✓Prologue: Chapter 04 - Found?
>> AT THE SAME TIME, SOMEWHERE IN ANTARCTICA.
Inside an imposing metallic dome, somewhere in the vast frozen plains of Antarctica, more than fifteen figures gathered, each representing a powerful and shadowy mutant faction: the Marauders and the Acolytes.
"What? Are we going to run?" asked one of the Marauders present.
"Cyclops isn't naive… He understands what's at stake here."
"He'll come for us, obviously, and a direct confrontation with the X-Men, playing by their rules, won't favor us."
"We can deal with the X-Men another day. Right now, we're too busy to waste time on a pointless fight. Our focus should be on finding the man who thwarted our plans," declared a pale man with a red crystal embedded in his forehead, wearing a black suit with a red crystal symbol on his chest. It was the leader of the Marauders, Mister Sinister.
"Wait, where's Harpoon?" asked the Marauder known as Scalphunter, looking around for another member of his team.
*Boom.*
A loud crash echoed as the mutant Harpoon's body was hurled to the ground near the two groups, catching them by surprise. Quickly, all eyes turned to the ones responsible for the attack.
"Damn," muttered some of the Acolytes and Marauders, anticipating the imminent battle against the newcomers crashing their party.
The X-Men. Wolverine, Kurt, Warren, Colossus, and Storm.
"Hey, friends, how's it going? Doesn't matter. We're here for Rogue, who you kidnapped. Oh, and of course, the babies too."
"The only question is how many of you will die before we rescue them," said Wolverine with a fearless, savage grin, despite being vastly outnumbered.
"X-Men. Destroying you has dropped pretty low on my priority list," Sinister stated with an air of superiority. "But your personal presence might make me reconsider."
"You don't intimidate us, Sinister, and you won't stop us," Storm shot back, staring him down.
"No? Look around you, Storm. You're facing an army… Many here could wipe out your entire team with one hand," Sinister taunted, gesturing to the Marauders and Acolytes gathered around him.
"How do you five expect to win here?" Sinister mocked.
"Why don't you read our minds and find out," Warren said with a serious glare at Sinister.
"…"
Sinister attempted to invade their minds with his telepathic powers but was met with resistance from Emma Frost, who was shielding them mentally and launched a surprise telepathic attack against him.
"You miscalculated, monster. There are six of us here," said Storm, taking advantage of Sinister being momentarily incapacitated, locked in a mental battle with Emma. She unleashed a massive lightning bolt that made him spit blood and collapse to the ground.
With that strike, the battle finally erupted inside the dome.
Ororo summoned a series of lightning bolts, striking some of the weaker Marauders and Acolytes. The blasts knocked them down quickly, some fainting instantly from the impact and shock of the lightning.
"Scrambler at ten o'clock, Ororo," Logan warned about a mutant sneaking up behind her—Scrambler, the mutant capable of disabling others' powers with a single touch.
"Thanks, Logan. He and Vertigo are the main tactical threats here," Storm replied, continuing to conjure lightning against her enemies.
Storm then turned and focused her attention on Scrambler, launching a large, arrow-shaped lightning bolt that knocked him out instantly.
"Now Kurt is free to deal with the strategic threat," Storm said, eyeing a certain Omega-level mutant in the area who had, until now, done nothing.
"Guten tag, Herr Exodus. [Hello, Exodus]," Kurt greeted before swiftly teleporting behind the mutant, catching him off guard.
"Have you ever seen the Christ the Redeemer in Brazil? It's worth a visit," Kurt said before teleporting with Exodus to Rio de Janeiro.
In the blink of an eye, Kurt used his power again, reappearing in the middle of the fight. He had left Exodus alone in Brazil, successfully removing one of the primary threats from the scene.
Kurt continued using his teleportation power, scattering various Acolytes and Marauders around the world, disrupting the enemy forces and significantly reducing the threat in the area.
Meanwhile, Colossus, with his steel body, fought three women simultaneously: Arclight, Frenzy, and Unuscione. Arclight was already down after a powerful punch from Colossus, leaving Frenzy and Unuscione to face the relentless strength of the Russian mutant.
