shut. She didn't cough anymore. Silence. "This is all *your* fault", Quicksilver snarled, grabbing the front of Magneto's chainmail, standing up and yanking his father up along with him. "If it wasn't for you and your madness, Wanda would still be alive! I will *kill* you!" he spat out. Magneto's face turned stormy in an instant, and his eyes flared with blue lightning as he glared at Quicksilver. The next instant, an energy flare blasted into Quicksilver and knocked him back several dozen feet, sending him crashing onto his back, his chest smoldering as he barely breathed raggedly. "Fool!" Magneto snarled as energies built up around him with accelerating intensity as if building towards a critical mass of fury. "I was going to *save* her! I was going to contain the blast and *save* her! If anyone is to blame, Pietro, it is *you*! I would have saved her without your interference!" "Wh--" Quicksilver blinked in confusion as Polaris and Dazzler helped him up with great effort, as he was too stunned by Magneto's words to move himself. "What -- what do you mean --?" "She is dead because of *you*!" Magneto snarled as his fists started crackling furiously. "*You* prevented me from saving her! *You* killed her!" Kate Pryde felt a chill run down her spine as she realized Magneto would hold her party to Wanda's death. She swallowed and her breathing grew shallow. Exodus seemed to sense her thoughts and gave her arm a firm squeeze, making her shudder slightly as she drew a little comfort and safety from Rachel's presence. "*You* did this!" Quicksilver shouted thru his tears at Magneto. "*You* killed Wanda! And I will not rest until you are *dead*!" "I feel the same way", Magneto bared teeth, snarling and taking a step forward towards Quicksilver. "No", Cyclops said, stepping between Magneto and Quicksilver. He locked his eyes with Magneto's, giving a stern stare. He faced off with Magneto in what seemed like an eternity of silence, and then gave a firm shake of his head. "No." Magneto's eyes crackled threateningly for a few moments. Then, very slowly, he raised his chin slightly. He said one word, and only one word. "Leave." "I will go nowhere until you are --" Quicksilver started. "Pietro", Cyclops snapped angrily, glancing over his shoulder at the man in question. "Go to hell, Cyclops!" Quicksilver hissed, moving up to face X-Factor's leader, his face only a few inches from Scott's. "My sister is *dead*. Stand in my way and suffer a similar fate! You are in part to blame! If you had planned this better, she would still be alive! It is your ineptitude that --" "Pietro", Cyclops gritted his teeth, turning fully to face the other man. "-- *your* ineptitude that *caused Wanda's death*!" Quicksilver shouted. "It is your fault that --!" WHAM! Quicksilver crashed onto his back and didn't move. Cyclops rubbed his knuckles in silence. Phoenix, who had awakened, placed her hand onto her husband's shoulder, but didn't say anything either. Cyclops closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, then turned back towards Magneto. The two men stared at each other for a long time, they knew what Scott would have to ask, they knew what Magneto would answer, and they knew they'd have to say all of that out loud nonetheless. "The gas?" "The gas will be used..." Magneto said grimly "...never again." Cyclops nodded slowly. Both men knew Magneto meant what he said. Scott knew that some of X-Factor might not believe that, but he and Magneto had confronted each other too many times, and had too much respect for each other, to lie about this. He would handle any complaints from X-Factor back home. This was not the time, or the place. He stared at Magneto for several moments longer, and then said, "I'm so sorry, Magneto." Magneto gave a quiet nod. "Just go, Scott. Just go. And tell Pietro", he said calmly, "that if I ever see him again, I will kill him without a second thought." Again, a slow nod from Scott. He turned around, lifting up the unconscious Quicksilver, and walked away. Dazzler followed, leading a broken Angel off after Cyclops, her arm around his waist. Lastly, Polaris and Forge followed, the former supporting the latter. Phoenix telekinetically lifted all of X-Factor up to the exit from the factory hall, as the stairs up had been destroyed. It was a casual feat for her, hardly even requiring concentration. When X-Factor was gone, she stood near Magneto, inspecting him with slightly narrowed eyes. Magneto met her gaze, unwavering steel-hard eyes unbothered by her scrutiny. "Play with fire", Phoenix said, and the Phoenix Effect firebird flared up behind her, "you're gonna get burned." No reply came from Magneto, just a serious gaze. "I'll talk to *you* later", Phoenix narrowed her eyes at Exodus, before taking off the floor, and soaring out the exit, leaving behind a quickly fading trail of flame. Exodus glared at the exit. Kate stared at Magneto and swallowed. Minutes passed. Then, Magneto left without a word. *** It was almost twenty-four hours later. Magneto was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. He hadn't slept yet. He had been aware of Chief Magistrate Pryde the moment she had entered the presidential apartment of the Citadel by phasing up thru the floor five minutes ago. She had just been standing in the living room, quietly. Finally, she entered the bedroom, and Magneto noted she was nude, and hesitant, fidgeting slightly. "I'm --" she started, and her voice cracked. She cleared her throat and started again. "I'm sorry." Magneto stared at the ceiling. Kate fidgeted some more, nibbled on her bottom lip, and tentatively sat down on the edge of the bed. "I'm so sorry", she whispered, and lay a slightly trembling hand onto his leg. He gave *no* reaction whatsoever. "Are you going to kill me?" she asked, giving a *very* forced smile that didn't conceal her uncertainty of the situation. Magneto stared at the ceiling some more. "Magneto", Kate frowned pleadingly. "I need to know. Can you forgive me? If you want to kill me, do it now. I can't take this waiting." "Take your lover", Magneto said without moving his eyes from the ceiling, "and leave Genosha. Never come back. If you ever return", he said calmly, "you will both be executed." "I gave up everything --" Kate grimaced with a betrayed expression. "I gave up everything to stand by you -- I left the X-Men, stood with you against them -- I gave up everything for you -- so many people think you're wrong, I didn't -- I sacrificed everything to be with you --" Magneto still stared at the ceiling. Kate waited a few moments, and then steeled her expression. "Fine", she swallowed, and stood up. "Fine." She shrugged, and looked around nervously, feeling cold, and not only from the lack of clothes. "Good bye", she said, and sank down thru the floor, gone a few moments later, like she had never been there. Like a ghost who faded with the sun's early rays that were starting to glitter, red and gold, thru the window opening towards the calm Indian Ocean. Magneto stared at the ceiling. They had taken so much after the parents of their own genders. No longer, never again, would he be able to see a reincarnation of Magda walking the earth. Never again would he see his beautiful wife. She was so much like Magda. And that was why he loved her. Pietro...on the other hand, was so much like him. And that was why he hated him. And he blamed him. They always would.