At the same time, Wolverine caught Scalphunter off guard from behind, who was distracted aiming his weapon at Colossus's back for a surprise attack.
"Scalphunter… letting your guard down might cost you your arms," Wolverine said, grabbing the hunter's arm. Using the weapon attached to the villain's own arm, he fired at the Marauders. The bullets hit two of them, dropping them quickly.
"It's over, Sinister, as it always is."
"Hand over the kids and tell us where Rogue is, or people will die," Warren declared while Sinister was kneeling, still locked in a mental battle with Emma.
"Hand over the kids?"
"Angel, your pathetic lack of direction neither impresses nor interests me. Yes, people will die."
"You have my word," Sinister said, immobilized by his mental struggle with Emma.
A few miles away, far from the chaos of the battle, a man was trying to flee, lacking the courage to face his former teammates. However, he didn't notice a figure silently following him.
"No stomach for a fight, Gambit?" Wolverine taunted, suddenly appearing and grabbing him from behind. With a swift move, he brutally threw Gambit to the ground, surprising him and halting his escape attempt.
---
>> AT THE SAME TIME, WITH THE NEW MUTANTS
"This time of night, all the *good* kids are safe, tucked in their beds," said Lady Deathstrike with a cruel smile, her massive adamantium-coated claws gleaming under the light.
"So it seems these kids aren't so good after all," she taunted, pointing her claws at Laura, X-23, who stood at the front of the New X-Men group.
"Reavers… Attack with everything you've got," Lady Deathstrike ordered the group of masked men armed with swords and katanas behind her.
Following her command, the Reavers moved quickly, advancing with lethal precision to attack the New X-Men.
"Stay away from my friends. I'm warning you," X-23 shouted, positioning herself defensively in front of Hellion's fallen body. She glared at the Reavers, her expression filled with rage.
Ignoring her threats, the Reavers charged forward. X-23 retaliated with her own brutal strikes, despite the injuries she sustained. Her accelerated healing factor helped her recover quickly, allowing her to keep fighting with ferocity.
Surge kept her distance from the Reavers and began firing her energy blasts from afar, while Rockslide charged like an avalanche, knocking down several Reavers with his granite body.
"Quick! We need to get out of here!" Rockslide shouted, running to Pixie's side and urging her to teleport them back to the mansion. He positioned himself to protect the youngest mutant in the group.
"I… I can't…" Pixie murmured, her eyes reflecting the trauma of the situation. The pressure of the battle left her paralyzed, unable to focus her powers.
Lady Deathstrike noticed they were planning to escape and rushed toward Pixie, but Rockslide intervened, stepping between them to protect the young mutant. The confrontation between the two intensified, with rapid and powerful blows exchanged.
Rockslide used his brute strength to attack, delivering punches with his granite fists, while Lady Deathstrike responded with agile and precise movements, her adamantium claws slicing through the air with impressive speed.
Lady Deathstrike found an opening and lunged with all her strength at Rockslide, managing to pierce his stomach with her sharp adamantium-coated claws.
"Guuhh," a faint cry of pain escaped Rockslide's lips as he struggled to withstand the impact of the blow.
"No!! Please, no…" the young mutant Pixie cried out, her heart breaking as she witnessed another friend being pierced by Lady Deathstrike's lethal claws.
At the same time, she also spotted the Reavers rapidly approaching from behind, heightening her desperation.
The Reavers completely surrounded Pixie. But just as they were about to attack, they were swiftly struck by bullets to the head, fired by a new presence that had arrived at the scene.
"R-Rictor, what are you doing here?" Pixie quickly recognized, seeing the new mutant holding a gun.
"Pixie, close your eyes, forget everything, and focus," instructed Anole, who had just arrived at her side after knocking out a Reaver.
"If you can't get your friends out of here, they're all going to die," Rictor warned from behind her as he continued firing his weapon at the Reavers.
Pixie focused and closed her eyes, beginning to recite a spell taught to her by her late friend, Illyana Rasputin, who had been killed by the Legacy Virus.
"SIHAL NOVARUM CHINOTH…"
A pink mist began to spread across the area, quickly enveloping all her teammates in a mantle of energy.
"SIHAL NOVARUM CHIN…"
And in the blink of an eye, all her friends vanished from the scene, thanks to Pixie's powerful spell, leaving behind only the rage of their enemies who had just lost them.
"Damn it!"
.
____________
.
>> AT XAVIER'S MANSION.
In a room at the mansion filled with tension, several X-Men were gathered, their expressions heavy with concern. Emma was at the center of the room, seated in a comfortable armchair, her eyes closed and her mind fully immersed in the mental battle against Sinister.
"Aaahh!!!" Suddenly, Emma let out a scream, alarming everyone.
"Oh, God. The students," Emma said, her face etched with shock.
"Emma, what happened? What's going on?" Scott asked, visibly worried.
"They… They went to face the Purifiers. They barely escaped with their lives. I heard Pixie screaming in my mind," Emma explained, her voice laden with concern.
"Rictor is with them, but the Purifiers don't have the babies," she added.
"Emma, where are the students now?" asked Bobby Drake, Iceman.
"They're scattered between here and Washington. It was a blind teleport, and it nearly killed them all," Emma replied, worried.
"I'll bring them back," Bobby said determinedly as he left the room, heading toward the Blackbird.
"Thank you, Bobby…"
"But that's not the worst part. I got distracted. I lost contact with the strike team for a moment."
"Now I can't get back… Sinister is keeping me out," Emma concluded with a serious expression, revealing the gravity of the situation.
---
>> BACK IN ANTARCTICA.
"You're just making this harder on yourself, Cajun. Sooner or later, you'll run out of cards to play," Logan said, dodging Gambit's explosive cards.
"And I won't stop until you tell me where the kids are," Logan retorted, advancing toward him with rage.
"Kids… You talking about the babies?" Gambit feigned confusion before being interrupted.
Logan attacked with fury, piercing Gambit's body with his claws but avoiding vital areas.
"Where are they, LeBeau? Think carefully before you answer…" Logan threatened, pressing his claws against Gambit's neck, whose face was now pale with fear.
Meanwhile, inside the icy dome, Warren, Angel, was still trying to convince the kneeling Sinister to reveal the babies' location.
But to his surprise, Sinister swiftly stood up, staring deeply at the shocked Warren with a cruel smile on his face.
"The charade is over, X-Men," Sinister declared in an icy voice.
"All that's left now is to lower the curtains…" Sinister said with a tone of disdain, telekinetically lifting Warren into the air and hurling him violently against a metal wall, where he fell limp, unconscious.
"For a widespread and humiliated applause," Sinister continued with a touch of sarcasm in his voice, instantly appearing behind Colossus, who was battling the Acolyte Frenzy with unrelenting ferocity.
Sinister then gave a single tap with his finger on Colossus's head, and with that simple contact, he telepathically invaded his mind completely, leaving him quickly unconscious, collapsing to the ground like a felled steel giant.
"Kurt, find Logan," Storm said urgently, watching two of her teammates fall unconscious.
"What…?" Kurt asked, concerned.
"We have to get out of here now," Storm insisted with urgency.
"But, Ororo!! If I leave you…" Kurt said, worried about Ororo, as he had been constantly using his teleportation powers to reposition her, allowing her to strike all the enemies in the area.
"I said go!!!" Storm ordered, unleashing lightning and winds against the approaching enemies, including Sinister himself.
"I'll cover our retreat. Whatever it takes," Storm declared firmly, raising her spear to the sky and summoning a furious storm. Lightning and strong winds arose, creating a curtain of chaos to distract their adversaries.
Meanwhile, Kurt hurried to ensure the group's safety. He quickly teleported the unconscious Angel and Colossus to the Blackbird, which was waiting for them a short distance away.
A few miles from the dome.
Logan had finished his fight with Gambit and was already heading back to where the other X-Men were. He carried the news, gently extracted from Gambit, about where—and unexpectedly, with whom—the babies were.
"Hey, darlin'. Bet you're not in the mood for sadomasochistic games," a provocative voice interrupted his thoughts.
It was a girl hovering above him. She was the Marauder known as Malice, who had the power to merge with the mind of any sentient creature. At that moment, Malice was possessing the robotic body of the powerful Omega Sentinel.
"But let's play catch instead," Malice said, throwing a body for Logan to catch.
"Warren?" Wolverine said quickly, catching the unconscious body of Angel.
"Hey, you okay—?" Logan asked, concerned, as he held Warren's body, but his concern turned to shock when he noticed the body gradually transforming into the mutant known as Scrambler.
"Man, the look on your face," Malice said with a smile, watching Logan's shock after falling for her trap.
Before Logan could react, Malice aimed her robotic arm at him, unleashing a devastating blast that hit him full force, leaving him severely injured.
"His name's Scrambler, sweetheart. And I think you know his power shut yours off the moment you touched him."
"Ha… This fraudulent illusion was brought to you courtesy of—" Malice said, but she was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a figure who had been hiding nearby.
"Regan Wyngarde, a fired X-Man," said a blonde woman with a tone of disdain.
"So, how's it gonna be? Slow and agonizing with adamantium poisoning," Malice taunted with a cruel smile, staring at Logan, whose body was completely burned from the blast and had a large hole in his chest.
"Or splattered across the icy landscape—" Malice continued, only to be interrupted.
*Bampf.* Instantly, Kurt appeared behind the two women and delivered a swift punch, knocking them to the ground.
"Elf," Wolverine said slowly, barely clinging to life.
"Stay calm, Logan, I'll get you out of here," Kurt said, positioning himself in front of Logan.
"No—
—Listen to me!!"
"The Marauders… They don't have the baby, they're with…" Wolverine said, interrupted by the sound of a scream of pain.
"Aaahh!!!" Kurt cried out as a bullet struck him in the chest.
The shooter immediately fired again, but Kurt managed to teleport with Logan, vanishing from the scene.
"You idiot. You missed the shot. He got away," the Marauder Sunfire said angrily.
"Don't worry. He was hit by a 9mm—
"Escaping won't make the slightest difference," Scalphunter said with a cruel smile on his face.
Far from there, somewhere in the Alaskan mountains inside the Blackbird.
"L-Logan!!... I can't… get you…" Kurt said, slumped on the floor, trying to use his powers but failing.
"Emma… Say something if you can hear me," Logan shouted, hoping Emma could hear him telepathically.
"I hear you, Logan. Where are you, and how are you?"
"Did you find the baby?" Emma asked telepathically from Xavier's Mansion.
"Negative, the Marauders don't have the babies," Logan replied, already beginning to heal.
"One of our own has them."
"An ex-X-Man took them in Cooperstown," Logan finished.
---
>> AT XAVIER'S MANSION.
"That's impossible. It doesn't make sense," Scott said, confused by Logan's revelation about who had the babies.
"It's what Gambit told Logan, and Logan believed him," Emma said, trying to clarify the situation.
"But he should've told us," Scott insisted, still confused.
"Should he? Only if he shared our agenda, Scott. And if he did, wouldn't he have already contacted us?"
"To let us know he's still alive?" Emma questioned, a bit angry because if this guy had contacted them, none of this would've happened.
"Tell Storm to get out of there now," Scott ordered, setting the matter aside.
"She's already escaped… But Wolverine said he and Kurt are—"
*Boom.* A deafening explosion interrupted the conversation, shaking the mansion to its foundations. The ceiling collapsed under the impact of a colossal robotic hand that smashed through, nearly crushing the X-Men in the room, sending debris and dust over them as they struggled to shield themselves from the sudden chaos.
Then a robotic voice suddenly rang out.
"NEW PROGRAMMING ACCEPTED."
"INCAPACITATE."
"NEUTRALIZE."
"—DESTROY THE X-MEN."
It was the voice of two massive Sentinel robots, originally deployed by the government to protect the X-Men. But now, unexpectedly, these Sentinels had turned against them.
---
>> ELSEWHERE IN ANTARCTICA, A LITTLE FAR FROM COOPERSTOWN.
A tall, muscular man with gray hair and a prominent scar on his face gazed deeply at the sunset over a mountain.
The man carried a futuristic weapon and two bags positioned just below his chest.
"One minute before dawn, kids, we're doing alright," the man said, his voice filled with determination as he carefully observed the contents of the two small bags.
Inside them were none other than the two most wanted babies in the world.
The only two babies born post-M-Day.
...